[Chris Lawrence]

So, I've always hated the DGC reissue of this album -- I "grew up" with the Blast First CD, which I bought about 6 months before the DGC reissue came out, and when I borrowed a friend's copy of the DGC version years later, I was astounded to find that all of the tracks were split in the wrong places. The end of "Ghost Bitch" was the beginning of the "I'm Insane" track, and I think the spoken word intro to "Justice is Might" was left on the "I'm Insane" track too? I don't actually have a copy to check anymore, but they fucked it up...and whether it was a conscious decision or just an error on behalf of somebody who didn't realize where the track markers fell on the original vinyl (which is replicated properly on the Blast First CD, as far as I can tell), I'm not sure, but I can't see why they would have wanted it that way. Ultimately it's not a huge deal as it's meant to be listened to as a whole, but that's not what this thread is about...

I've had another issue with the DGC CD brought to my attention, which dare I say is even worse... I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed? I got an e-mail from somebody who was horrified with the CD pressing of the album because of some flutter on the vocals that was not on the vinyl pressing he was very familiar with after years of listening. I listened to my copy (Blast First) and couldn't figure out what he was talking about, so he suggested I listen to "Death Valley" off of "Screaming Fields of Sonic Love", and it became all too apparent... some kind of awful flutter on any extended syllable (check out Lydia's "and now in the canyon way out in the yonder..." or pretty much any of her vocals on this track). Very bizarre, totally unnatural vibrato that is not there on my Blast First CD. I downloaded an mp3 of the DGC version of "I Love Her All The Time" as it features many drawn out syllables too, and it's plain as day there too... ("I dooOoOOoOoOn't understaaAAand... a woOoOOOoOoOoOOrd she says")

Unfortunately, since it's present on 'Screaming Fields' and, apparently, the iTunes downloads of this album, I guess this mastering has become the most commonly available digital version of the album. I don't know what happened to cause this, but I'm curious if anybody's ever noticed (apologies if there have been threads in the past!) and if anyone can offer an explanation.