Opinion: Finding A Misplaced Album

This is not about trying to hunt down an album that I don't have. It is a different situation. My fellow record collectors and vinyl junkies, understand my pain for a moment.

Last night I was searching around online and one thing lead to another, and I wanted to hear an album again. I know I have a copy because I bought it and listened to it a few minutes ago. It's a jazz album. My jazz section is alphabetized by label, which unfortunately I have not undone yet because I'm a lazy ass.

To make a long story short, I've been in my record room for the last two hours and I still can't find it. I honestly don't know where it is. Did I let it slip inbetween some hip-hop? Is it in the Hawaiian section? Is it in my "crap" crates? My box of assorted albums that I haven't bothered filing? No, no, no, and no.

Now, I can go to eBay or GEMM and do a search, buy what I want. That's the ease of record collecting these days, I don't have to travel for the hunt. But is that the hunt?

That's not the point of this post. The point is... well I really don't have a point. I have no idea where my album is. I'm sure if I buy the album again (and I probably will), I will find it when I'm not looking.

Yes' "Fragile" gets the audiophile treatment not once, but TWICE!!!

Thrift and used record store junkies, we have all seen Yes' Fragile album many times over, and I'm sure we've bought a copy many times over. Countless LP variations, maybe on 8-track, cassette, or in this digital age we even sprung for the DVD-Audio with surround sound and high resolution mixes. Atlantic also briefly came out with a version in their short-lived 24-karat gold CD series

Now it's about to get another audiophile treatment, and in what may be a first, it is being remastered in two different ways by two different record labels.

Respected audio mastering engineer Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray have done a remaster for the version that will be released on vinyl only on the Analogue Productions label (which you can pre-order right now through the Acoustic Sounds website). This will definitely be a treat for not only Yes fans, but for those who have enjoyed the remasterings Hoffman has done in the last 20 years.

But that's not the only version coming out.

Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab are also coming out with their remastered version on the label's trademark 24K gold CD series. For those without turntables, you will want to hear what may become one of the definitive versions of this album. (You can pre-order your copy now by clicking to the MFSL website.

Hoffman is known for the CD's he mastered for the now-defunct DCC label, and there are only a few instances when DCC and MFSL released their own versions of the same album. In this case, it is the first time two versions of the same album are being released at the same time. Audiophile and music junkies are going crazy over this right now, wondering which one to buy and knowing that in the end they will buy both.

Let's hope Close To The Edge is next.