One of my fave Elvis Costello albums, which came out in 1980. Now I have three versions (US original version on Columbia, UK original version on F-Beat, and 2015 US double-album re-release on Universal [so, the original two sides spread over four]), so it was time for a comparison.
As for the covers, the first thing to notice is that the original US release (top left) removed the fake “album cover wear” from the the UK release (what was Columbia afraid of?), but that was restored in the 2015 US version.
The cover stock is all pretty standard, but the UK version is shiny (“plasticized?”). Impossible to take a picture of, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.
The UK version has a sticker proclaiming “20 Great Hits:”
. . . whereas Columbia seemed less convinced that the hits were “great,” and instead emphasized quantity (“20!!”):
(None on the 2015 version.)
As for the inner sleeves, the UK version is on much heavier stock. The re-release has nice plastic-lined paper sleeves:
. . . and instead reproduces the original inner sleeve on the inside of the cover:
All three versions reverse the sides as listed on the covers:
But, you ask, how do they sound?
At the time, there was concern that cramming 20 songs on one record would result in a loss of fidelity, so much so that there was a statement by producer Nick Lowe on the album cover:
. . . but due to the shortness of the songs, there’s only about 24 minutes of music on each side, as compared with the more standard 20.
Due to the cheapness of US record companies, at least in the 70’s/80’s, a lot of their pressings were pretty crappy (I’m looking at you, RCA), so I and fellow music enthusiasts sought out the much better UK pressings, even if the album was identical, although they were of course more expensive. Thus I bought both US and UK versions.
So, for my sound test, they were all carefully cleaned, and I listened to a fair bit of each, but for the ratings, used the song New Amsterdam, because (1) it’s my favorite song on the album, so I know it pretty well, and (2) it’s close to the center of record, where any “groove cramming” would theoretically have more effect.
So, in the end, grading from 1-5:
- US original release: 1
- UK original release: 2.5
- Re-release: 5
Thanks for the tip Martin, this is superb!
-R