Material in Progress

[dubman]

at the risk of stemming the intermittent goodness of peeking behind the scenes, i think that for the track itself itself the middle option seems best. best know the final, finished version to get all wrapped up in before you open the vault.

[BeautifulBurnout]

I quite like to hear the different versions of it as we are going along, myself. Very often when we hear something new we don't necessarily know if it's a wip or if it is the finished article anyway - or whether it will even see the light of day in an official format at all.

So yeah, keep giving us sneaky peaks, guys.

[Dirty0900]

Yer, I wouldn't see it as ruining the final product if you prefer mix 2 over the final cut which is mix 5 but its all down to personal taste really.

I can remember listening to when they played Exit Festival on Radio 1 and being blown away by Lenny Penny and You Do Scribble when they first aired as it was brand new and fresh. Same for Bamboo really, I really wouldn't know much about it apart from the version that is floating around on Youtube.

I think UW know what there doing and wouldn't give us everything to listen to, they've been doing this a while now.

[King of Snake]

it's just annoying when work in progress versions are better than the finished product, like ALAF (ok maybe it's still not finished).
In any case, they've been playing "in progress" material in the live shows pretty much from the very beginning of uw anyway, not to mention that even finished tracks get changed and keep growing when played live. A lot of people probably prefer certain live versions of tracks over their original "finshed" studio versions. This is just a part of what uw do and what makes them great. It keeps things interesting for us fans and for themselves as well.
remember it's all about process.

[34958hq439-qjw9v5jq298v5j]

What KoS said is really correct, I don't think there's much distinction in the UW camp between "finished" and "not". That said it's a little frustrating to see all these awesome tracks floating out there on radio shows and bootlegs with dodgy quality, not knowing if they're even going to get an official release. I was so excited when "Parc" was finally released, and it's definitely one of my most played UW tracks now. I thought OwB was good but not really remarkable, but with just all the stuff they have floating out there I am sure they could drop another classic if they wanted to.

[potatobroth]

What a great topic and one I'd expect to see a great number of opinions on. My opinion is that I'd rather hear the finished track before the preleases. While I love Oblivion with Bells, I was a bit sad when I realized that I recognized more than half of the tracks from snippets or even full-songs. The initial wow was a bit lost.

There is also that weird phenomenon that comes with knowing a song from a live set or radio broadcast one way, and then hearing the release another way. Even though the release may be superior in every way, the way you heard it the first time just sounds 'right' and the release sounds well, wrong. Globe/Holding the Moth fits right into this category. While the album version is growing on me, it still sounded wrong when compared to the 2 or 3 live versions I'd heard prior. This also touches on what KoS is saying above.

[holden]

Personally, i quite like hearing the works in progress and collecting all the snippets and unreleased tracks. Sometimes, years later, they turn into something complete, like Biro the Leggy became Beautiful Burnout. Otherwise, it's fun for me to make the associations of sounds i know i've heard before in UW's special sneak peaks, reappearing in live tracks or on the album.

i don't mind so much if the finished version differs from the work-in-progress track, because i trust that the LP version is the one that Karl and Rick decided was complete, and it's how they wanted it to sound. If i've heard prior versions i liked better, fine, i have them on mp3 or burned to CD and can listen any time. The released CD is what it is, a musical photo album that will always have parts i like more or less. Further, even in the case of OWB, where we knew a number of the tracks ahead of time, there are always still surprises when first hearing the album. This is why i won't download leaks of the finished record- i'd rather have the real thing, mastered, hi-fi, artwork, in hand to make my opinion. (plus, it's paid for, but that's another huge debate that hasn't gone over well here or in this age of free downloads and entitlement).

So, yeah, a big thanks to UW for being so generous with sharing their creative process. We are lucky to hear so much, and the only frustration for me comes from wondering which tracks will carry on to album form!