Music Reviews

Of course, Bridge of Sighs will forever be defined by its two opening tracks. How does the new CD fare with those? On "Day of the Eagle," the guitar has more of a scraping edge to it, and the soundstage overall is wider than that of the previous CD. And if you really want to hear how big that room was at Air Studios - and how much of its ambience Emerick was able to get into the guitar sound - cue up the (now even more) stunning title track. The echoing resonance in the main figure is to die for, not just sigh for. The same amazing sense of space is in the chimes as they decay from right to left. And clarity? As the sorrowful coda builds and builds - augmenting its main riff with a secondary guitar progression, sharp stabs, overheard voices, and that cold wind - each of those five parts can be heard in precise delineation.

Ah, but what about the original vinyl LP? Does the new CD replicate, as Emerick called it, the LP's "rich tonal quality"? Can you now hear "the depth of the guitar"? Yes and yes. In fact, I'd argue that the CD sounds even better. "Day of the Eagle" now has more Air (pun intended), whereas on the LP it's comparatively squeezed. The title track may seem "warmer" in '74 (don't get me started on the supposed warmth of vinyl and where that really comes from), but the recording is simply more realistic on the new CD. "In This Place," especially, is transformed, in everything from Dewar's natural vocals to Isidore's deep drum fills and crisp cymbal/rim taps.

So, by all means, buy.

The packaging, though still minimal, is the best so far: The cover art is now completely restored from Funky Paul's original painting (yes, the LP jacket's green tint was a mistake), and Trower's informative (if short) liner notes are far preferable to the uncredited boilerplate in the MoFi booklet and Jon Sutherland's simplistic overview in the 1999 reissue. Trower's disclosure that "Lady Love" and "Little Bit of Sympathy" were not from the Air sessions is revelatory. While it's certainly true that "it was Geoff's mixes of them that brought them up to the mark," the irony now is that the new remaster is so good, you can actually hear the difference. Recorded at Olympic Studios, "Lady" and "Little" don't sound Olympic-sized.

The only drawback of the new edition is the bonus material: eight tracks from two BBC/John Peel sessions. These aren't purely live performances but re-recordings, complete with overdubs. And whereas three selections are drawn from Bridge of Sighs - the title track, "In This Place," and "Little Bit of Sympathy," recorded just before the album's release - the other five are all incongruously from the weaker follow-up, For Earth Below. Not only that, four of those five are played by the 1975 lineup, with Bill Lordan on drums. And the sound of both sessions is lousy. The first has shallow bass and reedy vocals, and the second is worse: receding and shrill guitars/vocals, bloated bass, and a bleeding mix, all seeming like a bootleg as heard through a pipe. (There's even an uncorrected glitch at the end of "It's Only Money.") The five bonus tracks on the 1999 edition are far superior in selection (all from Bridge), sound (live in the studio), and performance (spunky and spirited, with an especially punchy/counterpunchy Isidore). Quality beats quantity every time.

That said, you're not recrossing this Bridge for its bonuses. You want the album itself. And in this new remaster, you could want nothing more.

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