(TV) OT: Review of Modern Lovers reissue

["Philip P. Obbard" <pobbard@yahoo.com>]

Hi all,

I wrote this back in November(!) and realized tonight that I had
never posted it! Anyhow, here goes:

The domestic US Rhino release of THE MODERN LOVERS - released on
CD in the late 80s - appears to be out of print now. This is a
shame for such an essential album. Thanks to Andy and Reflex, I
just managed to get a copy of the Modern Lovers reissue from
Castle. This was released in the UK a few months ago. I thought
I'd write a brief review for anyone who's interested. 

Everyone else can "delete" this message now!

The CD packaging is OK. They've dropped the photo of the band
from the cover - a mistake, I think - in favor of just the ML
logo. My bigger gripe is with the huge fold-out liner notes - I
prefer booklets, which age better. These big foldouts are hard
to read and tend to fray quickly at the corners, especially as
they are slid in and out of the jewel case over time. On the
other hand, the write-up - a history of the band and their
recording sessions - is full of detailed information, and much
more informative than Rhino's liner notes in the previous CD
release.

1. Roadrunner - 4:06
2. Astral Plane - 3:00
3. Old World - 4:00
4. Pablo Picasso - 4:21
5. She Cracked - 2:55
6. Hospital - 5:31
7. Someone I Care About - 3:39
8. Girlfriend - 3:55
9. Modern World - 3:44

BONUS TRACKS
10. Dignified & Old - 2:28
11. I'm Straight - 4:18
12. Government Center - 2:03
13. I Wanna Sleep in Your Arms - 2:32
14. Dance With Me - 4:26
15. Someone I Care About [Alternative Version] - 2:58
16. Modern World [Alternative Version] - 3:16
17. Roadrunner [Alternative Version] - 4:55

On to the music. The first thing you'll notice is that Castle
has restored the 9-track running order originally used when THE
MODERN LOVERS was first released in 1976. They've removed the 3
bonus tracks added (over time) that appeared as part of a
12-track running order on the Rhino CD, and moved all three
("I'm Straight", "Government Center", "Dignified And Old") to
the end of the "album" as the first three bonus tracks. 

The sound quality of these 12 tracks is, to my ears, identical
to the previous Rhino CD, although the dB level has been
increased slightly. As these were never the best-recorded tracks
to begin with, I don't know if they could have been improved for
this CD over previous releases. The CD packaging/liner notes
make no wild claims about "digitally remastered from the
original master tapes", so I'm guessing they are essentially the
same mastering used last time.

They've add five "new" bonus tracks - "I Wanna Sleep In Your
Arms", "Dance With Me", "Someone I Care About [Alternative
Version]", "Modern World [Alternative Version]", and "Roadrunner
[Alternative Version]". Given the paucity of recorded studio ML
material, these tracks won't be new to long-time fans. The first
two tracks are the same ones that have appeared for years on the
ORIGINAL MODERN LOVERS (first released by Bomp! around 1981;
most recently released on CD a year or two ago). The sound
quality of "Dance With Me" sounds identical to the most recent
CD release of the OML material. However, the sound of "I Wanna
Sleep In Your Arms" is improved - far less "crackly" - which is
good to hear. The final three tracks, all alternate versions,
will be familiar to anyone who has the SONGS OF REMEMBERANCE
bootleg (released by Punk Vault around 4 years ago) or the tapes
from which it was drawn, which have circulated among collectors
for years. The sound quality of all three is improved over SONGS
OF REMEMBERANCE (and the dB dramatically increased), but
drop-outs and other sound issues still affect these tracks.

On the subject of the alternate versions, the sessions detailed
in the liner notes contradict some of the session information
listed on the SONGS OF REMEMERANCE disc. In other words, the SoR
people got some of their dates/sessions wrong. This is probably
interesting to trainspotting Richman fans.

My only major criticism of this disc - and it's the same one
AllMusic.com had - is that if they were going to release
previously unreleased studio material, they could have released
more than this. For example, ML fans know that studio versions
of tracks like "Songs of Rememberance", "Fly Into The Mystery",
and the surprisingly good "Such Loneliness" circulate on bootleg
and are at least as strong as "Dance With Me" (admittedly, never
one of my favorite tracks).

Overall, given the paucity of Modern Lovers studio material,
it's good to see the previous CD release being expanded, and the
new liner notes definitely add new details to their
all-too-brief history. Hopefully this disc will see domestic
release shortly (perhaps with a better cover?) so the Modern
Lovers don't sink into (greater) obscurity in their home
country!

--Phil


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