After having run through this one several times since I got delivery, I have only one bad thing to say about the whole thing that actually matters, and the only reason it gets a 9 instead of a 10 from me is the ridiculous "easter egg" way of including Shesmovedon. The other thing is the 3 "bonus" tracks will not play after the main album, they have to be navigated to using a menu, which is again a bit odd in a music disc.
Why? I'm sorry, but I do not understand this in a music album. Okay on a video, or a game, but as has already been pointed out before, this is supposed to be a music disc and not a quiz. To my way of thinking, all this shows is that the menu designer wanted to show that they too are "creative" in some manner. Either the track is there to be played, or it is not. When making these records, I personally want to put the thing in the player, hit play, and hear the whole album from start to finish. Including the bonus tracks.
One more minor grump, just to get it out of the way, why oh why is it in a standard CD box??
Now to the good points.
The surround mix, as expected after "In Absentia", is stunning. No other word for it at all. I still have not played the stereo version yet, as I don't want to have the familiar "where did all my sound go?" feeling. I guess I should hear the stereo as reading the liner notes I get the impression that Steve did the stereo mix, and the Surround mix was done by Elliot.
For me, I was grabbed from track 1, and not let go until the end of Glass Arm Shattering. Wonderful stuff - and would have been even better if the other 4 tracks played automatically too.
The snare sound is amongst the best I have heard. I thought it was good on the previous album, but it is even better here. The whole mix is so open - making full use of the surrounds - and best of all it is sufficiently wide enough (but not too wide) for there to be a large sweet spot - one of the big arguments I keep reading about MC at "the other place" is that the sweet spot" is too narrow. Well not here it isn't.
All in all, this is surround mixing and production at it's finest.
Those who have not yet bought it, there is but one acceptable excuse - out of stock in your local supplier.
Nothing else is acceptable.
:banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:
(Jon - can we have a mini dancing banana, so we can have 5.1 dancing bananas?)
