RING THEM BELLS
Moonlight 9635 [T-068]
Studio On The Move (New Orleans, LA); March 7-24, 1989
Tracklist: Ring Them Bells, Shooting Star, God Knows, God Knows,
What Good Am I, Most Of The Time, Everything Is Broken, Political
World, Political World, Born In Time, Dignity, Shooting Star,
Disease Of Conceit, Ring Them Bells, Most Of The Time, Ring Them
Bells
DEEP: A fine collection of the "new" Oh
Mercy outtakes tape, which I'm told has been in circulation
about a year. To my ears, "RTB" sounds a couple of
generations better than Deeds Of
Mercy, with virtually no hiss and a less bass-heavy
sound. It also sounds a lot more punchy and clear. However, this
collection does not entirely supersede Deeds -- it does
not include the 3 takes of "SeriesOf Dreams" or the take
of "What Was It You Wanted." It does, however, have
additional versions of "Shooting Star," "Political
World," and 2 abbreviated versions of "Ring Them
Bells." All in all, an excellent and very worthwhile
collection of outtakes, most of which are drastically different
lyrically and musically from their released counterparts. Essential
listening and highly recommended.
CDG: This one has gone through a digital filter too though,
so it has less tape hiss, but also sacrifices some of the warmth.
No need for this upgrade if you already have these tracks.
rmd: An improvement on all that has gone before, most
notably Deeds Of Mercy.
There is much reduced hiss, thereby making the listening experience
more pleasurable. The source tape appears to be closer to the
master. Clearly therefore, Ring Them Bells is the
better disc, if not quite so complete (Ben Taylor).
Ring Them Bells definitely sounds to have gone through
the digital mill to take out the hiss and brighten the sound, but
the true presence of the music has been forfeited to a degree. It's
not at all bad, but I'd advise any analog fan to stick with Deeds Of Mercy. Bob's voice
in particular suffers, where the metallic edge -- slight as it may
be -- makes listening to more than a few songs just a bit tiring.
(Matthew Zuckerman)
Sound quality is excellent and the songs themselves tend to be
noticeably different, although not necessarily superior to, the
released versions. Nice stuff, but not something I want to listen
to all that much.
