Ten

by

Pearl Jam

Edit

Remaster the original 1991 album to perfection,add a second disc which features a great 2008 Brendan O'Brein remix that strips away the dated reverb of the original mix and makes Eddie Vedder's vocals clearer and more upfront,gives the guitars additional bite and edge and adds kick and punch to the bass and drums.Include outtakes and demos,"Brother" being the standout with the slowed-down "State Of Love And Trust" being a close second.Contain all of the 1992 "MTV Unplugged" performance (availble for the first time on DVD)and compliment it with stellar picture and sound quality.(BTW, all discs were mastered by the talented Bob Ludwig.)Finish off with a nostalgic,colorful booklet and you've got a great,entertaining package worth its high price.Bravo!

Ten was & still is one great album. The "Redux/Remastered" version gives us a mix closer to Vs. & Vitalogy (i.e., the reverb/echo is gone). I really appreciate having both mixes because the original sounds closer to a concert and the Redux is closer to what we are used to from the later albums. Kudos to Brendan O'Brien's work.

Now the bad news - both the remastered CD and Redux version CD are hyper-compressed to make them sound louder - while reducing the overall music dynamics. Take a look at the comparision between the original Ten and the 2 newer discs at http://forums.pearljam.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=94732&sid=9e79a91b0c7b267c5b8ccf46f04071c9&start=45 (thanks to Dave Mack for the link).

As you can see, the newer versions look like a "brick" (i.e., white noise). If you think that music should look like a brick, then stop reading now. I really need to know who decided to do this to the CD versions. Bob Ludwig from Gateway Mastering handled the master and his position on the ridiculous "loudness war" is clearly stated here http://www.gatewaymastering.com/gateway_LoudnessWars.asp

Brendan O'Brien's work is so good he had to know that compressing the mix to get it louder just ruins the overall sound. I have to believe it was the producers and that Pearl Jam simply trusted them to put it together.

Maybe Pearl Jam really only listened to the LP. The good news is that the LP versions are not hyper-compressed (the LP had a separate master compared to the CD); however, the LP versions does not ship w/ the Unplugged DVD, which is an amazing and long sought after session. The DVD sounds great and as with most DVDs, it is not hyper-compressed.

For more information regarding the "Loudness Wars", check out the above links and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_wars