Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms (Back To Black [UGM Series] Re-Release; 1985, [Re] 2010)

So! Here we are, talking about the record that sparked the idea for this blog.

Let's begin by breaking the record down.

The tracklist is as follows:

• A1: So Far Away (3.59)
• A2: Money For Nothing (7.04)
• A3: Walk Of Life (4.07)
• A4: Your Latest Trick (4.46)
• A5: Why Worry (5.22)
• B1: Ride Across The River (5.57)
• B2: The Man's Too Strong (4.40)
• B3: One World (3.40)
• B4: Brothers In Arms (6.00)

So as you can already see, all of these tracks are shorter than the re-release that is widely available, mostly available on CD and recently available on the RSD 2-LP 45RPM re-release (almost like a disease), yet a little longer than the original 1985 release. That was definitely one thing I had noticed while listening to this record. Some of the versions included on this re-release are strangely cut; for example, on Your Latest Trick and Why Worry, the music begins to fade out right after Mark Knopfler barks out his final lyrics before the long, musically whimsical instrumentals at the end, which made me question the intentions on whoever worked on this "deleted version". That was the only downside to this re-release.

Now, for sound quality, all I have to say is: WOW. Never have I heard such amazing acoustics from vinyl! I will give the record and the remasters in the studio this. With my set-up, my subwoofer nearly causes an earthquake in my house, the lows of each track is that powerful. The treble and highs are terrific and needs almost no treatment or adjustments. The sound quality, for a lack of a better phrase, is powerful. Everything you would hear from a CD recorded with today's studio standards (played on an actual stereo system, not some cheap Walmart boombox) is exactly what you hear from this vinyl. There is just one downside though, and that is on Money For Nothing. In the original pressing back in 1985, I feel as if the drums at the beginning, building up to the guitar solo, are stronger than in the repress. It's just not nearly as powerful as I have heard even on MP3 (bleck, I hate even typing that, it's so lossy). Yet the rest of track is just as great and pleasant on the ears. Hmph. Funny how that works.

Maybe it's the virgin vinyl at play, or just how well this record was mastered and pressed, but all in all, despite the weird versions of the tracks, this record is awesome and worth every penny for awesome music enjoyment. Fellow audiophiles, you will not be disappointed! Huzzah!

The conclusion:

• Sound Quality: 4.75 out of 5.
• Mastering: 4.75 out of 5.
• Overall: 4.75 out of 5.

Link to Discogs.com listing here.

You can buy this vinyl record from Amazon.ca (2-LP) & Amazon.com.

The First Post!

Hello everyone who has stumbled upon this tiny little blog!

My name is Jamie and I will be your host here. I hope I can make this blog as pleasant as I possibly can.

Now that we have the formalities are out of the way as best as I can muster, let's move onto the reason why we are here today. P.S. - I apologize ahead of time for any swears that may be read in the near future. I'm just a guy, after all. I write like how I talk.

The blog you are reading right now is a vinyl review blog. Since I was 15, I became very interested in vinyl. I was stumbling through my mother's storage one day and just happened to cross a box marked "records" and wondered what the hell was in this box. Lo and behold! did I find all of my mother's old vinyl records. The rest is history. I started my own collection of records a year after and have become continually fascinated and obsessed with vinyl ever since.

Fast forward to four years later. I was living in the big city where record shops and large shopping centres that just started selling records were aplenty. I was wandering around in London Drugs, bored on my day off from work, and shock! I found a re-release of Dire Straits' biggest selling record, "Brothers In Arms".

"Brothers In Arms" has been released and re-released since forever all across the globe. Records, cassettes, CDs, deleted and rare-to-find versions, Record Store Day (RSD) vinyl presses ... you name it. Yet for some strange reason, you'd be damned to find a good copy of this album on vinyl for a decent price. The original release, still sealed, starts as low as around $35 and works its way up to around $85. Crazy, right? Even then, the lowest priced album is the 2-LP 45RPM RSD re-release on eBay.

But finding "Brothers In Arms" in London Drugs, and the year is 2013? WOW! Must have been my lucky day. The price wasn't shabby at all, either. Double luckiness!

This re-release though was quite special, though. Or apparently, it is, according to the sticker and the website it's featured on (don't be fooled though - the version listed here is the same one you can buy on CD, yet the version on vinyl is allegedly as the following describes). The re-release came from the vaults of Universal Music Group, in their Back to Black series. I had never heard of this Back to Black re-release and finding anything on the Internet was a loss. The only thing I could read about it was that this version of "Brothers in Arms" was a special, deleted version that was hardly released. The sticker on the shrink wrap boasted being pressed on virgin 180 gram vinyl. Holy shit. A record pressed on virgin 180g vinyl in London Drugs?! That must be pretty special right? I had read about 180g vinyl and heard a lot of good things about, and a fair number of neutral reviews. But I still wanted to know more. I asked some of the employees in the electronics & audio department of London Drugs if they knew anything about the re-release I wanted to purchase, but to no avail. Nobody knew anything. Regardless, I bought the damn thing and rushed home to go listen to it.

This blog is, more or less, dedicated to that one record and that one special time when all I wanted was some information about the re-release of a damn record I had been vying for for years.

This blog is a vinyl review blog, giving you the in-depth details of the sound quality on specific records that maybe you've seen before but didn't know if it'd be worth buying, or spending the extra buck on.

Welcome. :)