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Tom Petty - Wildflowers
Album Comparisons: Wildflowers
When I was in high school, the main genres of music that I listened to were oldies and hard rock/metal. My first ever concert experince was in fact seeing Type O Negative and Pantera at Dallas's Fair Park Coliseum in Februrary 1995. But, interestingly enough, one of the albums that made up part of the soundtrack to my high school years was Tom Petty's Wildflowers, released in 1994 and introduced to me mainly by the people I was hanging out with at the time. The marijuana references on "You Don't Know How It Feels" were part of the attraction for them, but despite the drug references I would go on to become a bit of a Tom Petty fan, although ironically not so much of this particular album. Nevertheless, I did own a copy of it, and twenty-eight years later I ran across another copy, this time remastered, among some used CDs. Which one sounds the best?

Wildflowers

1994 original CD release

Wildflowers

2020 CD remaster

Wildflowers

You Don't Know How It Feels

1994 original CD release

You Don't Know How It Feels

2020 CD remaster

You Don't Know How It Feels

Time to Move On

1994 original CD release

Time to Move On

2020 CD remaster

Time to Move On

You Wreck Me

1994 original CD release

You Wreck Me

2020 CD remaster

You Wreck Me

It's Good to Be King

1994 original CD release

It's Good to Be King

2020 CD remaster

It's Good to Be King

Only a Broken Heart

1994 original CD release

Only a Broken Heart

2020 CD remaster

Only a Broken Heart

Honey Bee

1994 original CD release

Honey Bee

2020 CD remaster

Honey Bee

Don't Fade on Me

1994 original CD release

Don't Fade on Me

2020 CD remaster

Don't Fade on Me

Hard on Me

1994 original CD release

Hard on Me

2020 CD remaster

Hard on Me

Cabin Down Below

1994 original CD release

Cabin Down Below

2020 CD remaster

Cabin Down Below

To Find a Friend

1994 original CD release

To Find a Friend

2020 CD remaster

To Find a Friend

A Higher Place

1994 original CD release

A Higher Place

2020 CD remaster

A Higher Place

House in the Woods

1994 original CD release

House in the Woods

2020 CD remaster

House in the Woods

Crawling Back to You

1994 original CD release

Crawling Back to You

2020 CD remaster

Crawling Back to You

Wake Up Time

1994 original CD release

Wake Up Time

2020 CD remaster

Wake Up Time
And the winner is: 2020 remaster. We have here a rare example of a modern remaster actually being punchier and more dynamic than an original release. The remaster very clearly wins in this comparison, with the high hat and snare in particular sounding more vibrant and alive on the newer release as compared to the old one. It isn't often that a present day remaster is actually superior to the original release, which gives me some hope that - for albums recorded and mixed prior to the late 1990s, at least - cooler heads may finally begin to prevail a bit more when it comes to levels. Things don't have to be mastered so freaking hot.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers concert ticket, September 16, 1999