Don McLean - American Pie (MFSL 728) [Repost]

Posted By : blinking_spot | Date : 16 Mar 2009 13:36:00 | Comments : 11 |

Amazon
All Music Guide

“

Don McLean's second album, American Pie, which was his first to gain recognition after the negligible initial sales of 1970's Tapestry, is necessarily dominated by its title track, a lengthy, allegorical history of rock & roll, because it became an unlikely hit, topping the singles chart and putting the LP at number one as well. "American Pie" has remained as much a cultural touchstone as a song, sung by everyone from Garth Brooks to Madonna, its title borrowed for a pair of smutty teen comedies, while the record itself has earned a registered three-million plays on U.S. radio stations. There may not be much more to note about it, then, except perhaps that even without a crib sheet to identify who's who, the song can still be enjoyed for its engaging melody and singable chorus, which may have more to do with its success than anything else. Of course, the album also included "Vincent," McLean's paean to Van Gogh, which has been played two-million times. Nothing else on the album is as effective as the hits, but the other eight original songs range from sensitive fare like "Till Tomorrow" to the sarcastic, uptempo "Everybody Loves Me, Baby." American Pie — the album — is very much a record of its time; it is imbued with the vague depression of the early '70s that infected the population and found expression in the works of singer/songwriters. "American Pie" — the song — is really a criticism of what happened in popular music in the '60s, and "Vincent" sympathizes with Van Gogh's suicide as a sane comment on an insane world. "Crossroads" and "Empty Chairs" are personal reflections full of regret and despondency, with the love song "Winterwood" providing the only respite. In the album's second half, the songs get more portentous, tracing society's ills into war and spiritual troubles in "The Grave" and "Sister Fatima." The songs are made all the more poignant by the stately folk-pop arrangements and McLean's clear, direct tenor. It was that voice, equally effective on remakes of pop oldies, that was his salvation when he proved unable to match the songwriting standard set on Tapestry and this collection. But then, the album has an overall elegiac quality that makes it sound like a final statement. After all, if the music has died, what else is there to say?

-- William Ruhlmann, AllMusic.com

”

Tracks
1. American Pie
2. Till Tomorrow
3. Vincent (Starry Starry Night)
4. Crossroads
5. Winterwood
6. Empty Chairs
7. Everybody Loves Me, Baby
8. Sister Fatima
9. Grave
10. Babylon

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Posted By: 4-F Date: 17 Mar 2009 06:39:04

I didn't have a lossless copy of this album. Sad but true. lol
Thanks!

Posted By: reayx5 Date: 18 Mar 2009 05:17:53

Thank you for this version.

Chris

Posted By: Yotte301 Date: 18 Mar 2009 10:37:19

Thanks! Like those in the previous comments, I'm glad to have this lossless version.

Posted By: Spanky2 Date: 18 Mar 2009 10:44:39

Thanks a lot!

Posted By: dinyar Date: 18 Mar 2009 15:30:15

I had this album, but not an an Audiophile version.

Thanks ! A classic. Need I say more ? :-) :-)

Posted By: b_waxson Date: 19 Mar 2009 14:54:14

This sounds like someone has converted mp3 tracks back to lossless. I have the 2003 Capitol CD of American Pie and have been trying to get the MFSL version for some time now. The Capitol CD sounds perfectly fine, but it's always nice to get something better. The tracks that are posted here sound AWFUL compared to the CD, but it's the WAY that they sound awful that I find troubling. At the beginning of American Pie, when it's just Don and the piano, simply listen to 'S' sounds in words like 'that I could make thoSe people danCe". On the CD these sound clear as a bell, clean and bright. On this download they are incredibly muddy and distorted. Also, when listening with headphones to this same section one can hear lots of fluctuations in background noise level, which is not present on the Capitol release. To my ears these all sound like familiar mp3 compression artifacts.

I don't know if the poster really did rip this CD or if they were trying to be nice and post something they obtained from somewhere else, but seriously, I'd much rather listen to the Capitol release than this one. I can't believe that MFSL would screw up this badly, and it doesn't sound like that is the case.

Posted By: blinking_spot Date: 19 Mar 2009 16:04:48

@b_waxson - unfortunately i didn't rip it myself. I hear no difference, but i'm kind of deaf :)
If you are able to confirm that fact, please tell me so I can "nuke" this post.
Thanks for pointing out.

Posted By: b_waxson Date: 19 Mar 2009 21:29:21

I have no way on confirming if my hunch is correct other than by using my ears. I know there was a torrent of the MFSL American Pie that was around a few months ago (which I also downloaded) and it had the same problems. I'm guessing that is was the same source as what was uploaded here.

If anyone has this actual CD and can rip it, I'd love to get a copy of it!

- Bob

Posted By: jorsi Date: 24 Mar 2009 21:55:17

Hello, I open 01. American Pie.flac, in Audition, and look at the spectral display, is low.
In my opinion, this was taken from a lower bitrate encoding and elevated to looseless, test if you like, open a CD rip in Audition, and take a look at it's spectral display, encode it to .acc low bitrate and it will look like the one in this album. The sound is also kind of dull.

Thanks for the posting, but I'll wait to see if someone post the real one.

Posted By: palaeo7 Date: 19 Nov 2009 03:17:46

I must agree with waxson here -- the sibilance (the 'ss' distortion when 'Sstarry, Sstarry Night' is sung) is awful -- I inspected the WAV files in EAC's WAV processor and was also suprised to see the levels hitting 100% -- a hot, peak-limited remaster that MFSL never engages in on original master recordings. Not only might this have been compressed and re-encoded to lossless, but I'm fairly sure it wasn't MFSL to begin with.

I have just downloaded 'Vincent' from here (http://www.sinlesslinks.com/Music/don-mclean-american-pie-audiophile-mfsl-udcd-728-19711998/) and it's the same. Will DL the Capitol remaster and see...

Posted By: tbmusic Date: 27 Mar 2011 09:44:27

many thanks

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