Ranking the Anniversary Deluxe Editions

[Mega Man]

As much as I like to nitpick things (as any obsessive fan would), the recent string of deluxe editions have really been a gift with what I believe is enough new and exciting content to re-buy an album that you already own. But it's been fascinating that they've taken a different approach with each of them, so I wanted to shoutout what I think works.

Ironically, the first anniversary edition that started it all, Insomniac, is discounted from the list due to being much more barebones. Though it was seemingly the catalyst that convinced the label that fans are hungry for these types of releases.

The best release that I keep coming back to is Nimrod 25. This is where they got it right; the album was supported by a whole disc of demos, and one of my favorite concerts of the era. I can't really think of any glaring omissions. I would like to hear Richard Dodd's remix of the album, but I wonder what the best presentation of that would be.

Dookie 30 didn't disappoint either. The Barcelona show wouldn't have been my first pick for a live show, but it's still a nice time capsule. The main attraction was actually the Woodstock '94 show; I was confined to listening to this as a vinyl rip for years, now I have it in pristine CD quality. As for the demos and rarities, the Dookie demos have been the stuff of legend for years, and floated around as shoddy bootlegs. I'm grateful that we got an entire disc filled with demos and outtakes, but I'm still a little bummed at what was left out. Of the cassette demos that were previously leaked, I see the unique songs like Don't Wanna Fall in Love and the instrumental tracks as glaring omissions. There's no way they could have included everything, especially with the redundancy of tracks, but I think the curation of cuts could have been handled better; i.e. we have a demo of J.A.R. included, as opposed to a unique acoustic demo.

Nevertheless, the quality of the previously leaked tracks is pristine, and is like listening to them for the first time. Billie Joe helped make this set even more special by donating his early 4-track demos that have never been heard before. One of my favorite parts of the release are the Dookie versions of 409 and Christie Road. Rob Cavallo worked some magic and made these outtakes sound exactly like the rest of the album. The accompanying essay mentions that 2000 Light Years Away was also part of these sessions, so that was disappointing to not include. Not to end on a sour note, but the Shenanigans B-sides and J.A.R. were also included. The inclusion isn't the issue, it's that three widely-available tracks made the cut when there were many, many other rarities that didn't.

American Idiot might have been up there in second place, but there was a fatal flaw; they used the wrong master on CD. Everyone knows 2000s CDs were compromised by their loudness, and American Idiot was released smack dab in the middle of that era. The album was remastered in 2012; this was used for streaming and vinyl, but somehow left off the CD? This kind of quality control issue at the heart of an album anniversary release really sets my rating back. Otherwise, my thoughts were pretty similar to the Nimrod release; I loved the choice of live show, and enjoyed the entire disc of brand new demos. There was also another entire disc dedicated to B-sides. Now, I already busted my ass tracking down the CD singles for their B-sides, but I still appreciate having them all in one convenient place. Unlike Dookie, there was no "Shenanigans" for post-Warning B-sides. Only thing missing is the outtakes that were release in the 21CB era.

Warning is another straightforward release. Once again, I'm completely onboard with the choice of live concert. However, they allegedly cut two songs from the concert? I still don't know whether it was confirmed that "When I Come Around" and "Church on Sunday" were played at that show, but making the decision to consciously cut them from the set would be pure lunacy, especially since Church on Sunday would become a rare deep cut from the era. We also have another solid assortment of brand new demos. We also have a good deal of recycling with four already widely available tracks; Outsider, Scumbag, Suffocate, and Poprocks & Coke. It's not so much a strike against the album, since it's not like it's taking the place of something else, but their inclusion is inconsistent; Outsider and Scumbag make sense, but then we have Suffocate from the Nimrod sessions. We have Poprocks & Coke from International Superhits, but not the version of Maria recorded for that album. Did they want to include all the tracks from International Superhits and Shenanigans across these releases or not? If you're a completist, you'll still have to buy them.

Finally, I'd like to shoutout the rest of the outtakes. The B-sides NOT included on Shenanigans were Don't Want to Know if You're Lonely and the first version of Maria, and the brand new Otis remixes of Macy's Day Parade and Waiting. I think a couple live B-sides weren't included, but I'm not as concerned about those.

So there you have it. Even though it was ranked best to worst, I think the quality across all four releases is pretty consistent and the wealth of unreleased content makes them must-buys.

[greendepent]

Gotta say that I'm not too fond on any of them, but for different reasons. Mostly presentation, specially on the demos side. For my consideration, the demos should be able to showcase an evolution (if they choose demos from different stages of writing, like the Nimrod ones) but they end up being presented in a messy way, and it bothers me. Warning demos seems to be the most consistent on that task, as American Idiot ones. I like the AI ones specially because it shows they actually disassembled whole songs to make the record, best example is Lowlife. 

B-sides are ok, for most part. For the live shows they went stingy and didn't pay for the covers and snippets, witch is sad not to be able to experience a uncut live show.  

Three special mentions:

- Dookie outtakes are good for the most part, but pitch corrected voices on old releases sounds really bad. Chris Dugan did a good job trying to recreate the mixes (as Jerry Finn passed away long time ago, and the songs were never mixed properly), but the election of correcting the voices is lame. I expected a remix of J.A.R, as it never sounded finished to me, that hi-hat is too loud, but didn't happened. 

- Reprise did a really bad move in trying to masking the demo of walking the dog as a new source but actually is the mp3 rip from ages ago. Raw capitalism.

- They missed the chance to finally show the original versions of Chump and Longview. 

