The Stooges – Fun House

This pressing is a bit lifeless if I'm to be honest. There is a lot of bass which is good, but the rest of it sounds a bit buried. For such high energy music, I felt the mix was left wanting. It's not terrible by any means, it just doesn't make me wanna get up and shake. I much prefer Highlights From The Fun House Sessions, released by Run Out Groove a few years ago.

My version of this release doesn't have a barcode on the back cover was that only on the shrink all the runout numbers match ?

This is a classic, I haven't compared it to others but I agree with some reviews this is a bit bassy and I think the guitar is a bit buried in the mix at times, but not a deal breaker and it still kicks butt.

This pressing sounds great, happy to have it in my collection.

After thoroughly comparing this Rhino issue (confirmed with the RM in the dead wax) and the Sundazed it's clear to me that they are both mixed bags.

To start, the packaging on both is weird. On the Sundazed, their logo is plastered where most mentions of Elektra should be, although understandable it's rather annoying from a reissue standpoint. The Rhino gets that element right, the labels especially look great. However the Rhino has a "remastered" cover with a clearer image, and although it's really cool to see, isn't what the cover was intended to look like. Not a down-side, just a different take.

The pressing quality is clear to see where the Rhino benefits, Sundazed's QC was never great, but to be quite fair the noise didn't impact the experience no matter the track for me. It's Fun House. It's loud and big and if anything the noise could be a part of the music. The Rhino though still wins in this regard as it's significantly quieter overall than the Sundazed was.

The mastering is where this gets tough, cause I read some people say these are very close, or one is just more like an OG press. To me these are both mixed bags in the mastering department. For the pros: The Rhino's bass is SO good, powerful, not boomy on my system, fantastic overall. It's also super raw sounding, almost dirty and dark. That takes me to the cons, cause the rough nature of the Rhino gets in the way of my personal enjoyment compared to the Sundazed which to my ears is fuller and clearer. I wish the Sundazed had the bass and raw sound, cause that would make it perfect to me. How both are on their own is just not great. Even after pursuing this pressing, after finding the Sundazed too polished, it's lackluster and messy.

Which one's better? It's Fun House, it doesn't matter, it's always gonna be great. Personally though I think I'm going to listen to the Sundazed more, for the clarity of the instruments and the vocals. To those that love this pressing, I genuinely hope I understand where you're coming from the more that I listen to it.

This pressing is not good. Bass is upfront and boomy. Highly rec to get another pressing, I have multiple different pressings and this one is the worst of the bunch.

A year ago somebody ed a gold/black sticker with "180 gram" for this release. Mine was bought in about 2010/2011 and did not have this sticker, only the big Rhino "cut from mater tapes" sticker.

Seeing comments about this becoming available again in 2021 but cut by another technician I believe this could be another release altogether. Are there any other differences for those that bought a recent copy? Are the matrix the same?

This sumbitch ROCKS!!! As in rocks your teeth out rockin'. Too much bass? Bite your tongue, infidel. If you can't rock-out to this album, try Zamfir...

August 2021: This was OOP for some time, and now seems to be around again.
Can anybody confrim that the new copies that seem to be widely available are indeed the same Ron McMaster cut?

Opened mine at long last, oh god no its a Rainbo product..... initiallly dirt marked and hairlined with some weird patterns and patches within the vinyl... this aint no QRP!! BUT the mastering is fulsomely good enough even if this aint ever gonna be some hi fidelity record (and all the better for it too!) so after a double deep clean in the Degritter the pressing plays well enough for a Rainbo... if it was a hifi record maybe the slight noise would matter but here it bothers me not a jot. At least Rainbo is gone forever thank god never to burden is poor suckers again. Saying that, it IS with the faintest of praise to say this is the best ive seen from Rainbo as yet... my Digable Planets reissues from them are straight up bin jobs upon 1st sight whereas this is at least very very playable. I wouldnt be confident all these are as clean as mine knowing Rainbo.