June is a great month for Hi-Res (1 Viewer)

[Emil Stoica]

With all the bickering going on, just wanted to show everyone what a great month June is for Hi-Res. Just look at this list:

Peter Gabriel - UP (SACD)
Steely Dan - Everything Must Go (DVD-A)
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me (SACD)
John Coltrane - Ultimate Blue Train (SACD)
Bob Beldon - Black Dahilia (SACD)
Heart - Alive in Seattle (SACD - First US Sony Hybrid)
Donald Fagan - Kamakiriad (DVD-A)
Chicago - II (DVD-A)
Roger Waters - The Wall (SACD)
B.B. King - Reflections (SACD)

and several more.

In addition, we have more titles to look forward to over the next several months from artists such as: The Who, Roxy Music, Spandau Ballet, Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, Steely Dan, Sly and the Family Stone, Styx, U2 and more (SACD) : Chicago, Beach Boys, Flaming Lips, Cars, REM, Fleetwood Mac, Frank Sinatra and more (DVD-A).

It will be difficult enough to afford what has been announced. Throw in surprise releases and all of our wallets will be hurting.

Take a look at where these formats were even a year ago. I would never have believe I would have Peter Gabriel, The Police, REM in Hi-Res. The pointless "format war" threads do not really serve any purpose. There has never been competing formats that could still play on the same machine. So people, just enjoy these discs before they disappear into the world of $0.99 downloads. JMHO.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Amen, bro.

I only regret that my budget is way too tight right now to afford more than just a couple of these.

 

[Ken Stuart]

I like a good portion of the artists in the left column, but hardly any of the albums in the right column.

This seems to symptomatic of both High-Res formats so far, at least in my viewpoint. Normally, I hesitate to make such criticisms, since music is primarily a question of personal taste. But, in this particular case, since you have made a point of characterizing these releases as being particularly great, I have to say - not IMHO.

For example, I find Giant Steps to be far more desirable than the more mediocre Blue Train.

As someone who first saw Peter Gabriel perform live almost 30 years ago, I find "Up" to easily be his worst effort ever. I could live with the fact that his voice is totally shot if the music itself were more inspiring and challenging, but unfortunately it isn't.

As far as Steely Dan goes, the two new albums sound like a Steely Dan cover band.

While I like most of REM's albums, the first three were on a level above all the later ones - and, of course, those three are conspicuously missing from the many REM titles on the release list. Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush" is almost embarrasingly bad relative to almost any other album of his (such as "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" and the hugely influential "Rust Never Sleeps").

Norah Jones is so typical of the existing DVD-A and SACD catalogs. If you read through reviews of Norah Jones, you won't find one that doesn't include the word "soothing". And, there's nothing wrong in that. But that tends to be the audience for audiophile music - someone who works long hours to make the sort of money necessary to buy good audio gear, and after a long and tense commute, wants - Norah Jones. Pleasant dreams!

PS I am eagerly awaiting DVD-A's of Pet Sounds and How The West Was Won.

 

[Scott O'Keeffe]

Ken,

Pretty funny stuff.

 

[Justin Lane]

Ken,

Thank you for showing me the light on these new Hi-res releases. You have saved me alot of money on bad music.

 

[Greg Johnson]

Emil,
You mentioned U2 in your list of upcoming titles. This is news to me. Big news. Great news. Could you please elaborate. I'm stoked if this is true.

Greg

 

[Emil Stoica]

Ken,

You are entitled to your opinion. I will only disagree on "UP". I hated it the first couple of times I listened to it. But it has grown on me and I like it more than "US". Feels more pre-"So" Gabriel to me. IMHO.

Justin,

And they say that sarcasm is difficult to express on the web.

Greg

I have read several times that Universal is working on getting the U2 catalogue out on SACD. Now, it should still be considered "rumour" for now. But the sources have proven accurate in the past.

 

[Mike Broadman]

As far as Steely Dan goes, the two new albums sound like a Steely Dan cover band.

I don't even know what that means.

 

[Ken Stuart]

I will only disagree on "UP". I hated it the first couple of times I listened to it. But it has grown on me and I like it more than "US". Feels more pre-"So" Gabriel to me.

