Brighten the Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition

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Pavement

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If you are a big Pavement fan, you should definately pick up this one. The price is good, the extras plentiful and the remastered sound excellent. If you are new to Pavement and don't own it yet, then buy this expanded edition immediately! The original album has aged very well. From the opener Stereo to closer Fin, it may be their most consistent effort, though not necessarily their most brilliant. It is sort of like a refined version of Wowee Zowee with the most difficult and sloppy parts removed, which can be a good or bad thing depending on your perspective. Either way, I love it for the quality of the melodies, the guitar parts, and the hilarious non-sensical lyrics. The extra songs on this expanded version are hit and miss as is to be expected, but they put this album in its proper context and actually improve the overall impact of the album. I'm not a Pavement B-sides collector so I'd never heard the extra tunes before - taken as a whole the extra songs seem more light-hearted and upbeat than the somewhat deliberate and mellow songs on the original album. There are many good ones here, including Roll With the Wind, And then (the Hexx), Slowly Typed (coutryfied version), No Tan Lines, and the Killing Moon, among others. In short, Brighten the Corners: Nicene Creedence Edition is an example of how delux reissues should be done.

I don't know why other reviewers think this sounds good, there is clipping, distortion, and hyper compression. In short, there are all the tell tale signs of loud mastering (see "loudness war" at wikipedia). For those that don't know, most pop rock offerings today try to be as loud as possible so that they will not be out volumed during ipod shuffle play. They do this by making the average volume approach peak volume. This means whispers become as loud as shouts. The end result is degraded sound quality and if you listen to the 1997 version alongside this one on a decent stereo or decent set of headphones, matching the volume levels, you will notice the difference. The new one lacks punch, has poor sounding cymbal crashes, no dynamics, and intermittent distortion. Overall, a poor job of mastering, but it's a good 40% louder than the 1997 version. So if you're thinking of buying this because you want the best sounding version of BTC, don't.

However, there are quite a few extras that are worth listening too, especially if you were lucky enough to score the edition that came with the live LP. I received two discs and one LP for 19.99, great deal. And if you are a long term fan this set is really something you should pick up. The booklet is 60+ pages and contains a few written pieces and lots of great pictures. The quality of the printing and paper isn't up to the previous standards of the last three sets, but compared to what one usually gets with remasters, it's great. The bonus material includes alternate mixes and versions, bbc live in studio material, b-sides, compilation tracks, and outtakes. The extra material is not as strong as say the Slanted & Enchanted luxe & redux stuff, but it is still worth while.

So five stars for the set and 1.5 stars for the mastering = 3.25 overall.