Recommendations for Audiophiles
Donovan CDs: Best Sound Quality Guide
Ranking 5 of His Best Albums
Most casual Donovan fans aren’t very familiar with this album which is unfortunate because it contains some of his best songwriting, his most confident singing and most compelling production. The album stands out among Donovan’s other titles in that it features a band that sounds like a band. With the exception of the tracks he recorded with the Jeff Beck Group, his previous recordings that featured drums tended to have them low in the mix and played in a more jazzy style rather than a rock setting.
On Open Road, Donovan gets to have his cake and eat it too. There are gentle acoustic songs that slot in comfortably among the more beat-driven ones. There is a wide range of styles, including a bossa nova Astrud Gilberto-influenced song, “Joe Bean’s Theme” (he even name-checks her: “When I hear Adstrud/Jasmine fills the air”). There is a Celtic rock song, aptly named “Celtic Rock” and a couple of “diss” songs in which his ire is sharply aimed at religious hypocrisy (“Poke at the Pope”) and people who prey on the vulnerable (“Clara Clairvoyant”).
The sound quality on the first CD release of the album left a lot to be desired (on the Repertoire label). Fortunately the 2d remaster (on the Donovan Discs label) sounds rich, warm and dynamic. This version is exclusively available from Donovan’s official website, so don’t bother trying to find it on Amazon.
Standout tracks: “Curry Land,” “Joe Bean’s Theme,” “Clara Clairvoyant”
Originally released as a 2 record box set with lavish packaging, the first album being more pop oriented songs and the second contains more meditative acoustic numbers. This is the first album that Donovan produced himself (with the exception of “Wear Your Love Like Heaven and “Oh Gosh,” produced by Mickie Most), and it has a different, less commercial feel than his previous 2 albums. Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree said on his Album Years podcast that this was one of his favorites of all time. Its stature has been gaining more traction with each passing decade.
There have been several CD remasters of this title. The BGO CD was issued in stereo, but there are actually some copies of the BGO in circulation with the mono mix. But there are better sounding options than the BGO. The 2008 EMI remaster (with a different cover, as there were some licensing issues with the original) contains the stereo mix. Noise reduction (NR) was not used on the EMI CD, unlike some of the previous Donovan CDs in that series. This is the best sounding digital source of the stereo mix. The version sold from Donovan’s own website contains the same mastering.
The best sounding (to my ears) CD of the mono mix is on the state51 Conspiracy label, released in 2022 as “2022 New Mono Master” appended to the title. It is already out of print, but well worth searching out a used copy.
A note on the mono mix: there is a 2015 post on the Steve Hoffman Forum from the original engineer who did the mix. He said this:
I’m the original engineer who recorded this album with Donovan and I can confirm that we mixed a mono and then a stereo there are no fold downs on the mono, for what it’s worth I’ve always preferred the mono mix as it has more punch, at the time mono was king in the UK and the stereo was made primarily for the States, all the reverbs are the same on both as these were all recorded live on the 4 track multi and these were mixed and bounced to a second 4 track multi for additional overdubs.
I prefer the stereo to the mono mix, but each is a unique listening experience. If you love this album as I do, you’ll want both.
Standout tracks: “Wear Your Love Like Heaven,” “Mad John’s Escape,”“Voyage Into the Golden Screen,” “Isle of Islay”
The reason I specified “US” above is that the US and the UK albums of this title are different animals altogether. The complete album was released in the US, while the UK got an amalgamation of tracks from the album as well as the Mellow Yellow album. So the result is that neither of those albums were released in their entirety in the UK until they came out on CD. Actually, the first UK CD issue of Sunshine Superman (BGO label) contained the mixed track listing, but the 2005 UK EMI CDs had both titles in their entirety.
This album was originally mixed to mono only, and the US “stereo” LP version was “electronically reprocessed” fake stereo. The original true mono mix of the album can be found on the Epic original CD as well as the 2005 EMI CD with bonus tracks. The downside of the EMI CD is that there is digital static on some of the tracks (including the title track) that isn’t present on the BGO or the Epic. There is also a different mastering of the mono album on the Four Donovan Originals box set that is free of static, but it has some slight noise reduction on it, so I prefer the Epic CD.
In 2011 the album received a special stereo remix. This CD also contained several stereo remixes of tracks from the Mellow Yellow album. It has been out of print for many years, but is well worth the search, as it sounds great, and there are some details present in the stereo mix that are obscured in the mono mix.
Standout tracks: “Sunshine Superman,” “Three Kingfishers,” “Season of the Witch”
The title track is an enduring funk workout with the Jeff Beck Group that sounds fresh even today. “Superlungs My Supergirl” was attempted many times in previous years with slightly different lyrics but finally makes the grade here and is a great example of his pop sensibility.
The 2005 EMI CD with bonus tracks has a loud pop in the right channel 2 or 3 seconds into “Barabajagal.” The version on the Four Donovan Originals box does not have it. The original silver CD on Epic does not have the pop, but it has a significantly higher level of hiss than either of the others. All 3 have a total DR12, although individual tracks’ ranges vary. So for my money, the version on the Four Donovan Originals box set wins out. Either way, avoid the EMI version, unless a loud pop on the best song on the album doesn’t bother you.
Standout tracks: “Barabajagal,” “Superlungs My Supergirl,” “Atlantis”
This is a real return to form for Donovan, and the album opens with a track reminiscent of “Barabajagal” in a funky made-up word play. A number of other tracks were written and demoed during the 1960s or early 1970s (some of which appeared as bonus tracks on CDs), but he plays them with a confidence, maturity and level of assertion not frequently found on some of his earlier work.
There is only one mastering that has been done for CD, and unfortunately, it is a victim of the Loudness Wars, with a DR8. There is no clipping, but there is an excessive amount of compression. The version on Donovan’s website contains the same mastering as the original 2004 CD.
Standout tracks: “Love Floats,” “Two Lovers,” “The Question”
As always, your ears and mileage may vary (YMMV).
