It Ain't Easy [Cardboard Sleeve (mini LP)] [SHM-CD] [Limited Release]

The packaging for this mini-L.P. SHM-CD reissue is superb. After you remove a paper wrap(that has the 2nd version of the album cover), you get a perfect replica of the original, banned album cover(which was briefly sold in Southern California for a few weeks). The group appears to have no clothes on! This is one of my favorite Three Dog Night albums, but it is no secret that many of the group's recordings were not a high fidelity experience. The group's mixes were tailored to sound right in the early 1970's on AM radio & 8-track cartridge. The worst sounding albums are "Seven Separate Fools" & "Cyan". The sound on this premium-priced SHM-CD audiophile release of "Three Dog Night-It Ain't Easy" is generally good, but, unfortunately, at the start of the group's excellent version of Elton John's "Your Song", there is a bad digital defect in the first 2 seconds of the song. This defect was not present in any other CD release of "Your Song". Universal Music Japan should supply corrected discs to people that have purchased this product. As for myself, I will make a corrected CD-R, taking "Your Song" from the American 2-CD set "Celebrate: The Three Dog Night Story 1965-1975" I don't speak Japanese, but maybe you people in Japan can tell Universal Music Japan that there is a defect in the SHM-CD of "Three Dog Night-It Ain't Easy". Thank You!