i hate it when i buy a remaster and it's got all these extra tracks on it. i like the album to be finished when it's over......not continue playing different versions of the same songs!
I know what you mean, but I do like it when it's all different tracks. Like with the Stranglers' backcatalogue, there's lots of great stuff to be found there.
David Bowie's albums got a re-release in the 90's, all with bonus tracks, and some were awesome. Diamond Dogs especially - even though the Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family is a perfect way to end the album, the two bonus tracks kick in quietly and actually manage to add themselves to the record. For me, DD wouldn't be complete without Dodo and that original entirely different Candidate.
But then there's also things like Station To Station: already a short album, and then what's extra is two of the six songs in live version. It even often makes me feel less like putting on the album.
I also got massively into Jethro Tull some years ago and proceeded to get all of their remastered albums. Many have really, really great bonus tracks. Most are as good as any of the songs of the original album. But then they also did the worst thing possible: on Aqualung - that's right, Aqualung - one of the bonus tracks is a 15 minute long interview with Ian Anderson! So every time I listen to that album I have to skip that egotrip (it's not even the last song on the album). They did the same with Thick As A Brick (bonus tracks are a live version and another interview), but my girlfriend luckily got me a copy of the original CD release via eBay for my birthday.
There's some albums out there which have such a perfect flow that they really shouldn't be messed with. Several years ago, they announced some re-releases for David Sylvian's albums. I briefly got to talk to the man himself about it, and I told him that I wondered how he felt about the astonishing Gone To Earth being split over two discs with some different songs (including remixes) within the normal order of songs. He told me that the Gone To Earth remaster was the only one he felt was a little bit dodgy. (I completely agreed... but of course I did get myself that re-release anyway in addition to the normal album, for the new songs!)