3:47 Est [Import]

Alright, this is an amazing album. Brilliant in fact. Some of the most creative recordings ever done... BUT... in order to hear this music at its best (and it deserves recognition as an audiophile recording) you shouldn't subject yourself to this recent Bullseye CD. I don't care if the band was involved with the remastering process. They got it wrong... very incredibly wrong. The actual mixes are big, dynamic, open and full of warmth and life. This remaster has horribly compromised dynamics and heavy handed EQ work that ruins the sonic spectrum.

The emotionally climactic crescendos of Little Neutrino have been crushed by a compressor and ruined. It no longer has any dynamic power. The crescendos are supposed to be louder but on the remaster they're reduced in volume to the point of a non-event. Neutrino is supposed to range from a whisper to a roar but on the remaster the whole song screams at you. The drama and excitement are gone. It's not involving anymore. It's called dynamics and was the way it was originally performed and recorded. The band understood this concept in 1976. I guess they need another lesson. The band should listen to the original vinyl to hear how good the mixes were before they mutilated them in mastering.

This remaster, besides being highly compressed and harsh, has a narrowed soundstage. All the signs of poor remastering are conveniently contained on this one CD. California Jam has been narrowed all the way to MONO(!).

I'd suggest you find an Attic or Justin CD to hear how phenomenal this album can sound. My point is, there are several other CD versions out there that sound really nice, you know, the way the band intended it to sound before the CD Loudness Wars took over good judgement.

A lot of these positive reviews are highly misleading. I'm guessing they were written by people employed by the record label. This is their way to combat the negative response the remasters have gotten from the fans.

I wish the band and Bullseye understood the damage they did to this beautiful album. The fans who know better want a properly mastered CD.

I bought the album on vinyl on its first day in the stores, not because of the "they might be Beatles" hype, but because word in the music industry was that the sound was something special. My first experience of Klaatu, therefore, was at the home of a fellow radio announcer who had a much better stereo system than my own at the time. Sure enough--the songs were clever, the production was impeccable and really enhanced the content, and the sonic quality totally blew us away!

Sadly, this official remaster will barely ruffle a loose strand of hair.

The original was a real stretch of the limits of a stylus riding in a vinyl groove, with bass drum and guitar rattling the walls well below 20Hz, crisp but exceptionally clean highs, vast dynamic range, and an astonishingly precise sense of where instruments and voices were positioned in the stereo field. I'd never heard that quality of sound on an LP before, except for a very few premium classical recordings. And, for dessert, there was the goosebump-raising cosmic thunder at the end of "Little Neutrino." Amazing stuff.

It's no wonder, then, that I --like so many others-- was less than thrilled by the audio quality of the Capitol Special Products CD combining this album with the second one, Hope. To their credit, Capitol did retain the low-end frequency response. However, they cranked up the treble to painful levels and squashed the dynamic range with excess compression. (Not to mention the sacrilege of merging the squeak that ends the first album with the one that begins the second.) Could things possibly get worse?

Yes. Unfortunately, the band themselves proved it. It's as if they intended for this release to be the Anticapitol version. Not only is the excessive treble of the Capitol CD gone, but also the crisp, clean highs of the LP. It's hard to tell exactly where the instruments, voices, and effects are positioned. (This is indicative of a full remix rather than just remastering. That's not always a good thing.) The wonderful ambience of the LP is gone. And the bass...oh, mercy...it's peaked heavily in the mid-bass, with distinct rolloff below, more suited for a boombox than a good home stereo. Without that lovely infrasonic trickery, the cosmic thunder won't raise goosebumps any more; it can barely manage a prickly rash now, even with headphones.

Should you shun this album because of the sonic letdown? No. If you already appreciate the music of Klaatu, it does deserve a hearing. You'll gain some worthwhile insights into the songs.

In principle, I'm happy for musicians who end up with ultimate control over their creative output. Klaatu, however, both through the production misadventure represented by this CD and through some poor choice of material on later albums, provide a case study of why even the best and brightest musicians still sometimes need a tough producer, and someone to give them candid A&R advice too.

The music on this CD gets 100 stars. However, if you want to hear the music on Klaatu's first album (actually entitled "Klaatu") and the dynamic brilliance of songs such as "Calling Occupants" and "True Life Hero" and "Little Neutrino" (which has always reminded me of Peter Frampton meets the Sci-Fi Beatles with the Beach Boys), then you should purchase the Collector's Choice Music CD edition. Not only will you also get Klaatu's second LP entitled "Hope" you will also get excellent sound reproduction. Many reviewers have commented on the less than desireable remastering of this CD. I have absolutely no complaints with the Collector's Choice version of this album along with "Hope." As a matter of fact, I heard things on the CD I never heard on my vinyl years ago. The music is superb. If you are reading this, then you already know Klaatu or know about them (and, you obviously have good taste!) Klaatu should have been bigger. The band members were all incredibly brilliant and creative. Yes, it is true that Klaatu was, without a doubt, influenced by both The Beatles and The Beach Boys, but there was so much more to their music than that. If you love The Beatles, you will love this. But, don't buy it just for that. These guys could have made it bigger had Capitol records promoted them more after their first two LPs. Such great talent! Musical masterpieces! Incredible creativity! Imaginitive lyrics! Poetry in music! Stories brought to life in sound! - Buy this.... or better yet, buy the two-fer with both "Klaatu" & "Hope" from Collector's Choice Music. These two albums work together perfectly on one CD. So, why buy one album on CD when you can buy two!