Search - Herb Alpert & Tijuana Brass :: Sounds Like (Spkg)

Worth the wait

Harry Gene Neyhart | Sunny Central Florida, USA | 08/17/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"...SOUNDS LIKE..., the new CD issue from Shout! Factory goes WAY beyond my expectations, sonically.



The songs on this album are as familiar to me as the back of my hand - they've been a part of my psyche for the last 38 years, with the great bulk of that, hearing them on vinyl. This is one of the albums that somehow missed out in the conversion to digital back in 1987, so most of the tracks sound fresher just without the clicks and pops I'm used to hearing, along with the faint rumble and swish noises that are inherent in vinyl.



So granted, the bulk of these tracks should be popping out at me in all of their new digital clarity. But with this release, it's the two tracks that HAVE been 'digitized' before that have my bottom jaw dragging on the floor in utter amazement. (A third, "Bo-Bo", appeared on an industry-only release from Rondor and it sounds about the same here.)



The two often-anthologized tracks, "Casino Royale" and "Wade In The Water" sound just amazing here. I thought that the DEF. HITS version of "Casino..." was pretty darn good when I first heard it (one of the high points of that release), but it's like a veil has been lifted. I don't own that old Colgems soundtrack album with this song on it, but a buddy of mine had it years ago, and I still recall the purity of the sound on that vinyl. (The CD release of the CASINO ROYALE soundtrack on Varese Sarabande in no way could even be classified as "good" - it's got a messy, garbly sound to it.) This new Shout! release brings back memories of that old Colgems album with the crisp highs, the exquisite stereo separation, and that feeling that we're listening to the true master (and that term could apply to Herb and Burt as well!).



Stupendous, wonderful, exhilarating, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious...I'm running out of adjectives...is the way I feel about "Wade In The Water". The last release I could find of this on CD was the old GREATEST HITS VOLUME 2 disc. On the new Shout! mastering, we get to FEEL Nick Ceroli's drums. He's HERE, in the room with us. On the old releases it sounds like he was in the next room. And it's not just Nick, but Julius and the rest of the gang. They're all HERE, and they sound better than ever.



Bravo, Herb! Bravo, Bernie Grundman! and Bravo, Shout! Factory! (I'm wearing out my exclamation mark key!)



Outstanding!

"

Best Herb Alpert and TB album!

Orlandoran | Orlando, FL | 02/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was 10 years old when I first owned this album. Now 48 years old, a saxophonisist for 40 years and a professional school band director, this album by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass is still my favorite! I have been looking and waiting for years for its CD release and am thrilled to finally find it available. This is Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass' best!"

One of the all-time great pop albums

M. Emery | MO, United States | 01/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Where do I begin on SOUNDS LIKE . . ., a number-one album on Billboard's pop album chart in June 1967 (it was the only album other than albums by the Monkees to be in that position for six months, from late 1966 to then). It's a crime this wasn't available on CD for the last two decades, but that has been rectified by this superb Shout Factory release. While it wasn't the Tijuana Brass's best-known work from the '60s, I think it is their strongest, most consistent album (and the writer for the CD booklet agrees with me). The second side, from "Town without Pity" to "Casino Royale," is my favorite instrumental sequence in pop music. Every note of this album is in my bones. Highly recommended to anyone interested in catching up with a pop masterpiece."