After hating the Analog Spark reissues of The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner and Songs For Silverman, why I decided to give this a chance, I have no idea. Perhaps because this was an album I never really rated, so I thought hearing it on vinyl (and with the addition of Ben's songs from the "Over The Hedge" soundtrack as a bonus), I would finally give it a chance.Abut the sound quality. I hated Kevin Gray's mastering on the last 2 Analog Spark Ben Folds releases, but here it's great. Nice full punchy sound. Funny, because I believe most of these songs were recorded and/or mixed digitally, and the last 2 releases Gray did came from analog mixes, and he has an all analog mastering chain, and those sounded terrible. Maybe they were just in bad shape. We'll never know, and mastering engineers/studios never like to give details on their source material. But whatever the case, this release sounds great.Pressing quality-wise, ehh, it's from RTI. They're so hit and miss anymore it's not even funny. Sometimes they're OK, sometimes they hit it out of the park, sometimes they're laughably bad. This is somewhere in the middle of the latter two. On my copy, first disc is slightly dished, but plays fine, second disc has an ever-so-slight edge warp, but again, plays fine. These problems usually occur when taking the record off the press too fast without allowing it to cool down properly, and because it's plastic, and plastic has a "memory" of sorts while it's forming, it gets messed up and stays that way. Are you reading this, RTI? Maybe you can learn from your mistakes someday. While the pressing leaves a lot to be desired, the vinyl sounds great. Not noisy, no crackles, pops, nothing.Packaging leaves a lot to be desired. Again, like the previous Folds issues Analog Spark did, very grainy low-res artwork. Nice quality jacket, but honestly, I'd rather have something nicer to look at than something that looks like crap on a sturdy sleeve. And is it just me, or do these "tip-on" style jackets seem more susceptible to ring wear than others? My copy is already starting to get some wear on it. This style of jacket seems to be tighter, causing the records to wear the sleeve a bit more. Just an observation.Onto the music. Of course, this was a compilation of Ben's EP's and internet singles from the early-mid 2000's. But on this album, he went and remixed the songs, edited some, extended some, added things, took things out, etc... Folds' fans will argue forever about how the original mixes from the EP's and singles were better than on here, but that wasn't the point, and Ben explains that in the album's liner notes. Regardless, if you're a fan, you'll want this version too. One thing fans didn't like about this release was the added orchestration/instrumentation on "Still". On this version, you also get the "bare" version on the side with the songs from "Over The Hedge", so you can play one or the other (or both).In short, get this if you're a die-hard Folds fan. It sounds great AND has extra material. Don't pay too much for it, though.

If you read my reviews of them I go into detail on what I didn't like about them. Overall I found them a bit dull, and felt they didn't better the original pressings. Especially Songs For Silverman, which I felt had a lot of potential to sound better than the original. Just my opinion. If you liked them, awesome. Guess I'm in the minority. I expected more from Gray, his track record considered. As I said in the review above, I enjoyed the sound on this release, so I don't know what happened with the other ones. Perhaps the sources he was given were bad, but we'll never know, as mastering engineers and labels never reveal such information.

You lost me at "I hated Kevin Grey's mastering." I'm surprised. I thought TUBORM and Songs For Silverman sounded great. Smoked the heck out of the CDs. What didn't you like about them?

Another excellent Ben Folds reissue by Analog Spark. Would love to see them do the whole back catalog... I'm sure they can make up for the Plain Recordings reissue of the S/T and the lackluster ORG reissue of Whatever and Ever Amen. Or maybe have a go at Naked Baby Photos?

Awesome sounding record. I'm glad to finally own this on LP. Analog Spark continues to hit the Ben Folds pressings out of the park.

Totally agree. Everything's been incredible so far, and this in particular is great.