Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worth a purchase even for the hardcore fans..., June 30, 2007
When I first learned that Social Distortion would be releasing a "greatest hits" album, I wasn't too excited about it. Of course, I have all the albums already and I wasn't looking forward to the prospect of paying $14 to get the one new song in an album of repackaged hits. I was also a bit put off by the fact that this album would only contain 11 songs. That is pretty thin for a "greatest hits" album. Still, since I can't get enough of Social Distortion and I'm a shameless completist, I knew I'd end up forking over the cash.
Let's just say that I was surprised when I first listened to this CD. As has been speculated on by Social Distortion fans for some time now, all of the songs from the major label era albums (tracks 4-9) have been given a major facelift.
This is where things get interesting. As of now, the band has not officially commented on this situation and the liner notes are no help either. Some fans are convinced that these tracks are merely remastered. Others think that the original songs have been re-mixed. Still, more think that what's on this CD is demo versions of the Sony era classics. Others think that the songs have been completely re-recorded.
I can't say that I'm an expert on mastering, mixing, or recording, but all I needed to hear was the first 5 seconds of "I Was Wrong" to realize that these songs are basically totally different. To me, the vocals and guitars sound totally different on all of the songs.
Personally, I don't buy the notion that these songs have only been "remastered". I own many remastered albums. I re-bought some of Bad Religions re-mastered releases in 2004. All of those songs sounded nearly identical to their original releases. The only difference in those releases is that they ended up much louder and crisper on the remastered discs. This is not the case with this CD. These songs have been altered and altered alot.
I'm sure some purists will be put off by the fact that the band has done this under the name of a greatest hits cd. Myself, I don't mind it one bit. It was a welcome surprise and actually made it worth me buying this cd. If I want to listen to the originals, I can pop those cd's in any time. This is a nice change of pace.
The new versions of the classic songs are interesting. I really can't call them better or worse than the originals. They are just different. I like both the originals and what's on this cd. Like I said, this is just a nice change of pace. Also, Far Behind is a great song. Classic Social Distortion.
So, I will say that this "greatest hits" album was worth the money in the end. In a perfect world, I would have preferred them to have released a b-sides/unreleased tracks cd. Social Distortion has a huge catalog of rarities that they've never released. That would have been better for the hardcore fans like myself, but I'll take what I can get. Maybe someday I'll get what I'm looking for (Mike Ness if you happen to read this: hint, hint). In the end, this will tide me over until they get around to releasing another new album. I'll just keep crossing my fingers and hoping that doesn't take nearly a decade like the last one.
If you're a hardcore SxDx fan or a newbie just looking to get aquainted with some of Social Distortion's music, you won't be disappointed with this cd.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Re-recorded hits, June 28, 2007
Let me start off by saying Mike Ness (and whoever is in Social Distortion at any given moment) are an awesome band. Period. But, this 'greatest hits' cd is a disappointment. First off, all the Sony-era tracks are not included, instead we get re-recorded ones. Secondly, 11 songs? That's it? Plenty of room to add more hits (re-recorded or not). And thirdly, the liner notes are basically a cut and paste bio. No band credits, no production credits, nothing. Then to make matters worse, iTunes has a download of the old Chuck Berry song MAYBELLENE (which you have to buy the whole album on iTunes to get ) that would ahve easily fit on here. Kind of a shame.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Old School Fans Beware!, June 27, 2007
Sounds to me like all of the Sony-era tracks on this CD are NOT remastered, but re-recorded. As a fan of Social Distortion for longer than most of you have probably been alive, I've been listening to these songs for quite a long time and I distinctly hear subtle, but obvious differences in Story Of My Life, Ball And Chain, Ring Of Fire, Bad Luck, I Was Wrong & When The Angels Sing, which is a bit disappointing, since I was really looking forward to hearing some of my favorite songs of all time remastered and the Time Bomb-era(s) tracks remain unaltered. Don't get me wrong, the sound quality IS great, they're just not the original versions of the songs I grew up with, which costs you a star in my book, especially since there's no indication anywhere on the CD case. You don't mess with the classics & we should have at least been given a "heads up" that these were NOT the original versions. My guess is that Sony would not release the original master tapes to Social Distortion, as the liner notes offer ZERO information regarding licensing or what albums which tracks were taken from. Perhaps they're planning to re-release the self-titled album, Somewhere Between Heaven & Hell & White Light,White Heat, White Trash as part of their own Legacy series? Or perhaps we'll one day see the "Essential" Social Distortion?
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