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Releases
EMI refuse to replace Duran Duran discs
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 16 July 2010
EMI has responded to criticism about the sound quality on recent ‘special edition’ re-issues of Duran Duran’s eponymous debut and their third album, 1983’s ‘Seven And The Ragged Tigers’.
Criticism about the way the re-releases have been mastered has come from both fans and members of the band. But, while the label admitted it was aware that concerns had been raised regarding the remastering of the records, it said – but for one glitch – it was all a matter of opinion, and there’d therefore be no recall of stock.
Issued via the band’s website, the label’s statement said: “It has come to our attention that some fans have suggested that the mastering on the recently re-issued editions of ‘Duran Duran’ and ‘Seven And The Ragged Tiger’ is incorrect. Mastering is always subjective, and we acknowledge that the mastering on these versions is different to that of previous remasters, however that does not necessarily make it wrong”.
It continued: “We have received both positive and negative comments about the mastering which is usual for any project – although those that don’t like the sound of these new records are by far in the minority. We will always take on board constructive criticism and act upon it, where we believe it appropriate, and we respect the opinions of the fans. However, in this case there have been some personal comments about the mastering engineer that were highly offensive, wholly inappropriate and unjustified”.
As for the one glitch, EMI added that it knew there was a slight problem in the reproduction of the song ‘Girls Of Film’, but said it wouldn’t do anything about that either. The statement concluded: “There is a glitch due to tape deterioration in the camera clicks at the very start of ‘Girls On Film’ on the ‘Duran Duran’ album. Whilst this glitch is not ideal, as it is in the camera clicks and not within the main body of the music, there are no plans to replace any discs”.
So, there you go. The glitchy, deteriorated, possibly-not-that-great-sounding special edition Duran Duran CDs are in shops now.
