Should this be a single Release Group?

The French nu-metal band Pleymo has two different versions of their second album Medicine Cake.

In France, it was released under the title Episode 2: Medecine Cake with vocals recorded in French.

In Japan and US imports, it was released under the title Doctor Tank’s Medicine Cake with vocals recorded in English.

These are the same compositions/works, the same instrument recordings and it is the same conceptual release. The mixing and editing might be slightly different (I think I remember that some DJ effects were mixed differently), and I believe that they each have a song that is exclusive (2 songs that were not recorded in alternate languages). Obviously the songs are different Recordings.

But should they be in a single Master Release or separate Master Releases? My vote would go towards a single Master Release, but I’m confused and would like others’ opinions.

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It looks to me like it’d be one release group, could even add some aliases for the alternate title(s) so it shows up in RG searches.

I can’t think of any examples of releases with translated lyrics off-hand, but one example of different tracklists being the same RG would be The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Are You Experienced”, with the UK and US versions being in a different order, even with different artwork.

Translated versions, were the recordings contain lyrics sung in different languages while the rest of the recording stays the same, are quite common with e.g. Disney film soundtracks. This has been discussed heavily before, with I think no conclusive result. But most seem to be in favor of separate release groups, and this seems to be mostly what is been done in practice. Some previous threads:

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Actually, they’d be different “works” if the lyrics are translated, with the translated work linked to the original.

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Another one where this comes up is Audiobooks, where different languages are separate RG’s.

However, personally, an album like this I would probably put into the same RG, if the intent seems to be that it is the same album. Just personal preference.

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I guess it should be decided on a case-by-case basis. A lot of Kraftwerk albums have both German and English releases, but those are so similar (almost identical names and few lyrics anyway) that I would always use one release group. Right now the editors on Kraftwerk seem to be split on this too, seeing that Die Mensch·Maschine / The Man·Machine are two different release groups and all other albums share their release group.

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Seeing as how this is evenly divided, I’ll leave them as is, until (or if) an official ruling ever comes into play. Thanks for all your feedback!

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@hds, I took the liberty to rename your topic from Master Release (probably a Discogs terminology) to Release Group, to void any confusion.
I hope you don’t mind. :slight_smile:

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