Straight Up (Original Recording Remastered)

by

Badfinger

Edit

It's a crying shame when one of the great classics of 70's rock is treated so shabbily like this. This mlps version should really have been an improvement over the previous releases; instead, we get poor quality cardboard shoddily put together albeit with an insert containing all the lyrics in both English and Japanese. There are 6 bonus tracks of alternative versions of the main tracks but what's the point when the sound quality is so very desperately poor? If you are going to pay so much more for an album to get you to "upgrade" from your present copy, I'd demand a much better product that what we have here. I guess I could forgive the sub-standand mini-lp replica sleeve design but I definitely cannot forgive the very poor sound quality for the kind of price these guys are asking for. My advice is to wait for a much better remastered version to come out and to give this one a wide berth.

Content-wise, these tracks represent some of the best work ever done from the early 70s. When you have both Paul McCartney and George Harrison taking an interest in your work let alone Todd Rundgren producing as well, it's safe to say that you're on to something big and that's exactly what this album represents. From the brilliant slide guitar work of Harrison on my favourite album track "Day After Day" to the soulful and beautiful opening track "Take It All" you get track after track of simply good songwriting. No fillers on this baby at all and it still sounds as enjoyable today as it did all those years ago.

Let's hope the powers that be get their act together and head back to the drawing board to bring us an mlps version that is worthy of the album. I wait with bated breath....