Raw Power! Whether Bowie's or Iggy's mix, this album deserves 5 stars and a place on any shelf that contains punk, rock, punk-rock, proto-punk, classic rock or any other kind of rock.

UNFORTUNATELY the "remastered" album in front of you is borderline unlistenable due to The Idiot and the incompetence of the mastering engineer. Judging by the liner notes, Iggy does not know the difference between analog distortion and digital clipping and treated the remaster as if on an analog medium, which is a huge %$&^ing shame given the greatness of the album.

Using analog distortion creatively is an art form, while clipping in the digital realm results in a total loss of acoustic information. If you record analog distortion onto a digital medium and master it correctly, it sounds pretty much identical to the original, but alas instead of pre-mastering 'in the red' on an analog console, some fool let Iggy into the digital mastering toolkit where 'in the red' means something a bit different. It means no dynamic range and heavily clipped peaks (in fact, almost no peaks at all, everything is uniformly loud), which defeats the purpose of using a compact disc entirely.

This album clips more than any album I have had the displeasure of hearing, which distorts several songs (Death Trip, Search& Destroy) into near inaudibility. It is Loud, but white noise or britney mastered to 99dB is also loud. Again, this is due entirely to the inept mastering.

While one cannot help but love Iggy's aggressive impulses, one imagines that he should have been left to master an analog record re-issue and the CD mastering should have been done by someone not under his influence.

There is a reason the volume knob exists, and that reason is so you can TURN IT UP. Sadly, turning it up is almost pointless here.

BUY THIS ALBUM.

But, buy a used copy of the record and record it onto disc, seriously.

Your only other recourse is to record this remastering onto a computer, put it through a software audio editing suite and run a declipping algorithm on it. While it's not a real solution since the information that is clipped is forever lost to you, it does make the album sound much better. A better sounding album sells more copies and will be listened to more often. It's also less likely to wind up in the bargain bin due to terrible mastering.

Try it again Columbia, and give us both mixes while you're at it!

If only the rhino people could get ahold of the tapes like with the first two Stooges albums.

As someone who clung to the original album of Raw Power like a life preserver at one point in my life, I was pleased to see that someone finally took it upon themselves to upgrade the album's sound. But: there are some changes on this album. Most of which I really like: the "1-2-3-4" count into "Shake Appeal"; the new "hey!"s on "Search and Destroy"; the extended ending of "Death Trip". However, the guitar solo on "Raw Power" is NOT the solo that appeared on the original album. Having spent more hours than I care to admit playing that spiraling-out-of-control James Williamson explosion over and over again, I was more than a little dismayed to hear a similar but still different solo on the song I loved so much. And the guitar solo at the end of "Search and Destroy" is mixed way down from the original release. Not like it matters - this is the way Raw Power will be forevermore, and that's alright. The sound is substantially better, especially in the lower frequencies, and the Iggy Pop interview in the liner notes is funny and informative. So: a slight letdown in some ways, but still snarling and alive and revelatory in ways that Limp Biskit won't ever be. Get it now.

DISC 1

The first disc features the long out-of-print Bowie mix of the album and it never sounded better; certainly, this re-mastering is a vast improvement over the previous CD version, being far clearer and with a better lower-end response than before. Of course, it could never reach the bass intensity of the more readily up until now available Iggy Pop remix from 1997, but this version was way overdue for a face lift and it has finally come to pass.

Which version (Bowie or Pop) is better? The answer to that question will always lie with the beholder. To my mind, both versions are indispensable and now they are both available (if purchased separately) in the best sound possible to date. Sony really dropped the ball on this however. Raw Power clocks in at 34 minutes and only the Bowie version is provided here making for a first CD that is only a little bit over a half hour. With all the space necessary and no licensing problems involved, why is the Pop version not featured here for comparison?

DISC 2

No complaints for this one. So very little of the early live Stooges survives. What does is generally from acceptable to point-blank awful in quality and have been issued as bootlegs or semi-legal releases. This new set finally brings a well-recorded live show into the light after all these years of collecting dust in the Sony warehouse. While it is not quite a "soundboard" super-sounding live recording, it is close enough to hear what the original Stooges sounded like back in the day... far better and best available of any 70s live Stooges recording to date (so stop your bitching). It is a most excellent concert, lasting nearly an hour with Iggy Pop in confrontational fine form. On a technical note, there were some problems with James Williamson's guitar that night during the first 10 minutes or so, but they were resolved and his slash-and-burn pyrotechnics never sounded better.

This disc is finished out with two unreleased tracks: Doojiman and Head On. The former is truly an outtake; recorded at the time the rest of Raw Power was and probably omitted because it didn't "flow" with the rest of the album. That said, the acrobatic Iggy Pop vocal work on this track is probably the most extreme and enjoyable of all studio tracks he ever recorded. The latter track is an outtake from one of the famous CBS sessions with Scott Thurston on piano, recorded subsequent to the release of Raw Power. It does not sound like it has been issued before on one of the many bootlegs from this time period. While a little out of place, it rounds out a fine disc.

Highly recommended to all, completists, fans and newcomers.

FYI

For completists, there is yet another CD entitled Rough Power on Bomp Records and featuring very early, pre-Bowie/pre-Pop mixes from early 1972. While the sound quality on this is merely adequate, if you have to have it all, get this too.

Finally I can finally listen to my favorite album the way it is supposed to sound. This new re-issue sounds almost identical to the original 1973 version and nothing like the 1997 version...thank God.

I never understood why everyone (rock critics) where so whiny about the "Bowie Mix". Way to much was made of it's alleged inferiority. If it was so bad then why is this one of the most beloved records of all time? I thought the mix was highly creative and made the band sound sinister, mysterious and electrifying. I really love how this album has a sense of urgency and it continually surprises you. And that's exactly what resurfaces in this newest release. "Raw Power" is a phenomenal record.

The live disk "Georgia Peaches" is easily the best Stooges live album besides "Metallic K.O" but "Georgia Peaches" has much better sound quality. This is the first and only recording you can actually....clearly hear Ron Asheton play bass on. Ron's bass style and attack rivals and sometimes overpowers James Williamson guitar and the result is thrilling. The band sounds really tight and the crowd is engaged making this a stand alone Stooges record and not unnecessary fluff or filler.

And we get a fully mixed outtake "Doojiman" form the original Raw Power. The Stooges had a habit of ending there albums with a free form jam and "Doojiman" is very much like "L.A. Blues" or "We Will Fall", and I wish they would have left it on the original record. Stooges fans will already be familiar with the version of "Head On" as it has appeared on previous compilations.

The "Raw Power" re-issue is well thought out and doesn't disappoint.

You can tell by the cover art and song list that this is not the original "Raw Power" albumn. In fact, all of this has been released before on cds like "Rough Power", "Rubber Legs", and "Head On", ie, alternate versions and demos recorded at the famous "Detroit Rehearsals". For me, the pleasure of finding something like this to collect still outweighs being annoyed at having to buy it, but for you it depends on how much you already have, and how much you want. The music of course is 5 stars, but i gave it 3 as a warning.