I mentioned before in my Vapor Trails review that Vapor Trails had 2 key problems with it. The first was a perceived sameness from song to song and the second was a mixing and mastering issue.
The 2002 version was mixed by David Leonard, masterd by Howie Weinberg and David Lian and produced by Paul Northfield. The resulting mix that listeners were presented with in 2002 when the album hit store shelves, was described as overdriven, distorted, muddy and just plain old bad. Personally speaking, it wouldn’t be until years later when I would revisit the album and notice for myself just how poor the final product actually was.
In a recent interview with Geddy Lee for Rolling Stone, Lee even commented that the 2002 release was ‘cooked’ and that the ‘mixes were really loud and brash. The mastering job was really harsh and distorted’. What’s even more interesting about this story is that Geddy had come to this conclusion after the album had dropped. Unfortunately for the band and himself, once an album is released en masse, there was little that could be done about it. So the band had to eat the monster that was produced for just over another decade.
The band hired David Bottrill to remix the album. From the same interview, Geddy believed that ‘he understood what it [the album] should sound like’.
The album was remixed, remastered and re-released last year with new album artwork and the results are pretty noticeable. For starters, the album is considerably quieter. I found myself having to turn up my volume quite a bit just to get anything to really come out of my speakers. The next thing you might notice is that there is more definition to each instrument. ‘Earthshine’ for example has Geddy’s bass clearly coming through and Alex’s guitar sits more in the back of the mix rather than being right in your face like before. Some songs have a clear tension-and-release to them like ‘Out of the Cradle’, ‘Nocturne’ and ‘The Stars Look Down’ and others have the atmospheric qualities that should have been there from the start like ‘Ghost Rider’ and ‘How It Is’.
Overall, the remixed version is a huge, much needed improvement. Bottrill brought much needed clarity to this collection of songs. Take a listen for yourself:
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