There's a track on this album with the best name...

We now have the tracklist to the first post. This remaster will include both sides of Curry's rare 1976 Ode single as bonus tracks.

(And who knew that Alan liked the name Nicodemus so much? )

I Loved Curry so much in Rocky Horror that as a teen I bought his solo albums with high hopes............ that were dashed. I was never able to get into anything musical from him other than Rocky.

Although I'm not crazy about his albums, there were a few tracks I liked. And I loved I Do the Rock.

Bump: Added the description to the first post.

Not familiar with this label
How have their previous releases sounded?

Apparently, the label lives up to its name. I read that the Tim Curry "Fearless" reissue from earlier this year had horrible, brick-walled sound. Perhaps someone else can confirm.

The Amazon UK listing for Fearless has six reviews -- five are perfect (with one citing "brilliant" remastering), and the other is what you're remembering:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01NCUFL45/?tag=imwan-21

Actually, it was not Amazon where I read the bad review. It was the Steve Hoffman forum, which seems to have the same negative review as listed on Amazon:
http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/t ... 24.652460/

Extra large grain of salt required, then.

The point is ... what if the bad review is correct? What if these files are MP3 sourced? What if the music is brick-walled? Brick-walled sound may be fine to some people's ears, and others may not notice the sound quality issue because they are listening on headphones. I've read numerous reviews praising sound quality of other releases only to be disappointed myself in harsh, brittle sound. Regardless, sound quality is a matter of opinion. I'll pass on this release for now.

Many consumers have drank the record companies kool-aid.

Taken all together, Amazon's reviews are a better gauge, in my experience.

Whenever I run into a self-described "audiophile review", it always seems to have been written from the same script. Everything is brickwalled, the previous remasters were better, the '80s flat transfer is best of all, a needledrop from the original vinyl is superior (or inferior, depending on the intention of the reviewer), only one or two engineers are qualified to remaster everything on Earth, and so on. That's hard to take seriously after a while. It might be correct in this case.

Including myself. Years ago I used to love the loudness of these "remasters". I am not against loudness and dynamic compression. I'm just against too much of it, in which the resulting sound is harsh and brittle. That's not say that I haven't enjoyed some loud remasters in recent years, as long as they don't hurt my ears.

I agree!

I see 2 major issues with the "Hoffman World"

1. Steve is GOD. No one is allowed to say anything that doesn't deify him. Heavy handed moderating in general.

2. I've seen this in the entire hi-end community since I became interested in 1992:

A huge tendency to be really nasty, mean & flame each other. (Look at the old 90's letters to the editor section in Stereophile. this isn't just an internet phenomena). I have no idea why; I rarely to never practiced that behavior. And a 90+% exclusion of 1/2 of the human race, Women.

I agree, too! I actually don't visit the Hoffman forum very often. In fact, I haven't really ever done much research on Steve Hoffman himself. Isn't he just a mastering engineer? I only check the forum in order to gather information and/or opinions on certain releases. There are people on there who do provide good information, regardless, especially when it comes to MP3/lossy sourced material or vinyl sourced material. I do not agree with certain people when it comes to audio mastering. For example, I like the 2011 Bob Ludwig remasters of Queen's back catalog. Even though I think that the music is a bit too loud and brick-walled, I think that it still sounds good and stays true to the original music.

Afaik, Hoffman is mostly a mastering engineer. Oddly, he did some very good-excellent work on cd for his DCC label in the old days; to my ears his work isn't nearly as good on SACD (hi-res) or the AF cd's; though their are some positive exceptions. His recent Spirit SACD's were a terrible disappointment to me.

As much as I complain about brightness, these days Hoffman has a tendency on alot (not all) of his AF work to sound too dull & lifeless imo.

I spend a lot of time over at the SH Forum and find it OK most of the time though it does get heavy handed once in awhile.
And certain posters continue to force their stubborn opinions with great regularity, but I just shake my head and move on to the next thread.
I agree that his work with DCC sounds better (or is it just different?) than the AFs.
I have two friends, both very into sound quality and active at SHF, that concur.

Bump: Read My Lips has been pushed back to September 8th.