To me, that's the problem (and the problem with Steely Dan as well). It sounds like specific Gabriel songs, albums, riffs. Just as an example, the bit at 3:00 into the album I could create from a sample from an earlier song (except that the lyric would be different, of course).

Even Radiohead is doing this. :frowning: I'm not the only one who characterized their previous album as "Volume Two", and this new one sounds like "Volume Three" to me.

While it is natural for musicians to sound like themselves, I wonder how many identical albums we need?

Compare the progression of the works of the above musicians to:

Hard Days Night->Revolver->White Album->Abbey Road

or

Surfin USA->Pet Sounds->Holland

or

Birth of the Cool->Walkin'->Kind of Blue->Miles Smiles->In A Silent Way->Bitches Brew->Tutu

or

any two Neil Young albums (even though some are distinctly better than others)

 

[Rachael B]

How great a month it is, well, that's awfully subjective. After 3 years of hi-rez audio only a scant few of my hardcore favourite albums have been released. After all this time, the only one of my hardcore favourites to be released is Herbie Hancock's HEADHUNTERS. Another one, King Crimson's IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING is announced but, seemigly, infinitely delayed. I'm more excited about the new Jacintha album than any of the other stuff in the June pipeline. Show me July!

 

[Rich Malloy]

You one tough nut to crack, Ken!

But not the toughest! I think the harshest view (and I wish I remember who's it is) is a member who's always kvetching about how there are simply no DVD-A/SACD titles of interest to him. The usual response comes, listing everything from Bach to Beck, favorites from the classical, jazz, blues, country, hindi, soul, rock traditions, and even current disposable pop acts...

Inevitably the poster responds "well, I like maybe two of those".

 

[Phil_DC]

As far as Steely Dan goes, the two new albums sound like a Steely Dan cover band.

Ahahaha thats to funny!

 

[Mike Broadman]

Ken, I guess people just have a different view of what a band "should" be doing. While I appreciate artists who change a lot (Miles, Crimson, Mingus, Coltrane, etc), those are the rare exception.

Steely Dan is not the Beatles, nor should they be. If you want to oversimplify it, then yeah, maybe every Steely Dan song is the "same," and every CCR song, and every AC/DC song. I think it's great- you know what you're getting, and if you like the band already, you know it's going to be good.

The new Steely Dan album will not convert people who don't like the band into fans. Nor should it. It was made for themselves and their fans.

Besides, change isn't always good. While Metallica and Radiohead attract a lot of attention for it, the results are mixed. And very few people like all the work done by the truly eclectic and ever-chaning musicians like Miles, Trane, or Zappa. Some of what they did is just unlistenable to most folks.

 

[Ken Stuart]

Yes, in the case of Steely Dan, one doesn't really expect much to be different from any of their previous works, it's almost a given in their style.

However, in the case of Peter Gabriel, given all the variety of music that he is involved in producing, I'm disappointed that he doesn't put out a new "Peter Gabriel" album that is actually, say, West African music or Persian music... or both!

 

[Emil Stoica]

Rachel said:

After 3 years of hi-rez audio only a scant few of my hardcore favourite albums have been released.

Madam, care to tell us some of those titles?

 

[Mike Broadman]

I'm disappointed that he doesn't put out a new "Peter Gabriel" album that is actually, say, West African music or Persian music... or both!

There is plenty of African and world music out there, performed by people native to those regions who could do a much better job than PG. The best kind of music Gabriel does is, well, Peter Gabriel music.

 

[Rachael B]

Emil, many of my fav's have zero chance of becoming SACD's, well, maybe .0003% chance? Many of my fav's never made the leap from vinyl. Some of my most favoured albums would include:

Stanley Clarke's SCHOOL DAYS
Return To Forever's WHERE HAVE I KNOWN YOU BEFORE & LIGHT AS A FEATHER
Frampton's Camel S/T < has a chance now
Santana CARAVANSERAI < I'm amazed more classic Santana isn't out given their recent popularity
Boz Scaggs made Columbia alot of money. I've always liked him. I'm suprised he hasn't had a release yet. SLOW DANCER is proably my least favourite of his Columbia albums but I'd even buy that one

Free has a chance to be released on SACD now. I really, really like their first album TONS OF SOBS, but it's more realistic to think FIRE AND WATER would be the first one off the shelf. ALONE TOGETHER by Dave Mason is a title I'd like to see. RED by King Crimson is a real fav. I like Bill Bruford's solo albums, what chance do they have? Slim to very slim, I figur.

