The prosaically titled 'CD sound quality?'

Review Score: (8/10)
Not so much a review as a caveat; I bought 'Voices Carry' back in '84, on the strength of the single, 'Voices Carry', and because - finding it in a bargain bin for 99p - I had little to lose. It turned out to be a singularly good investment, and I bought the following albums, 'What About Love?' and 'Everything's Different Now' on CD, then waited, vainly I was beginning to think, for 'Voices' to be released in CD format.

Finally, half a year or so ago, following Aimee Mann's cameo appearance on 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer', I happened across a site dedicated to Aimee, where all the old albums and tracks were being discussed. It prompted me to do another search for 'Voices' on CD, and this time I was successful! I also found an article by Mike Thorne, the producer of 'Voices', in which he suggests that some pressings of the record were of inferior quality ('screechy, low in level, completely lacking the power of the original'...An 'investigation' 'revealed' that the album had been 'recut at the pressing plant' by 'the night shift' in response to the 'unexpectedly high demand'). Better had get the CD, I thought, just in case the copy I bought was one of the poor ones.

Well here's the rub. Having played the CD I find, IMO, that the tape I made of the album for listening to in the the car nearly twenty years ago sounds BETTER. No mean feat, that. On the title track in particular, the vocals just don't seem to stand out as they do on the taped recording. My greatest fear is that I have a CD version of the 'recut' record. Maybe it's actually a whole new farrago. Just be aware that if this record doesn't jump out at you, it's still worth checking out the other albums, especially 'Everything's...' [would be a '5' if the quality was up to scratch, and other buyers might get lucky...]

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