The Rolling Stones – Flowers

Cool collection of songs axed from American Rolling Stones albums back from the 60s. Stereo imaging is also kinda jagged but that's the 60s.

In my copy:
(A-side stamped): 8201391 S1=1 670 07 118
(B-side stamped): 8201391 S2=1 670 07 114

Typical 1960's Rolling Stones in stereo, strange yet fascinating at the same time. Sound quality varies wildly from song-to-song BUT it has to be said that the sonic holography on some of these mixes is off-the-charts, with a soundstage so 3-dimensional it's amazing. And the bass is pretty good too. Vinyl is whisper quiet on my copy as well.

Wait, thought this was a comp for the American market with songs left off of the U.S. versions of Aftermath and Between The Buttons? Why would they have released this in the UK in 1967 too?

A lot of surface noise during some songs (extreme audible on Out of time), some non fill on Take it or leave it. Not the best version I heard, but not bad either.

My pressing of this is really good. Out of time, is the stand out and sounds wonderful!!

I have this copy, released in May 2023, and I can confirm that it sounds excellent: no surface noise, crisp sound. All but "Have You Seen Your Mother" are in real stereo, including "Mother's Little Helper," which is interesting as the DSD remastered SACD has the latter track in mono, as per the original London pressing. Anyway, I'm enjoying these recent U.S. Abcko reissues. I have the U.S. "Aftermath" and "Between the Buttons" as well. The U.S. "Out of Our Heads" is next, and so I'm crossing my fingers we'll also get "Rolling Stones Now!" and "December's Children," which will round out the U.S. discography. ("England's Newest Hitmakers" and "12x12" have been available for years now.)

Sleeve and labels say STEREO, but the etched LL-3509 in the matrices is the MONO catalog number. Listening carefully, the tracks on this release do sound like mono to me; no channel separation - actual or phased - is evident.

Anyone comment on how this one sounds? . . .

Flowers is a fantastic album, and this Canadian pressing sounds great. Front loaded with their most recent singles, “Ruby Tuesday”, “Have You Seen Your Mother Baby” and “Let's Spend The Night Together” -- all of them incredible. “Lady Jane” and “Mother’s Little Helper”, and "Out of time" are of the same high kick-ass quotient. I mean, the blues guitar on "please come home" is otherworldly. Of the rest, if I had to pick a misfire, there's the “My Girl” cover, and others have complained that the cover art is "gaudy" and "simplistic", but to me it reads more as a good natured mocking of their biggest rivals, The Beatles “Sgt Pepper” album -- with the title cashing in on what the young hippy record buyers were gravitating to in '67. Almost every track is excellent, so don’t pass this by just because a bunch of Stones nerds slag it as exploitative marketing gimmickry (which it was). There’s some outstanding b-side material hard to find anywhere else, and the album as a whole works really brilliantly.