Smart

For anyone thinking of buying this album and worried about what it sounds like because its remastered, fair play to you.The truth is, it isn't terrible, but its not much better than the original. The sound might be clearer but the amount of recordings has been narrowed down, so the songs sound less spacious, which you may notice if listening on headphones.I do think it could of been remastered better with a more louder spacious sound and more detailed taken, it sounds a bit rushed.Anyway - the b sides on this are great with some good extra live songs.And the B Sides on the second album re-release are great too.And I imagine that is why your purchasing it anyway, that is why I did - and its well worth having.But if you preferred the original sound of the original album and you own those cds, I would say keep them.Each cd has a write up about memories of the band from a radio announcer.This review has been crisp clear and to the point I feel.

If you're reading this review you will already know the main album contained here. I liked the album then and had it on vinyl so, on seeing this release I thought to myself "look at all those extra tracks!" and bought this! Well the album is still how I remember it but this is another Cherry Red "Let's max the volume on the CD so much that we leave no dynamics left!" I still keep buying these Cherry Red re-masters but have to say that there are only a few that are any good. The extra tracks are OK (Still mastered too loud) so I didn't waste the money on this 2 cd set but this release could and should have sounded good too!Note to Cherry Red: I think we all have volume control on whatever system that any individual will be playing this CD on. If I turn up the volume on a well mastered CD I keep the original dynamic range of the CD AND get loud music! Why do you insist on compressing the hell out of the master to make it ear bleedingly loud before you press the CD? That dynamic range is lost forever ;-(

Good song writing. Catchy tunes. Clear and distinctive, lead vocal.Some more complex, and driving to a climax. Others are a bit more breezy, and evocative of later Sleeper material.

Never mind Britpop, Smart was one of the best Indie-Rock albums of 1995 and it still sounds great today. The current Expanded Edition includes the first six singles and although they are generally not up to the standard of Smart, there is still the odd gem. Unfortunately Smart was something of an artistic highpoint for Sleeper and subsequent releases were disappointing.

Was listening to Sleeper's b-sides on grooveshark until they got shut down. I wish they included the "Alice in Vain" single version though.