The Velvet Forum

Just did a quick lunchtime trawl through the racks of the local record shops, and no trace of our Gold friend. One of the shop assistants -- shout to Stijn of Bullit -- told me that to his knowledge the album is only available on US import so far, but then again Dutch and Belgian online stores BOL and Proxis say they'll ship within the week, suggesting a domestic release.

As soon as I hear something, I'll let you know. Meanwhile, here's a Pitchfork review to keep you tied over. Nothing much by way of useful info, but still it's yet another mention of our fave band, and the record is rated 9.3 out of 10.

A two disc set... and only two alternate mixes as a bone for the hard-core fans. It seems that the record companies' brilliant strategy for battling music piracy is to stick it to the consumer even MORE.

Personally, I'll wait (and hope) that "Gold" shows up on iTunes, so I can purchase the two "new" songs for $1.98.

They're up on itunes and they both say original mix. Stephanie says sounds a little different, I think the backing vocals are better defined, but as far as I can tell Temptation is still the same.

OK. The two new mixes are worth the download .

Listening to the original mixes, I'm now able to understand why people have been complaining about the digital reverb added to the tracks on "V.U." -- very obvious on Moe's drums, and very un-Velvet-like. Boy, would I like to hear clean mixes of the rest of the "lost album" material!

Anyway, besides the lack of reverb on both tracks, the backing vocals are much louder - particularly effective on "Stephanie Says." In the stereo remix, the backing vocals (and some of Lou's answer comments) are mixed to one side - on the "Gold" mix, everything's dead center. Overall, an improvement in sound quality, and a BIG improvement in the mix.