Empire Records,"Fan Edition Remix," Beware!
579705
As I read, I thought the remix fan edition might have a few different scenes or lines in it, but I was wrong. This is awful, major parts of the plot have even been changed! This is almost a completely different movie. I have no idea why they would have changed this from the original version, but this is not what you want to see. Take your time and try to find an original version of this movie. I do not recommend this "Fan Edition, Remix"
975982
I finally decided to replace my vinyl copy of this beloved album of absolutely timeless, stellar tunes.  Except that the version I received inexplicably contains remixes of two great songs: "Bicycle Thieves" and "...from Across the Kitchen Table".  The changes in Bicycle Thieves I can tolerate-- the creepy "Specials" like organ even gives it a different, somewhat interesting feel.  But including a different version of "Kitchen"...what genius made that call?  Instead of the slow building, string accompanied, multi-climaxing force of nature I was familiar with, I got a version that sounded like an unproduced demo, repleat with underpowered, possibly synth-created horns, rushed volcals, and a VERY different and totally inferior arrangement of vocal harmonies and trade-offs.  If I had known this mere shell of a song had replaced the Godlike Genius version, I would have held out for the other.  I hope this explains why the other copy advertised here on Amazon is 3 times the price of this one.
2837060
As a fan of the group I am admittedly biased; in my mind they can do no wrong.  This record differs in that they didn't release the same album with some remixes added but this whole album is remixes.  Great to hear different adaptations of Invaders Must Die songs.  Just know that if you are expecting to hear original cuts of your favorite songs as well as remixes you are only getting a remix album.
3411125
Those of you who already have a copy of this great album and especially if you have a truly remastered copy you have been warned!  Unless you want to pay a bomb in these tough economic times for what effectively amounts to well-designed cardboard you are no better off and indeed would be worse off given the price tag on this baby if you get this.

Other than "True", this is my favourite Spandau Ballet album as every track here just like in the previous album deserve to be on any best-of compilation of the band.  "Purist" fans usually despise this side of Spandau Ballet pointing instead to their earlier work as one of the pioneers of the "New Wave" movement but to be realistic once that great genre died off in the early 80s the band had to re-invent itself to remain relevant and as far as New Romantic smooth pop goes, few bands have even come close to the very high standards Spandau Ballet achieved.

This is why this mini-lp replica sleeve (mlps) version is such a disappointment; as far as mlps designs go, this version while not the best one I've seen is not the worst and is fairly well designed out of unfortunately very thin cardboard but at least looks as though the glue will hold for awhile and there is also a nifty A4-sized colour poster of the band and an insert with all the lyrics in both English and Japanese and so the mlps design in itself is not perfect but acceptable.

The sound quality, however, of the cd itself is horrible!  It certainly has not been remastered at all and to make things worse even sounds worse than the old cassette that I had all those years ago!  You would think that they could at least have gone through the trouble to remaster this album so as to justify the price that they are asking us to cough up to "upgrade" from our existing cds to this!  The Japanese "sound engineer" in charge of this project should be ashamed of himself for such a terrible standard of work.

Very, very disappointing for fans and if you don't already have this brilliant album, do yourself a favour and save yourself some cash and get the "normal" remastered version in the jewel-case format and if you already have the cd, don't even bother with this wasted opportunity to be a genuine upgrade worth getting.

As for me, I'm thinking of getting a properly remastered cheaper version out there and switching the discs so that this acceptable mlps design can house a cd that is more deserving of the format.

Very, very, very much NOT recommended!
4445839
CRANK THIS BABY UP!!!  Unbelievable digital sound quality..."EMPIRE" is the ultimate "play at maximum volume" CD...(the ending of "One And Only"---YAOW!!!!!)...Gold makes this QR CD too quiet!  Same volume as the first Empire CD...best digital disc I've ever heard in my life, just needs to be louder!!!  Go with the digital remaster---more music, more volume!  I spent too much American greens on this piece...20 STARS FOR THE EMPIRE, 3 stars for the golden waste of my time!  What a silent lucidity!  Close your eyes........
3021162
What was described on the site was an expanded edition that includes remixes. What arrived was a single disk that has only the original 10 tracks.  In what way is this 10 track version expanded???  Very disappointing!!!
1589572
Make no mistake!  We're talking about the original version of STAR WARS as it was realeased on video "one last time" in 1995.  Black and blue box with Darth Vader on the cover.

While the special edition in 1997 was entertaining, it was in no way an improvement for STAR WARS purists, like myself.  The video I'm describing is the original 1977 film before George Lucas started butchering it and it has the benefit of being remastered in THX.

I'm not saying don't own the special edition DVD.  Of course own it!  It looks and sounds perfect!  I'm saying own BOTH!

