Remastered already?

Probably my favourite album this year is already being re-released and "remastered" early next year. A good thing for the band (as they're destined to be huge) but nonetheless quite annoying.

This seems to be an increasingly common story and although in some cases a band genuinely screws up the recording of their own record the first time round in many cases the unremastered (what a word) version sounds more truthful to what the songs seem to be about.

I get why XL or the band have gone back to the tapes of the Airing of Grievances by Titus Andronicus as there's a ridiculous amount of feedback, fuzz and incomprehensible clipping on the original record but that noise is what made me love the album so much in the first place.

There are these two brilliantly placed spoken word speeches on the record that are all the better for being almost nonsensical through the bad quality recording. Somehow it makes you concentrate more on how the words are said than what they mean and that goes for a lot of the songs themselves as well.

I know there are some brilliant (if as pretentious as the song titles and band name) lyrics on show, but the way they are performed is the best part. As an annoying number of reviewers etc have said (slightly less annoyingly because they're 90% right), singer Patrick Stickles sounds almost exactly like Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst but the production somehow pushes it all in a different direction (alongside how loud everything is). I just hope the new master won't strip down the sound too much and take that away.

The only bit of the new take I've heard is a video posted on Pitchfork TV today and it adds a really strange and pointless reverse tape noise in the middle. Doesn't bode too well perhaps.
At least people will get to hear the songs so I'll quit my whining. It's honestly a wonderful record, especially when all heard together. You should buy it. No matter what form it comes in.

http://www.myspace.com/titusandronicus (for songs/samples etc)