With or Without Them

Deep sigh. There is an escalating trend among record labels of not releasing advance copies of albums. Take, for example (or, technically, three examples), the reissued versions of U2's first three albums -- Boy, October, and War. So you know what you do when you need to review these albums for, say, an August issue of a print magazine that has a May deadline, and the albums are nowhere in sight? You write about your old scratchy vinyl copies of those albums. You say "Wow, I sure love those old, scratchy vinyl albums." You comment on U2's proclivity to remix their old music, sometimes almost to the point of non-recognition (see the remixed Zooropa and Pop tracks on the Best of 1990 - 2000 compilation for examples), and you acknowledge that the new versions of the old albums may sound very little like the old albums in your collection. You say that you don't have the slightest clue what the rarities/outtakes/B-sides sound like. You say you can't review what you can't hear. And you say that print magazines move on, with or without the help of record labels. What else can you do? But you say it in print, just so people know. It sucks.