Although I do feel guilty for temporarily cheating on George and Andy by purchasing the "Baby It's Me" and "Ross 78" SHM Japan reissues I decided to give them a whirl because Universal Japan did such a nice job with the Olivia Newton John album box. [[I promise to buy 3 copies each of the Hip-O Select versions next year as pennance). From a packaging standpoint it copies the ONJ's with the faithful replication of the LP jackets, simple silver SHM disc itself, lyric booklet in Japanese and English, and in the case of Baby It's Me the original inner sleeve insert. They were mastered by Shingeki Fujino and have a nice clean sound. I will listen more intently and A/B them vs. the original US pressing tonight. The lyric book has typical flaws in the translation to English. My fave being the "Hello there, FOOD old friend of mine" from Come In From The Rain. Perhaps the translator thought Diana was singing to the cake from Mac Arthur Park. LOL While I highly reccomend/insist on waiting for the Deluxe versions since they will cost the same money [[possibly less) and have tons more content [[and the remastering touch of Kevin Reeves)these are a pleasant stop-gap until the real thing arrives in 2013.
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