Almost unbelievably, The Other Side of Life celebrates its 30th anniversary.  To “celebrate” there is a vinyl release from Friday Music.  I would call it “ok.”  It’s nice to have a clean stamping on a heavy piece of vinyl, but it doesn’t sound any better than the 1986 vinyl if you find one that’s in tip-top shape, so no special remastering.  I find it strange that TOSOL, which did so much to bring attention and revival to the band, never got an upgrade at the 25th anniversary or now.  It should be ripe for it – it was the band’s first DDD release on CD, meaning it was recorded digitally.

I would have expected it would get an SACD or similar release given the import it has in the band’s portfolio.  The Core 7 got the SACD treatment, though one could argue that SACD is out of fasion.   Still, in the Mobile Fidelity days, everything up through Long Distance Voyager saw the gold disc and remaster treatment, but not TOSOL.

We do have the too-expensive box set, The Polydor Years which is almost an update if you imagine TOSOL along with the live concert CD from the accompanying tour, but it’s not truly an update to TOSOL.

So, not one to raise problems without offering solutions – how about a high resolution download?  I would love a high bitrate download of a FLAC or similar file.  This is often the high-end solution these days in place of physical media, and it should be relatively cheap and quick to produce.  And surely there’s an unreleased track or two kicking around, yes?  And if I really had my wish, it’d come with that original painting with the child that was nixed by the band!