Music: Swervedriver remasters

I love Swervedriver, and when I saw that they were reissuing their albums as remasters, I jumped on that, more out of a show of support for the band (and really, really wanting them to turn out new material -- hint, hint?) -- not because I needed the albums (which I already have), or even the additional tracks (there are four on each of the albums I bought -- "Raise" and "Mezcal Head" -- which have some of their best tracks). But I was secretly hoping that the remasters would really make the albums even better than they had been in the past (as was the case with the remastered "The Who Sell Out," the Small Faces's "Ogden's Nut Gone Flake" mono remaster, and the New York Dolls's remastered debut album [which is the best remaster I've yet encountered -- it's fantastic if you run across it -- like a whole new album]).

Anyway, I was disappointed that the Swervie remasters don't sound different from the original albums -- they may indeed be remasters, but if so, the producers did so with a very, very light hand, as I can't honestly discern anything new. I tend to listen to my music with headphones, so any changes are immediately apparent (again, in the case of the three excellent remasters above, it's very, very clear that they were improved), and I just didn't pick those up on these.

But I would still recommend them if you've never heard Swervedriver before (I would also recommend "Ejector Seat Reservation," which is one of the best albums of the 90s, not that anybody would know it). If you have the older Swervie albums, there's not much reason to get these remasters, unless you just want to support the band in some way, shape, or form (or, for some reason, don't have the bonus tracks).