Remastered Stevie Wonder - Worth Buying Again?

dougy

Has anyone heard the newly remastered versions of the classic Stevie Wonder albums from the 70's (Talking Book, Music Of My Mind, Innervisions, Fullfillingness:First Finale, Songs In The Key Of Life and Hotter Than July)? ...or compared them to the original CD releases? My question is are the new "remastered" versions enough better to justify buying these titles again? It would be the third time for me (LP, CD, remastered CD).:o

Norm Apter

Well, I have the remastered versions of Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life and the sound on each is excellent.

Unfortunately, I never heard the original CDs/LPs so I can't do a comparison but my guess is that it is much improved.

My only other CD of Stevie Wonder's is the greatest hits, double-disc, Original Musiquarium I. I have the original issue (1990?) and thought about getting the remastered version, however, some reviews on Amazon complained about the latter, saying that the music was "very loud, very trebly" and somewhat shrill compared to the original. So I decided to look elsewhere and settled on the Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life, based on the good reviews of the sound.

mhardy6647

I've always been disappointed by the sound of the (vinyl) Talking Book. Innervisions is better, but not "state of the art", even for their time, which is too bad. Recent experience with digital "remastering" is checkered at best, so who knows?

bklynNupe

dougy wrote: »

Has anyone heard the newly remastered versions of the classic Stevie Wonder albums from the 70's (Talking Book, Music Of My Mind, Innervisions, Fullfillingness:First Finale, Songs In The Key Of Life and Hotter Than July)? ...or compared them to the original CD releases? My question is are the new "remastered" versions enough better to justify buying these titles again? It would be the third time for me (LP, CD, remastered CD).:o

In NYC there is a yearly tribute party to Stevie Wonder called "Wonder-Full/ Wrote it." done by two well know NY Soul music djs It has been happening for about 7 years now and I never miss it.
From 15 - 55 year olds of every hue, it's a real party! Featuring tons of Stevie hits, rare tracks and the ton of hits he has written for others. Last year, Stevie showed up to about 1000 fans at New York's Manhattan Center and sung acapella for almost an hour!
I'm curious about the remasters as well. If you can appreciate the power of a good DJ, the check this out -

http://www.amazon.com/Wonder-Wrote-Tribute-Stevie/dp/B00005M6AS

AudioGenics

it would be very interesting to be able to do a side by side comparison of the original release to the remastered.

dougy

mhardy6647 wrote: »

I've always been disappointed by the sound of the (vinyl) Talking Book. Innervisions is better, but not "state of the art", even for their time, which is too bad. Recent experience with digital "remastering" is checkered at best, so who knows?

I actually think the sound of the originals is pretty good, on CD at least, which is why I hesitate to start buying the remasters. And I agree: digital remastering is no sure bet for better sound. I have some remasters that actually sound worse, imo, than the originals. And I have some that sound MUCH better...and most fall somewhere in between, so as you say, "who knows?"

Someone mentioned Amazon...think I'll go there and check out the reviews. There's got to be someone whos already bought some of the rm titles and compared them to the originals.