By the way, everything I've said I also holds true for the 1995 video release of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, as well.  Between the original film and the 2004 DVD release, this film got butchered the most.  The insertion of Ian McDermid into the scene between Darth Vader and the Emperor was beyond shameful!

I can only hope Lucas will one day get the message from his fans and release the original (3) films on DVD.
4470922
What ever happened to the days of buying Beck singles for the cool B sides? The 'Loser' Single had 4 unreleased track on it! Remixes... blagh.... I've never heard a remix of something that doesn't pale in comparison to the original. E-pro of course is a great song, the cool distorted bassline rocks! Buy the Deluxe Version of "Guero" (Brilliant album!) instead of the single and get some extra SONGS instead of remixes.
1466577
I was very interested in getting the Deluxe edition with both the original pure recordings done in Jamaica and the doctored up versions done by Chris Blackwell in London, so thought I was getting both discs but instead got only the originally RELEASED Catch  A Fire disc, with the Blackwell-inspired overdubs.  Great stuff on that but be careful if you're ordering Catch A Fire Deluxe to make sure you're going to get both discs.  If I'd gotten both, rating would be 5 stars.
4753917
This is an excellent album; there is no denying that fact. Napalm Death are in fine form on "Utilitarian," and they even manage to throw in a few curves here and there ("Everyday Pox," anyone?). You should be buying it now, if not sooner.

But Century Media has done a great disservice to the band and their fans by screwing up the digital version. The album proper is sixteen tracks, ending with "A Gag Reflex." The CD version, meanwhile, adds a seventeenth track at the end entitled "Everything In Mono." The limited edition contains two extra songs ("Aim Without An Aim," plus the aforementioned track); both of these are rather oddly inserted mid-stream so that they become tracks 13 and 14, respectively. This means that "Nom De Guerre" becomes track 15, "Analysis Paralysis" becomes track 16, "Opposites Repellent" becomes track 17, and "A Gag Reflex" becomes track 18. I honestly don't know if this was intentional on the band's part or if it was just weirdness on the part of CM, but it has led to the digital version being labelled incorrectly due to some apparent laziness.

What CM has done (in their infinitely infinite wisdom) is to encode the album based on the limited edition. But since they're only selling you sixteen songs, you can probably see where this is going: the last four tracks are mislabeled, and what you end up with is an incomplete album. Sure, you're getting the limited edition's bonus tracks, but you're also missing the last two tracks from the album in the process... "Opposites Repellent" and "A Gag Reflex" are just outright missing. Not getting extra songs is one thing, but not getting a true part of the album is something else entirely (and not something that any true fan of the band-- or music in general-- should be willing to condone). I hate to say it, but buying the CD is the best choice here. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time I've seen CM drop the ball on digital downloads (on this service, as well as others)-- and it saddens me to say that it probably won't be the last.

TL;DR... the album is great (hence the rating), but the digital version has the last four tracks mislabeled, and two songs are missing entirely. You should just buy the CD instead.
4084435
I have listened to samples of the songs on the CD and know the work of BadBoyJoe and so I assume that the music on this disc would be worth 4 or 5 stars.  However, they have put some evil copy protection voodoo on this cd and I cannot play it on a personal computer.  Additionally, when I explore the disc, I find that it contains A)an executable program B) one very large WMV file and C) one small (6kb) file for each of the tracks on the album.  This does not appear to contain normal audio CD format tracks and I worry that I will not be able to play it on my cd player at home.  Ughh!
1464341
THIS IS A RIP-OFF (x 2) AND DON'T BUY THIS DOUBLE ALBUM VERSION!

Acadia Records did something here that is quite wrong! They chopped/edited song times (it seems at random) to fit both great albums on one disc (I suspect), then kept the original song times from the original album sleeve(s) on the CD cover, and there is NO mention of these alterations anywhere on the CD or when I bought it!

Here is the track list and times from the CD according to when inserted into a computer or CD player.
Yellow Fever:
01. Baby What You Want Me To Do 4:10 (orig. 6:42)
02. Hot Jelly Roll Blues 4:38 (orig. 4:21)
03. Free Rein 2:35 (orig. 4:14)
04. Sunrise Dance With The Devil 3:08 (orig. 4:28)
05. Song For The Fire Maiden 3:07 (orig. 4:16)
06. Bar Room Crystal Ball 3:17 (orig. 6:52)
07. Half/Time Saturation 3:54 (orig. 4:45)
08. Surphase Tension 3:29 (orig. 3:58)

