Joni Mitchell Blue - Wow help me Agoners

The entire Joni catalogue has been remastered in HDCD. These can almost always be found in the discount bin of your local record store. I bought "For the Roses" since I could NEVER find a decent pressing on vinyl. Engineered by Joe Gastwirt at Ocean View Digital the sound is very good. FWIW, here is my top four Joni list in rank order best to less:

Blue
Court and Spark
For the Roses
Ladies of the Canyon
Hissing
Hejira

I'm not a fan of anything after Hejira.

I received, cleaned and played my new copy of "Blue" and must say I was a little disappointed. This is the first time Steve Hoffman reissued an LP that I was not blown away with.

My copy sounded almost digital on the high frequencies, a bit ragged. Maybe there were some pieces that didn't get pressed right?

My original USA first pressing has more life in the vocals and more warmth in Joni's voice and the strings on the guitar don't sound as steely as the repress.

Who knows, perhaps the new issue is correct and I am just accustomed to the old version. Tonight with 8 people we played both albums several times and the original won by a slight margin.

Would love to read comments by others.

hoffman is phoning them in. the original blue, as well as yes-fragile are way better.

For those who may not have seen Steve Hoffman's comments on how he mastered this LP and why it will sound different than an original pressing, you can read is remarks here:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=103068

My system is down for my move, so I can't offer any opinion on the results.
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Thanks Rushton, very interesting. I have to say, on my system this isn't even close. The new Rhino pressing is so much better in every dimension. Who knows, maybe my original Reprise issue really stinks for some reason.