Hooray I can join the party! Made a Playlist of album, b sides and rehearsals.

Thing I'd Never Have Known If I Hadn't Heard The Demos:
Oh that's why he emphasises "HELIUM" on the studio version of I'm Not Working!

Merry Christmas!

Got this for Christmas, so stray thoughts...

• It's a little pesky how they keep changing the packaging format of all these anniversary releases, but I have to say this huge book form is a lovely thing to hold. Feels proper celebratory, more than the old boxes or the more recent pointless small book shapes. Really digging it.
• Love the amount of photos but it's a shame they didn't find anyone to write a preface for this album!
• Final physical naggle I swear - not a fan of how the tracklist doesn't specify which demo is what kind like the digital version does. I mean Born a Girl and Tolerate aren't even demos...
• I love Prologue as much as anyone but it really doesn't suit the rest of the album, as I thought before. Part of that is because I've had the original version for 20 years... but just in terms of theme and vibe it clashes with the rest, especially in the place it's been given. I'm glad Nobody Loved You wasn't completely snubbed but I still genuinely don't get the tracklist change and even though there's a slim chance of getting any further anniversary issues, I hope this is the end of the tracklist tampering.
• The demos are good. Some intriguing ones (I quite like that more rocking The Everlasting, in particular), and it's nice to have the fabled Tsunami - it's a good version but as suspected it's basically what they've been playing live in the past years. Alt mix of Tolerate is kinda intriguing, I do prefer how the final version goes but the layering is a nice twist. Overall, nothing too revelatory but nice to hear the embryonic versions given how studio-heavy the final album's sound is.
• Still one of the very greatest albums ever and it sounds even more magnificent now. It's not a radical remaster job, but it's nice to have it a little sharper. One of the band's best b-side eras as well both in terms of the originals and the remixes, and it's nice to get them all remastered too.

All in all, quite satisfied with this. A nice, comprehensive box that's maybe not quite as celebratory as it could be, but gets really near it.

:up: Nice summing up, I agree with most of that. I don't think the remaster is radical per se, but I do think it's probably the most noticeably improved remaster they've released (and weirdly one of their albums that I would have said needed it the least IMHO...!).

Other way round for me, but yeah...

Glad someone put them on YouTube for people to hear them at least, hopefully they will stay there until such time they are more easily available. One hoopy frood indeed!

Listening to the Be Natural demo now and I’m getting this. On this faster version there’s an Airbag feel to it. Though relations between the two bands got a bit frosty later on I’m sure James praised OK Computer around this time,

Off topic, but why/how did it get frosty?
Need some gossip haha.

Somthing Nicky said about Radioheads pay what you want policy for In Rainbows. Ed Obrien got all arsey about it I think.

I'd say that GT and EMG are their most noticeable remaster jobs: the former due to obvious reasons regarding the original production job, and I always found the latter to lack a little depth that the remaster really brought forward (I'd venture to say that as much as I always loved the album, I didn't really realise just how much until I had the remaster). The TIMT one just sharpens the original a little, nothing that was really required but it's nice to have, especially for headphone listening.

Would love a GATS remaster just because the thought of that crunchy, metallic bass running throughout the album coming properly to life with an audio facelift gets me irrationally excited, but fat chance that album is going to get a re-release at this stage unless they suddenly find some hitherto unknown appreciation for it.

At this point I'd settle for just standard (double!) vinyl reissues of GATS, Lifeblood, and KYE.

I was a good boy and didn't spoil my christmas present by listening to any of this until received on the day... kids' holidays and NYE means i'm still yet to give the demos a full spin, but have had a chance to reappraise the bsides & remixes over the past week; Prologue and Montana aside, I doubt i'd really listened to any of them since they were released. surprised how much KYE can be heard in the second halves of both Socialist Serenade and Buildings For Dead People!

Is there anyone who hasn't received their signed cd/order yet? I got an email on Dec 6 that it was shipped. I am in Germany and now I am kinda worried it got lost:(

Mine finally arrived here in Canada last week.

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some thoughts, after living with the set / reappraising the era for a couple of weeks now;

demo-wise, agree with what someone said earlier about many of the tracks capturing the band at the tail end of the EMG era (highlighted most obviously by the Australia-like intro to You Stole The Sun?).

also thought one or two of the demos hark back to an even earlier sound - from the top of my head, the Prologue demo especially - in terms of James' vocals, they have that almost reedy sound of some of the really early / GT era demos. assume at this stage of their career, that's more of his "scratch vocal" style, but for me it's a nice reminder that this set of tracks was still only 6, 7 years beyond Generation Terrorists.

the Nobody Loved You demo is probably the most interesting for me - I assume this is a really, really early run through of the track: they seem very unsure where it's going next, there's a bit of a 'WTF goes here?' type jam towards the end.

the My Little Empire demo has given me a new appreciation for the song - that was always a skipper for me, but this acoustic run through, minus that insistent cello, hits the spot more than the final version.

no such salvation for I'm Not Working and SYMM unfortunately - given both the demos and the album versions a few listens through, and neither still click with me.

in terms of the album proper, I can kinda see now why people are enthusiastic about Black Dog - still not a massive fan of the lyrics or vocals, but musically i don't think i'd ever really appreciated the arrangement / strings before, especially throughout the second half of the song.

final thought, regarding Born A Girl - it's always been one of my favourites on there, but don't think it ever struck me before that this one is possibly the closest in sound / style to The Holy Bible; give it a slightly more stark / dry production, and I can hear this sitting alongside the likes of Too Cold Here, Love Torn Us Under on the back of one of the singles. again, it just makes me realise that all of this came just 4 years on from the Holy Bible :surprise:

I only ever listen to the demo CDs that we’ve had over the last ten years once before putting them away and forgetting about them.

A month later and I’m listening to the TIMT ones at least once a week. This is a brilliant second CD.

Not going to the tour, but actually wondering if James will play an instrument at all on I'm Not Working live? What with the extra musicians in the band and the majority of this song being on electric sitar that could be interesting.