Fleetwood Mac : Albatross......can it sound better?

I have the remastered "Pious Bird of Good Omen" Blue Horizon compact disc 90003-2.

Albatross sounds just perfect to me on this disc. However, I have nothing to compare it to. Is this the best we can get? What an amazing song!!

 

Not sure..but one day I hope Then Play On will be remastered to sound better.

 

I was the engineer who recorded 'Albatross' and I have the original UK 45 and to my ears the 45 sounds better.... 'Albatross' on the 'Pious Bird Of Good Omen' would have been a copy of the original master mix and for export to other countries another copy would be made so it's likely that your CD is a third generation or more, it's always difficult to judge how many times a title is removed from the original mixed master tape from the studio unless an audiofile mastering engineer insists on the original master.

 

Wow, really?
If you have any memories of recording with the early Mac that would be very interesting to hear. Peter Green, man.

 

Yes, this ^^^^
my all time favorite FM song!!

 

Another track that made it onto my Top 100 Songs Of All-Time list.

 

I love Albatross on the SACD that our host mastered; it sounds so present.

 

Albatross is my favourite FM song too. Way to go.

 

What release is this? I have searched the forum and the SH Discography page and didn't see anything that appeared to be SACD and Fleetwood Mac.

 

Albatross is Peter Green's precious little moment of beauty. I have never tired of that track, I could make a tape lope and would never tired of that song. I still have the 45 after all these years.

 

Would you know which generation of the album was used for the 6CD FM box set? (The Complete Blue Horizon Sessions.)

 

ummm....yeah. What SACD release are we talking about?

 

The Fleetwood Mac Blue Horizon sessions was mastered in London by Mike Vernon the original producer from the original first generation tapes.

 

The Peter Green SACD that Steve Hoffman mastered for Audio Fidelity a couple of years back. Admittedly it is not by Fleetwood Mac, but it just sounds so beautiful.

 

This:

 

One of my favorite FM songs I just wish that "Oh Well" and the rest of TPO sounded as good!

I'm really unclear as to WHY Rhino hasn't moved forward on this title for Handmade. I would think that it would sell at least as well as the "Shoot Out the Lights" set they did.

 

This....

Nothing substitutes for the original UK 45 single. Its not hard to get either, iirc it went to #1 in the UK and sold a ton. Albatross was released on LP; their Greatest Hits (UK CBS) and of course on the Pious Bird compilation, again UK CBS, on producer Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon label.

 

When my best friend died a couple of years ago, I was holding myself together very well, until the end when his coffin was carried out by family members and then 'Albatross' wafted through the whole church. His favourite tune, there wasn't a dry eye in the church!

JG

 

Then Play On sounds so bad that I am more inclined to believe that we are looking not only at a bad mastering, but a very limited recording to begin with. Maybe original vinyl could shed light on this.

 

Albatross and Man of the World are perfect bookends around a marvellous selection of great songs.

 

Is the original Albatross 7 inch UK - Blue Horizon 573145?
And can anybody comment on the UK 7 inch CBS MCBS5957?

 

I like the version of Albatross on the Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits CD (CBS 460704-2) much better. Then Play On on CD is awful.

 

The US Warner Bros. CD of Then Play On, when you listen to it, a combination of decent sounding and muddy lo-res tracks.

BUT....one has to remember this is a cobbled together digital collection that bears little relation to the original album. In fact, the US never got the original album....it got a condensed version which itself was quickly deleted & replaced with an even more cut up and rearranged version. It had tracks like "Oh Well" that were never on the album to begin with. Jump forward to the CD era and Warners got a hold of the shattered remains of the album, at that point a hodgepodge of various dubs 'n copy tapes - and created the CD.

The original UK album sounds superb. A little long a side (22+ minutes) but a nice cutting. I think the only way to have this on CD would be to make a needle drop of a clean original UK or an original German pressing (which is mastered with more low end and would probably sound very good transferred to digital).

And maybe add a few of the UK Mac singles like 'Oh Well' as bonus tracks.