Hoppkorv:
01. Santa Claus Retreat 4:13 (orig. 4:10)
02. Watch The North Wind Rise 4:03 (orig. 4:39)
03. It's So Easy 6:45 (orig. 2:32)
04. Bowlegged Woman Knock Kneed Man 4:23 (orig. 3:05)
05. Drivin' Around 4:17 (orig. 2:53)
06. I Wish You Would 4:34 (orig. 3:10)
07. I Can't Be Satisfied 4:24 (orig. 3:52)
08. Talking 'Bout You 6:54 (orig. 3:29)
09. Extrication Love Song 4:49 (orig. 4:11)
10. Songs From The Stainless Cymbal 4:03 (orig. 4:01)

I gave it two stars because they are two great albums from Hot Tuna though horribly maltreated here, GRRR! This review is being written by a professional musician and sound engineer.
___
2608549
Hardcore Britney fans will no doubt be disappointed to see that, with the exception of the new Criminal remix, all the other remixes on this CD have been released somewhere previously.  That doesn't necessarily make it a bad collection, however. Most fans aren't the type to buy every single and download every remix, so for the casual dance music lover, this is a great way to listen to a "greatest hits" of Brit's ferocious club hits in the past few years.

Here's my breakdown of the hits and misses:

THE HOT AND STEAMY
- Piece of Me (Tiesto Club Mix)
- Till the World Ends (Alex Suarez Club Remix)
- Gimme More (Kaskade Club Mix)
- 3 (Manhattan Clique Club Remix)

THE GOOD
- I Wanna Go (Gareth Emery Remix) [I would have preferred the Wallpaper mix]
- Criminal (Radio Mix) [though it doesn't change the original much, this new version really transforms the song for me. I Love it!]
- If U Seek Amy (U-Tern Remix)
- Womanizer (Benny Benassi Extended Mix)

THE EH
- Circus (Linus Loves Remix) [way better remixes to choose from]
- Radar (Tonal Club Mix) [there weren't a lot of great remixes for this song, but this is the worst IMO]

THE MISSED OPPORTUNITY
- while I appreciate them releasing full length club mixes and not just radio mixes, 10 tracks is an incredibly small number considering none of these remixes are new. Where's "Break the Ice" or "Hold it Against Me"? Could they not have thrown in another Criminal mix? A new song, like And Then We Kiss from the first remix cd? I would also have LOVED to see remixes of non-singles, like "Kill the Lights" or "Freakshow."

OVERALL: For a cheap price, this is a good collection of hot dance music that will inspire you to shed the pounds on the treadmill. As a Britney fan, however, I have to say I'm a little disappointed in the lack of new content.
869795
I usually don't say this, but the Remixed Album is better than the original. Watch out that you don't speed when you listen to this in the car!
319987
For years, fans of the original "Star Wars" trilogy have been waiting for George Lucas to release the unaltered version of the movies. And we finally get it on DVD, in its original aspect ratio! And, just in case you didn't get the first boxset of the enhanced original "Star Wars" trilogy, you get the enhanced versions with them! But unfortunately...

George Lucas does NOTHING to make the quality of the UNALTERED versions better.

1. The widescreen is NOT anamorphic (which means the picture will be very narrow on your widescreen TV).
2. The picture, although it's clear, is not digitally remastered.
3. The sound is not enhanced. Dolby Digital 2.0. The sound can be very meshy, and might not be effective if you have surround sound.

George Lucas said he did not intend to release the original versions. It's obvious he wasn't very proud of them. And ONLY just because of mad fan protest, he gives them a quick release, but shows his fans that he doesn't care that much about the original versions.

It's a great product to have if you're a die-hard fan, still. I would only recommend just buying the enhanced version boxset if you're a casual fan.
2570355
A fairly quick internet search of some of the audiophile forums will reveal the issues with the Culture Factory "remasters" of many of their titles. In particular, this wonderful Suzanne Vega sophomore effort is horridly hampered by brickwalled remastering that over-modulates Ms Vega's vocals (most notable on the opening track, "Tom's Diner." This brickwalling continues with bass drums on several tracks that land with an over-loud thud not meant to be a part of the album's originally mastered soundscape. In particular, tracks like "Ironbound," "Calypso," and "Language" are rendered almost unlistenable. This CD is way, way too loud. If you can track down a copy of the original 1987 pressing or a regular domestic pressing from A&M, trust me and the several others online and steer clear of this unfortunate mess.
3383043
I love this album, and I bought the 2CD collector's edition mainly for the 2nd disc, which includes the 12'' single version of Temptation. Unfortunately, it's another victim of The Loudness Wars, and is overly compressed and too loud. I can't stand how so many albums are ruined by too loud re-mastering!!! They did it with N.O. "Singles" too (although I have recently seen they have re-re-mastered it a bit bit less loud). Hang on to your old albums and records, they'll be worth more when people finally realize how record companies are now apparently managed by greedy, tone-deaf accountants who seem Hell bent on destroying all good music by re-mastering-re-packaging-regurgitating the same stuff over and over in progressively worse editions . *sigh*