Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I don't know why the previous posters are impressed with this re-master. Sticky Fingers is my personal favorite Stones album, and if you don't have it, get it, but I recommend you seek out the 1994 re-master on Virgin Records. This re-master distributed by UMD has compressed the top end, probably to hide tape hiss, and boosted the instruments up louder to near distortion levels. On headphones certain higher pitched sounds like the piano on Moonlight Mile are eardrum piercing, and the organ solo on I Got the Blues is particularly horrid sounding on headphones or open speakers. On open speakers, the overall poor quality is even more apparent. While certain sounds, particularly opening guitar riffs, stand out more than before, once the entire band kicks in, the compression leads to a dull thuddy sound, particularly in the drums. The one song that overall sounds better than before is ironically my least favorite - Sister Morphine. It now has a menacing quality that has been missing from previous CD masters, but it opens with a clumsy fade-in on the guitar, again probably to mask tape hiss. Perhaps the most disappointing part of this re-master is that one of my favorite moments in this album - the sudden surprising swell of strings near the end of Sway - is completely buried now. Some have complained about a high end "harshness" to the Virgin re-masters but to me those are more open and crisp. If that's your taste, that's what you want. If you prefer a more bassy limited sound, you might prefer the new re-masters. As for me I will stick with what I have and not purchase any more UMD re-masters.