Hallelujah – 13th is a lucky number after all.
The Atmos mix is supurb. Avril & Andy came through with an immersive mix that is (I dare say) a touch better than their “
Weltschmerz” effort.
Maybe it is the Atmos, maybe it is an album’s worth of stronger songs (IMHO)? Who knows? Who cares? I love the deluxe edition.
Things that stand out after the first listen:
The surround magic starts right off the bat as the first track begins with synth effects percolating out from the rear left and dance around the sound field. There is a cool height effect with a repeated lyric line with the word “round” as rotates above your head.
The third track opens with a music box type passage firmly in the heights.
Some of Fish’s more or less spoken vocal lines on several songs are firmly anchored into the rears and some of the more subtle roam about in the heights.
Loving it!
The packaging is pretty much identical to the Jethro Tull & Marillion deluxe boxes. I think the disc holding areas are a bit different than I have seen before and I like it. Kind of merge of the disc inlay tray style & simple sleeve holder. The discs are secure but easier to remove the inlay tray where you almost have to snap the disc in half to release it from the spindle.
Fish’s liner extensive notes provide an incredibly intimate detail of the time period and the artistic process behind the album. Warts and all. It makes Ian Anderson
In addition to Fish’s notes, the book contains a large selection of pictures from the time period, all the lyrics, very cool old and new art from long time Fish co-conspirator, Mark Wilkinson.
I haven’t watched the new documentary yet (the package includes a new making of and the older version that was included in the original release bonus editions) + a full period recording of Fish’s performance at Nearfest 2008 (a small, progressive rock weekend festival in Allentown, PA). The video is surprisingly good for the period, audio is OK - and Fish delivers 100% of what he’s got. This is the tour that I began noticing the significant deterioration of Fish’s vocals. He was never a fabulous vocalist but somehow, I liked him better for that. Kind a punk attribute in a progressive world.
I will remain optimistic that any atmos mix on the planned deluxe releases of “
Vigil” and “
Internal” are up to this standard. After that, I could only pray for deluxe edition of “
Sunsets on Empire” with Steven Wilson’s involvement again.
The package does have a few flaws:
1:
@Neil Palfreyman is 100% correct. The 5.1 mix is
incredibly weak. To describe it as ambient fill in the rears is being generous. Surely the wrong file was used???? (Pedro will love it
) I didn’t try to down select and play the Atmos mix in 5.1 but I hope that will work for those without Atmos.
2: The remix doesn’t really fix the harshness (maybe brick walling) of the more aggressive songs. A little too much rammed into all the speakers at peak EQ in select moments of the choruses. I wanted to crank the volume but I sensed that old fatiguing / distorting effect setting in. Maybe that is the limits of my speakers & receiver. Not too much of problem I guess – I was really trying to blast the first & second song more than I needed too. I was expecting the remix to fix that a bit. Ah well.
