Traffic

This review is specifically for the 2001 REMASTER. It's rare to hear something so well done in terms of remastering. The music speaks for itself, but have you ever loved an album so much only to hear it destroyed by poor re-engineering? ( Such as the Zephyr remasters)THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE.So often, the recordings of particularly British bands had "mushy" percussion ( think Ginger Baker on Disraeli Gears): The drums on this recording are crisppppp!!!! and the cymbals 'shimmer' they way they're supposed to do.Don't hesitate but definitely DO seek out the '01 remaster.

This is one of the all time great classic albums from the Sixties. Traffic was so innovative, as much jazz as rock, it had the complexity to last. I remember this being played in the art room in my high school when it first came out. (Pretty amazing - music wasn't allowed in classrooms at that time.) The other fave in the art room was Joe Cocker's With a Little Help From My Friends. I had a great art teacher! He introduced us all to the very best of what is now classic rock early on, so we could squeeze every last drop of enjoyment out of it!Alas, back in those days audio wasn't what it is now. My original issue CD was SO muddy sounding. When this remaster was released, I jumped on it as fast as I could, which wasn't as fast as I would have liked when you consider how many classic CDs I needed to replace. With very FEW exceptions, the remasters are well worth the expense, and this is NOT one of those exceptions.

My third time to purchase this recording (vinyl, 1st CD issue, Island Remaster). This is the on ramp to Traffic. Solid, satisfying, and smooth as a classic Scotch.Steve Winwood and Dave Mason launched their solo careers with these recordings as their calling cards. Capaldi and Wood should have had longer lives and more visible careers. This CD collection proves that.

I bought this LP, along with Ogden's Nut Gone by Small Faces and Shine On Brightly by Procol Harum on a bright fall day in 1968 and have never had a better music purchase day. This is Traffic's follow-up to Mr Fantasy and it finds them hitting their groove, just in time to split up. Aw, well. This one is totally brilliant and you can hear its influence in many, many rock bands tunes ever since. The Traffic sound is here in all its splendor with the vocals of Winwood and Mason, the unique drumming of Capaldi, the atmospherics of Wood, Mason and Winwood's instrumentation. Every song is great: "All Killer - No Filler" and the best ones are ridiculous: "Feelin' Alright", "40,000 Head Men", "Pearly Queen". You can put this one up and just let it play for hours and its just gets better to you. 1968 in miniature.

This CD was remastered to reproduce such a fantastic sound of Traffic. I played on my Stereo which has a digital optical CD connection. The sound is truly at the next level. I didn't have the LP version, but I am very familiar with Traffic (Steve Winwood , Dave Mason). If you enjoy the Traffic Sound, this CD is a complete No-Brainer to buy. I will look into more CDs from this company : Island Remasters . It is a Winner. !!!

This is truly one one the great albums of the psychedelic era of Rock and Roll. Traffic was a legendary band that had many truly great songs which were often released in later years with average or just above average music so you had to listen to the average at times to hear the brilliant songs tucked in there. Not so this release. Like their album release, "Heaven is in Your Mind," the "Traffic" album is truly brilliant with lush sounds that remind one of the far East and psychedelic lyrics. These sounds were part of the psychedelic era when the Beatles were also experimenting with those Eastern sounds. The vocals on this album are so original and striking that you can't confuse their work with anyone else's work. Dave Mason and Steve Winwood in this era truly produced some of the finest rock music of all time, their songs being re-released later by other bands and becoming big hits all over again.

The most irritating aspect of remasters is when some fledgling archival A&R man (person), in this case Tim Chacksfield, (re-issue project co-ordinator) comes along and tinkers with the actual chronological order of these great musical offerings. Having recently purchased the first three Traffic albums/CD's (Dear Mr. Fantasy/ Traffic/ John Barleycorn ...) in the remastered state, I found that a lot of love and care had been put into the remastering of and repackaging of Traffics best music (minus of course The Low Spark...)but why must music from one project always be included out of context into that of another. Case in point are 'Here we go around the Mulberry Bush' and 'Am I what I was or am I what I am' which did not come from the end of the first phase of this band but from the very beginning of Traffic where S. Winwood was just leaving the 'Spencer Davis Group' and of course sacrifices two realitively great songs one by D. Mason and the other by S. Winwood which are "Just for you" and "Something's got a hold of my toe" respectively which will now end up as the 'great lost' Traffic songs. The aforementioned songs (Here we go...) would have been best served by being included within the context of the first Traffic album where they really came. To have a fraction of "The Last Exit" offered this way is a real disservice to Traffic, but then I guess I really can't see the reissue of 'The Last Exit' as an album in its own right since it was just a collection of B-side singles and snippets left over from a band that had just finished. Still the studio tracks were/are worth hearing. All and all an inspiring task undertaken but not a great undertaking (as compared to the job done on Dear Mr. and John Barleycorn...)still nice to hear a cleaned up version of 'Medicated goo' which was a b-side to 'Feelin alright' which is an all time classic from D. Mason. Fantastic reproduction of the original album covers, one gets a good sense of why the American audience was always confused as to why there were four members to Traffic and not just the three as advertised by UA records here in America. This is truly a missed band.

Bought this to remind me of the sixties. Only a few tracks i like but traffic was a good band in the sixties

Always think of Mr.Fantasy and forget what a good album this is.Listen to it again and appreciate how good this line up was

Nothing to dislike. Pure nostalgia

I liked the thought of placing my order and the C.D is at your door being delivered

Good first album