Go! Team USA

The Stateside rerelease of The Go! Team's "Thunder Lightning Strike" was part of my Boxing Day haul. I already "own" the original album in mp3 form (fairly good fidelity though) but the idea of having a remixed/remastered/remodeled version was uniquely appealing to me. I'm somewhat fascinated by albums that exist in more than one form (excepting, of course, those of the "digitally remastered 20 years later" variety) such as the third Velvet Underground album, and Manic Street Preachers' "The Holy Bible". Track-by-track, in-depth sonic comparisons of these types of albums is quite rare in music literature, most likely because the existence of duplicitous albums is also rare. Following on the heels of my Velvets* and Manics** analyses from years ago, how would the Go! Team fare? Which mix comes out on top?

A track-by-track cage match would be pointless. The UK mix (one of my uncrowned top five albums of 2004) is superior in nearly every way.

Not many publications seemed to notice or care about this. Pitchfork addressed the issue in their review of the US release, but didn't raise much fuss about it and assigned it the same rating they gave to the UK version. My main criticisms have little to do with sampling clearance issues. I went through both versions track-by-track, but not in a nitpicky, trainspotting manner. To me, the biggest differences in content are the beats in "Bottle Rocket" and the horn part in "Everyone's a VIP to Someone", neither of which could dramatically reduce my enjoyment of two of the album's better tracks.

It was like comparing a vinyl copy (UK) to a CD copy (US). The US version is choked with bass, the drum levels have been hugely reduced, and the cymbals supressed (a near-tragedy in the case of a band that employs two drummers plus canned beats). Overall, it sounds tighter, less cluttered, and less busy. They've chopped away so much wonderful treble, the source of all that barely controlled chaos that made the UK version such a joy for me. It has nearly vanished. Granted, I'm comparing mp3 (UK) to wav (US), but mp3 rips normally suppress the treble.

The addition of two b-sides to the US tracklisting is a nice bonus, but I'll trade in a hundred of those to get my chaos back.

* 3rd album final score: Closet mix 5, Valentin Mix 3, with 2 ties
** The Holy Bible final score: UK mix 6, US mix 5, with 2 ties (although listening to the album as a whole, I prefer the US mix)