| Who Albums |

The Who - It's Hard:

UK - 1982 Polydor LP	USA - 1982 Warner Brothers LP
USA - 1982 Warner Brothers LP (Promo) Quiex II Vinyl Pressing	USA - 1982 Warner Brothers Cassette
USA - 1984 Warner Brothers CD Original pressings made in Germany. Reissued and remastered in 1985 (USA pressing).	USA - 1985 MCA LP
USA - 1989 MCA CD Original mix	USA - 1997 MCA CD Remixed/Remastered. Same cover as 1997 Germany Polydor remixed/remastered CD
Argentina - 1982 Polydor LP	Australia - 1982 Polydor LP
Brazil - 1982 Polydor LP	Canada - 1982 Warner Brothers LP
Ecuador - 1982 Polydor LP	Germany - 1982 Polydor LP
Germany - 1983 Polydor CD Original mix - 1st pressing has Polydor logo on cover	Greece - 1982 Polydor LP
Holland - 1982 Polydor LP	Hong Kong - 1982 Polydor LP
Hong Kong - 1982 Polydor Cassette	Indonesia - 1982 King's Record Cassette
Israel - 1982 Polydor LP	Italy - 1982 Polydor LP
Japan - 1982 Polydor LP	Japan - 1982 Polydor Cassette
Japan - 1984 Polydor LP (reissue)	Japan - 1996 Polydor CD Original mix
Japan - 1999 Polydor CD Remixed/Remastered. Mini-LP cover	Korea - 1982 Polydor LP (back cover) Korean pressing deletes "Cooks County" and "Cry If You Want" (Common front cover)
Korea - 1982 Polydor Cassette Korean pressing deletes "Cooks County" and "Cry If You Want"	Korea - 1982 (no label) LP Unlike Korea Polydor LP, this version has the full track listing
Korea - 1982 High Light LP	Mexico - 1982 Polydor LP
Philippines - 1982 Polydor LP	Portugal - 1982 Polydor LP
Saudi Arabia - 1982 UFO Cassette	Saudi Arabia - 1982 J&R Cassette
South Africa - 1982 Polydor LP	Spain - 1982 Polydor LP (front cover)
Spain - 1982 Polydor LP (back cover) Titles in English & Spanish	Taiwan - 1982 Liming LP
Thailand - 1982 Peacock Cassette

Album: It's Hard

LPs (vinyl) Sampled: Polydor (UK), Warner Brothers (USA), Warner Brothers – promo copy pressed on Quiex II vinyl (USA), Polydor (France), Polydor (Argentina), Polydor (Japan)

CDs (original mix) Sampled: Polydor-1st pressing (Germany), Polydor-2nd pressing (Germany), Warner Brothers-1st pressing (USA), Warner Brothers-2nd pressing (USA), MCA (USA), Polydor (Japan)

CDs (remix) Sampled: Polydor (Germany), MCA (USA), Polydor (Japan)

LP Comments: Both Polydor (UK) and Warner Brothers (USA) sound just about the same. The promo Quiex II is a better quality of vinyl, but in this case, it doesn't seem to improve the sound.

Note: MCA subsequently pressed this on both vinyl and CD, after the Who deal with Warner Brothers fell apart. I have not listened to the MCA LP at this time.

CD (original mix) comments: This album seems to be the only one of the Who releases that Polydor (Germany) updated since their initial releases and before the reissue series. The first pressings of this CD (both Polydor (Germany) and Warner Brothers (USA)) were made at the Polydor plant in Germany and sound identical, but unfortunately, pretty bad--as they are overly dull and muddy. The 2nd pressing from Warner Brothers was made in their USA plant and sounds excellent. The updated Polydor (Germany) sounds excellent too. The Polydor (Japan) CD seems somewhere in-between the original USA/Germany pressings and later USA & Germany pressings, but still dull and muddy sounding.

CD (remix) comments: All 3 of these CDs (Polydor (Germany), Polydor (Japan) and MCA (USA)) sound different from one another. None of them sound bad, just different. Both the Polydor (Germany) and MCA (USA) suffer from too much compression in the mastering process, but otherwise sound fine. The Polydor (Japan) version seems to be stripped of most of the extra compression and has the extra bass (which is present in most of the other Japanese Who CD releases). However, in this case, it helps the album sound "punchier", as if it's more "live" sounding. I can't seem to find an explanation for what happened which caused the differences on this release, but as long as the differences aren't bad, they are acceptable.

Summary: If you like the original mix of the album, seek out the 2nd pressing (made in the USA) Warner Brothers (USA) CD, The MCA (USA) CD or the latest (pre-reissue) pressing of the Polydor (Germany) copy. If you like the remix, go with the Polydor (Japan). Overall, it sounds better without the extra compression and the extra bass.

Other Comments: For some reason, most of the Who fans in the UK I've encountered do not like this album (American fans seem mixed—I love it). However, after the album was remixed, it seems to have gained more respect on both sides of the pond. Apparently there's a Roger Daltrey lead vocal track on "Eminence Front" and a Pete Townshend lead vocal on "One Life's Enough". These would have made a great bonus tracks!

Track Listing:

Original Mix: Athena, It's Your Turn, Cook's County, It's Hard, Dangerous, Eminence Front, I've Known No War, One Life's Enough, One At A Time, Why Did I Fall For That?, A Man Is A Man, Cry If You Want

Remix: Athena, It's Your Turn, Cook's County, It's Hard, Dangerous, Eminence Front, I've Known No War, One Life's Enough, One At A Time, Why Did I Fall For That?, A Man Is A Man, Cry If You Want, It's Hard (live), Eminence Front (live), Dangerous (live), Cry If You Want (live)

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