Search - Pat Metheny :: We Live Here

Geffen CD better than Nonesuch remaster

Robert Wade Cottingham | Dallas, TX | 07/03/2010

(2 out of 5 stars)

"reviewing We Live Here by Pat Metheny Group, the remastered version on Nonesuch released 2006



This is one of my favorite albums and I've listened to the Geffen CD released 1995 hundreds of times.

It turns out the 1995 CD is my favorite sound of this album, much more than the 2006 remaster on Nonesuch.



Since it's one of my favorite albums, I wanted to give myself a present and hear the 2006 remaster. I kind of 'assumed' the 2006 remaster would be 'even better sounding' than the 1995 CD. So, in 2010, I bought the 2006 version, having never heard it before.



On first listen, in the first few seconds, I knew it was worse, to me. I did try several listens, back and forth, between the two CD's.



I don't have technical language to describe it, but the 2006 version sounds and feels like a flourescent light bulb (cold and irritating), where the 1995 version sounds like a perfectly realized, earthy, bouncy, great feeling mix. The bass has been increased in the remaster, but the air and the bounce and the warmth are gone, to me. The humanity is gone!!! If I were a robot, I would like the 2006 verson better I am sure.



I'm sure many would disagree. This review is aimed at someone like me, who LOVES the 1995 CD and is considering the 2006 CD. I am not keeping the 2006 disc. Two stars, I don't like it."