[Mega Man]

18 minutes ago, greendepent said:

- Reprise did a really bad move in trying to masking the demo of walking the dog as a new source but actually is the mp3 rip from ages ago. Raw capitalism.

Are we deadass? That track in particular struck me as low quality, but I was assuming it was due to the sources. They also stuck it at the end of the studio tracks in the track listing, when it clearly did not come from the album sessions.

22 minutes ago, greendepent said:

- They missed the chance to finally show the original versions of Chump and Longview. 

I didn't mention that, but I would have loved to hear those. The album essay mentioned how they had to be re-recorded due to fidelity issues, but it feels plausible that they could have been restored with modern tools. I guess we at least get an approximation of those arrangements in the demos (Chump's original ending, Longview's original tempo). An [unrealistic] opportunity to release those would be to release Cavallo's original mix of Dookie in its entirety.

 

The curation of demo tracks comes down to preference, but I tend to value variety: how different they were from the final album. Though it can be hard to balance "vastly different" with "still listenable" when you're dealing with tracks that were never meant to be heard. Things like "Misery" with unfinished scratch vocals are a historical gem, but also not something that I'm going back to super often (ditto with Walking Alone). Though I still like Nimrod because of the eight songs that never made the album entirely.

[Insomniac1984]

Ok, my impressions.... let's go:

* Insomniac: As a first release for Anniversary Editions was OK at the moment, but now it seems a poor release compared to the others. I hope they re-release it with more content (Live concerts, demos, unreleased tracks, etc). I give it the credit the live tracks included were mixed different.

* Nimrod: It's a little bit disappointing for me. I love Nimrod, it's a 10/10 in GD's career for me. The era, how GD sounded live at that time, etc. The first disc, the whole base album, no extras. I was expecting the 4 bonus track from Australian release were included, but OK we had Shenanigans for that in 2002. However, with the Demos album I had mixed feelings. I just love how some tracks changed like Nice guys finish last and the surprising fact that Black eyeliner was the origin of Church on Sunday and Kill your friends (The Longshot). The ramones cover was good and just that. On the contrary, Tre's Polka is really dull... I would love in that case the inclusion of D.U.I. The live record, I really like it, but it is annoying to listen to some segments when the band is playing in loop for so long meanwhile Billie was interacting with the audience (If we could HAVE WATCHED that, is another story) and the messy version of Knowledge. 

* Dookie: In simple words, amazing release. I'm not too technical about the sound and make an analysis but I loved how improved sounds 409 in your coffemaker and the new version of Christie Road. I liked the demos (included the new ones: the 4-track ones). The shows selected were good choices (Aragon Ballroom from Chicago or Jannus Landing from Tampa Florida could be also good choices), I always wanted Woodstock 94 on CD (Specially, after that special release on vynil from RSD in 2019), and Barcelona 94 show mixing feels more raw or savage in a certain way.

* American Idiot: I liked the fact that they showed some demos which were used for final songs from AI, you know taking pieces from here and there, some lyrics, some melodies, etc. Lowlife could be perfectly in a GD record in my opinion. Just another year and Everyone's Breaking Down are really catchy. Also, the alternative demo for AI was a good addition. However, I was expecting more from C&V sessions (I still hope GD release that album someday). Also, I liked the second disc is a B-sides/Live tracks compilation from stuff from AI era (I would love here the Aol Sessions EP to get it in a physical disc) and the live show from Irving Plaza is rad. The new docummentary was a superb extra, with so many moments with the band playing live, doing silly stuff (Poor Jason White!! xD) and some promo stuff activities and walking around different places... NICE!! The only one "bad thing" with this release is I can't listen the whole 4 CDs at once, I have to do it in parts... you know, basically listening the same songs so many times in a row... 

* Warning: I liked it more than Nimrod XXV release in general. The second CD was a mix of released stuff at the time and some unreleased demos and mixes. I love they included the original version of Maria (And as a full version) and I don't want to know if you are lonely (nice Husker Dü cover, BTW). Speaking about the demos, it was weird not having Minority, Waiting and Warning. Misery feels so different, so "amateur-ish", the final version is amazing with all the arrangements in its production.  My favorite demos were Church on Sunday and Macy's Day Parade. About the new Otis mixes, I like Waiting but the original version is better for me. The live album, I like it too, but I don't understand why they cut Church on Sunday. The Saxophone part for 2000 LYA was a nice touch for that song. So glad to get some live versions from Warning tracks and Platypus. However, it had some segments with the band playing in loop like Nimrod Live CD...

So, this is my ranking:

01 Dookie

02 Warning

03 American Idiot

04 Nimrod

05 Insomniac

 

And I would love this kind of treatment for 39 Smooth, Kerplunk and 21st Century Breakdown in the future...

[greendepent]

1 hour ago, Mega Man said:

Are we deadass? That track in particular struck me as low quality, but I was assuming it was due to the sources. They also stuck it at the end of the studio tracks in the track listing, when it clearly did not come from the album sessions.

When the boxset was released I chatted with Todd about it and he told me that. He ran some analysis on that track and his conclusion was that it was a copy of the old mp3, not a different or lower gen source of the demo. And I believe him. 

 

1 hour ago, Mega Man said:

didn't mention that, but I would have loved to hear those. The album essay mentioned how they had to be re-recorded due to fidelity issues, but it feels plausible that they could have been restored with modern tools. I guess we at least get an approximation of those arrangements in the demos (Chump's original ending, Longview's original tempo). An [unrealistic] opportunity to release those would be to release Cavallo's original mix of Dookie in its entirety.

They have the tapes somewhere. They are lazy.