First of all, I'm wondering how people feel about this. With Lost Dogs we got to hear Riot Act Ed, more or less, singing on Ten tracks, Yield tracks, Binaural tracks, etc. He really improved Drifting (the original vocals on the Fan Club version are disgusting), but I guess the two that stick out the most are Alone and Hold On. When else has he laid down new vocals for old songs? Did he do it on the 2009 version of Brother or was that just an alternate take from the Ten sessions?

At best this policy is hit and miss. I understand that Ed may not like earlier vocal takes, but fans want a certain historical accuracy in the songs. It's less apparent on more recent songs and obvious on Brother, Hold On, Alone, Wash. For the record, the new vocal take on Wash (and the new Wash version in general) is leagues ahead of the original. Hold On should not have changed as far as I'm concerned, but, and this is a key point...new vocal takes have not yet destroyed a song. It came close on the new Brother, but it hasn't happened yet. As long as a fairly decent original version exists that I can get my hands on I'm happy for him to do it. However I'm still one of the people that want historical accuracy in these matters and feels a little uneasy, if only a little.

Edit: the only songs that really show significant change are Ten songs...for the others Ed could at the time of Lost Dogs, under studio conditions, bring his A-game and sound as good as, if not better than the original.

Also I believe Education was re-done, but only to get rid of a bit where his voice cracks. Other than that you can't tell.

I thought Brother on the Ten reissue was an alternate take from '91? Certainly has different lyrics to the previously circulating version, I might give it another listen.

I'm totally against Ed re-recording vocals unless absolutely necessary. I can't think of any situations where it has been, to be honest.

Hold On was embarrassing on the original version. Despite some people's opinions based purely on taste - that was not a releasable vocal take.

Pretty sure any different versions of Wash and Brother you're referring to don't have rerecorded takes, but rather alternate takes from the same original sessions. I think that's the case with Brother, regarding Wash, I always thought the only difference between the Ten/Lost Dogs version was a remix?

Drifting

Well, obviously I haven't read any official releases from the band or anything, but listen to the line "hand over my face" on both the Ten version and Redux version of Brother, imo Ten eddie and modern eddie. You're probably right regarding Wash, though.

I guess I'm not a fan then... but I actually don't give a shit when stuff gets recorded / re-recorded / rewritten or whatever they're doing with it. I'm just in it for the tunes and what they stir up when I listen to them.

lol, fixed. I'm not too concerned, as long as there is an original I can have aswell. If the new take ads anything, or improves on the original, then why not? Education was remixed also, or at least an alternate version was used, and it improved on the original.

I haven't listened to the old Hold On in quite some time but from what i remember it was real rough around the edges. I would agree that's one that definitely needed the new vocal take.

U (You) is another one that was quite a bit different on Lost Dogs than the original B-side release.

There's nothing wrong with the original Hold On vocal take at all, I'd prefer historical accuracy than revisionism.

It has nothing to do with historical accuracy. It was never released and probably never considered complete/releasable before.
This is like saying 10's historical accuracy is questionable because they didn't use the earlier demos or "rough mixes".

Taking all the fun crazy noises out of Dirty Frank on LD bothered me a lot more than Ed rerecording vocals.

this

I'm with you here. I don't necessarily care if they re-record vocals or do remixes, but it does bother me when whatever they choose to do makes a song worse. Dirty Frank is the only song where I am sure this is true. The LD version is really sad compared with the originally released B side. There are others where I'm not sure. I know I prefer the B side of Alone to the LD version but that could just be that I'm so much more familiar to the B side version that the LD always feels wrong to me.

I'm not a big fan of him rerecording the vocals for the songs. Doesn't seem to fit the motif of "Lost Dogs" if they are being re-recorded. I can understand remixing them if the audio was poorly recorded, but recreating the songs isn't as interesting to me.

Its neat to hear what the band sounded like back then. Besides, I wouldn't say the newer Hold On vocals are better than the originals.

Totally agree, the LD version seems really flat to me. The B side is so much better, especially Ed's take on it.

The LD version leaves out the best part too!

I can help myself don't talk to me.
I can help myself don't talk to me.
I can help myself. Myself.

Another good example of what bothered me about LD.

Well, there's a few different versions that we have. The one from the rough mixes of Binaural has different bridge lyrics, but sounds quite similar to the Lost Dogs version. Also, this version has really spacey guitar effects that I don't think the Lost Dogs version has.

I'm questioning a revelation
Dissolving words in the snow
Simple, the truth it becomes you
I'm a seed wondering when it grows

(I'm not sure if that dissolving line is right, but it's frozen, or these are, or dissolving or something.)

And then we have that really simple and barren version from Rarities/Unreleased Cuts. Hmmm. We have the same situation with Sad though too. Three different versions from those respective sources. I think Ed might have touched Sad up too, just because his vocals from the Riot Act era are pretty distinguishable.

While we're on this fun topic, when was Untitled (I'm Still Here) recorded?