Vinyl transfer & Restoration by Prof. Stoned
This is the true mix, the way this album was supposed to be heard. Even though it has never been released on CD and has not been reissued on vinyl after its initial release in 1967 either. Apparently it was vetoed from the 1998 remaster, as the remaster of the first album did have both the stereo and mono mixes (but then again, it is known that the band passionately hated the stereo version, which was mixed in one day by their managers who were NOT producers ).
'Again' was created when the band had effectively fallen apart already. Shortly before recording started Neil Young had left the band to go solo. In the period that followed he collaborated with Phil Spector's long-time musical arranger Jack Nitsche to record 'Expecting to fly', an unequalled masterpiece that took weeks to record. The rest of the band had gone on to record their own material, but near the completion of the record they asked Young to rejoin which happened. Young contributed with an other solo effort (Broken arrow) and Mr. Soul which had already been recorded before he left the band. Detailed info about the recording dates can be found here: http://www.chromeoxide.com/buffalo.htm
The result was a schizophrenic but brilliant record. Young's three songs are the centrepieces w/ ETF being the highlight of the whole record. But it is easy to overlook Stephen Stills' brilliance. His songs here easily rank among his best ever, listen to 'Bluebird for example. Richie Furay's three songs are lightweight compared to those of the two giants, but they mix nicely within the wild range of styles that keep you on your toes for 34 minutes.
There are subtle differences between the mono and the stereo mix. Most importantly, the mono mix has a more cohesive sound. The stereo mix has a typical separation with the percussion hard left / vocals centre and other instruments hard right, and it sounds a lot weaker because of that (with the exception of one or two tracks).
The LP copy used here visually grades VG+ but plays quite a bit better than what you might expect. The audio sounds clean and defined, except in Tr. 05 & 10 where a bit of groove distortion occurs occasionally during some of the louder parts.
Although it mainly depends if the record was played only with a lightweight stylus, which is hardly ever the case with 60's pop records. Luckily, this was pressed by one of Columbia's pressing plant's which has done a lot for the durability of the audio quality. Very much unlike later 60's Atco pressings which were pressed elsewhere and often sound very noisy and distorted.