As a longtime fan of The Smashing Pumpkins, I was looking forward to this reissue nearly as much as I did the 'Siamese Dream' reissue, as 'Pisces Iscariot' has always held a special place in my heart. While not the flawless masterpiece that 'Siamese Dream' is, it really showcased the band's wide range of styles, much more so than their two studio albums, and with more of a raw, "live" sound overall. It could be argued that these outtakes and B-Sides are better than most of their alt-rock peers' grade-A material. I couldn't wait to hear these songs with cleaned-up sound, not to mention all the bonus material--the outtakes of the outtakes, if you will.
Within seconds of popping in the remastered first disc and playing "Plume," I thought maybe I had grabbed the bonus disc by mistake, as the vocals are entirely different from the original, sung in a lower register by Billy, with slightly different lyrics in spots. Nowhere in the liner notes does it mention the use of a different vocal take, so I'm wondering if this was accidental. Or did Billy not care for the original take, so he swapped it with another? Either way, I think this version should have been saved for the bonus disc, instead of going all George Lucas and altering things that were fine to begin with, but I didn't let this kill my buzz. However, during the next song I listened to, "Frail and Bedazzled," something didn't sound right to me again, but I couldn't quite figure it out, even after listening to the original version to compare. Eventually I decided to play both at the same time on separate players, and within 15 seconds they were out of sync with each other. The new one, while the same as far as the vocal and instrumental tracks, is actually slower, hence lower in pitch. While the original ends at 3:16, the new one ends at 3:21. Not a big deal, and maybe this was intended, but it does give it a "lower" sound.
Then I stopped obsessing over these things and just enjoyed it for what it is, 14 stellar songs by one of my favorite bands during (arguably) their peak years. The sound quality seemed about the same to me at first, though slightly louder, and with less noticable hiss on certain songs. Fortunately there's no clipping, at least on the first disc, an all too common side effect of the current "loudness wars." However, the next day, while listening on headphones, I noticed quite a few instances of digital noise and crackles in various songs, notably the beginning of "Pissant" and the end of "Blue." These glitches are not in the originals. While they aren't jarring, I was expecting better quality, especially considering the great job Corgan and Ludwig did with the 'Gish' and 'Siamese Dream' remasters.
Those issues didn't affect my enjoyment as much as the bonus disc's issues, and there are many. These songs were brickwalled (i.e. made louder, basically) to the point of digital clipping and distortion in many of the songs. At first I thought, "Well, these are outtakes and demos, so I shouldn't be too harsh, since the sound quality probably wasn't great to begin with." But, being a hardcore fan, I already own bootlegs of many of these songs and, while overall the sound quality here is clearer, there's less dynamic range, and there was no clipping in the bootleg versions. A large number of the songs contain digital noise as well, and the transition between "French Movie Theme" and "Purr Snickety" is off. The first few seconds of "Purr Snickety" are at the end of "French Movie Theme," so if you want to hear all of "Purr Snickety' you have to rewind to the end of the previous song. And when I ripped this disc to iTunes, a couple songs were not labeled properly, causing the tracks to be out of order. Again, not a huge deal, but considering the cost of this set, I expected more care to be put into it.
Fortunately the live DVD makes it all worth it in the end, as it's awesome to have these early performances from when SP were more of a Cure-esque goth/new wave band, as opposed to the psychedelic hard rock powerhouse they would become in the next couple years (as evidenced later in the DVD). The sound quality's good for a 1988 public access broadcast, and Jimmy's mullet is rocking the jam session as well, which is always a plus. Unfortunately, I no longer have a cassette player, so I haven't listened to the 1988 demo tape yet, though I do have a bootleg, and it's definitely worth hearing for those of you who haven't. It, along with the DVD, will give you a whole new perspective on the evolution of this great band, showing just how thoroughly they reinvented themselves in a few short years with 'Gish.'
So, despite all the problems, the set is still definitely worth getting for the hardcore fan, but you might want to wait and see if these glitches are fixed, as I've noticed other SP fans online complaining, wanting refunds, etc. Maybe this will cause Billy and co. to reissue the reissue, but I don't see that happening, at least for a while. Hopefully the upcoming 'Mellon Collie' remaster is handled with the same care as 'Gish' and 'Siamese Dream' were, as I have a feeling the complaints will be much louder than they are now if similar defects are noticed in that. Here's hoping...