Boston mastermind Tom Scholz has revealed his anger over the release of recent album Life, Love & Hope on vinyl – even though he’d refused to approve the master version.
The band mainman, songwriter and producer says he always intended to launch the follow-up to 2002’s Corporate America on LP, but he wanted to make sure it matched his notoriously high standards.
Scholz says: “Time and money went into making analogue mixes of the album so that serious listeners could hear the origin sound, instead of the now-typical sound of vinyl cut from digital mixes.
“As the world has converted to digital even when it’s a bad idea, the facilities available to master an album from analogue tape to vinyl have nearly all gone away. Those that remain are not equipped or maintained like rooms were 20 years ago.
“The end result for Boston was an unacceptable vinyl master that had clicks, static and dropouts during many of the quiet segues between cuts.”
He accepts that the tracks mainly retain “the beautiful sweet natural sound only analogue can produce,” but adds: “The damaged reproduction in the segues ruined the experience for me. There was no way I could allow it to be released as a Boston album.”
Scholz says he was surprised to be notified that the release was taking place. He says: “While I’ve been very happy, and continue to be happy, with our current label, I want Boston fans to know that this vinyl does not meet my standards as producer.”
But he adds: “On the plus side, if you buy one of these beautiful new two-record sets, for the most part it will sound orders of magnitude better than your MP3 version!”
Boston are planning to tour during 2015, although no dates have been confirmed.
