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The Deluxe Box which will contain the CD, DVD with 96K/24 bit high resolution audio files, the album split over two 180g vinyl LPs and the original 24” x 18” Blue Lines promo poster.

Just saying, but it might have made more sense releasing this last year, what with it being the then 20th anniversary, but rather belatedly or not, Blue Lines will be getting released this 19th November in remastered guise.

It was announced earlier today on Facebook (where else?, maybe MassiveAttack.com might also have been suitable, seeing as it is the official site and all 🙄 ) and has from when I’m making this blog post roughly 12 hours later, already received over 10,000 likes and 500 comments, so it seems the response from the fans has been favourable, or at least its definitely sparked off some discussion which is always a good thing.

I would imagine that if this remastered version of Blue Lines sells well for EMI, it would leave the door open for further similar remastered versions of other Massive Attack albums, which sounds like an exciting prospect now that I think of it assuming of course the remastering job done on Blue Lines is for lack of better word “good” and is it really warranted.

Will I be able to hear new sounds buried in the original mix brought to the fore in the new mix? Will it just be a case of “remastered=louder” as some on Facebook have questioned? Will I want to listen to the new remastered version over the good old trusty original version which has more than sufficed for the last 21 years? Well, I guess its a wait and see until 19th November.

Anyway enough with speculation, here’s the facts from an online press release I found  for the remastered Blue Lines:

The 2012 Remix/Remaster will be available on a single CD format, standard and high resolution digital downloads, and as a Deluxe Box which will contain the CD, DVD with 96K/24 bit high resolution audio files, the album split over two 180g vinyl LPs and the original 24” x 18” Blue Lines promo poster. Both will be packaged in 5” and 12” card mailers, respectively, with the album’s artwork screen-printed per the original release. Blue Lines: 2012 Remix/Remaster is dedicated to the memory of Johnny Dollar.

The back cover of the original vinyl issue of Blue Lines depicting the diagram for building an antique vinyl player. Looks like the new Deluxe Box sleeve will have the same design.

Not to appear ungrateful, but it does appear there will be no bonus material present. I was thinking of outtakes or unused material from the original Blue Lines sessions, probably the most well known being “Just A Matter Of Time”. This would have been a perfect opportunity to release it (well this and when Collected was released over 6 years ago), so I guess at this stage we’re never going to get a chance to hear a clear studio quality version of it. 😡

Just for the Massive Attack collector in me I’m definitely getting this release. Hell, I might even get two copies. One to listen to and the other one to remain shrink wrapped on my shelf alongside all my other Massive Attack vinyls. Here’s hoping even if I was’nt a collector, the remastering job done on this is worth buying.