UNORTHDOX BEHAVIOR by Brand X, BEBOP DELUXE by Bill Nelson's Red Noise, COMBAT ROCK by the Clash, Manfredo Fest's JUNGLE CAT, Marc Benno's AMBUSH & LOST IN AUSTIN, Automatic Man's S/T, anything by Sea Level, Area Code 615, anything by Gary Bartz, RIGHT PLACE & DESTITIVELY BONARROO by Dr. John, CLEAR & THE FAMILY THAT PLAYS TOGETHER & TWELVE DREAMS OF DR. SARDONICUS by Spirit, MORE SWEET SOUL by Arthur Conley, REINCARNATION by Booker T & The M.G.'s, Nicky Hopkin's THE DREAMER, Maria Muldaur's S/T, the Average White Band's whole catalog, Otis Spann with Fleetwood Mac THE BIGGEST THING SINCE COLOSSUS....

Savoy Brown's RAW SIENNA & BLUE MATTER & GETTING TO THE POINT and Chris Youlden's NOWHERE ROAD, anything by Les McCann, anything by the original lineup of the Flying Burrito Brothers, anything by the Brecker Brothers, anything by the original Dixie Dregs, Cissy Stut by The Meters, Rickie Lee Jones S/T, FOREVER CHANGES by Love, one of the early Richie Havens albums, the original Bar-Kays, PICKING UP THE PIECES by Poco, Friends Of Dean Martinez's RETROGRADE, YEARS SINCE YESTERDAY by The Paladins, Marshall Crenshaw, MY AIM IS TRUE by Elvis Costello....this could go on and on..... more Livingston Taylor!

The album, actually it was an EP, I'd most like to see on M/C SACD is the Dukes Of The Stratosphear's 25 O'CLOCK.

The album I'd most like to see on stereo SACD, the before mentioned Otis Spann with Fleetwood Mac.

I could make a whole other list of Warner/Reprise albums I wish could be SACD's starting with HOT RATS by Zappa..... HEADHUNTERS by Herbie Hancock is my favourite title out but it's really not an improvement on the vinyl IMO....

Honestly, what chance does the Goose Creek Symphony have of getting on SACD? If I ruled ze wurld...!

 

[Lee Scoggins]

As far as Steely Dan goes, the two new albums sound like a Steely Dan cover band.

I find myself in the unusual position of defending a great DVDA...

Ken, I think the new Steely Dan is awesome and it is growing on me daily. It reminds me a lot of their older catalog. While you are entitled to your opinion, many music and audio critics love this album.

Second to the performance of course, the DVDA sonics are superb. Here we have what I called in the another thread a trifecta for perfect sound: live to 2 track, 24/192, and Elliott Scheiner on a good day.

I encourage any jazz or Steely Dan fan to pick this one up.

As far as Norah Jones goes, while it may invariably be described as soothing, I find it a different genre almost of jazz that hits the spot personally. Great natural acoustic recording that picks up some fine instrumental work and beautiful voice. IMHO, this is another must-have.

 

[Ken Stuart]

Stanley Clarke's SCHOOL DAYS
Return To Forever's WHERE HAVE I KNOWN YOU BEFORE & LIGHT AS A FEATHER

That list is like Laurel without Hardy, or a bowl of cereal without milk!

THE classic fusion album is Return To Forever's Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy . Now that you've reminded me, I've got to get it out and listen to it again!

PS the other great fusion classics are Mahavishnu Orchestra's Inner Mounting Flame and Birds of Fire. (Those are on Columbia and so would be on SACD, if and when...)

 

[Emil Stoica]

Rachel,

Honestly, what chance does the Goose Creek Symphony have of getting on SACD? If I ruled ze wurld...!

That's it, get to Sony right now and take control of all SACD releases. Just promise you get me some Psychedelic Furs and Clash SACDs. Please...