HiRez Poll Garfunkel, Art - BREAKAWAY [SACD]

[Juggsnelson]

I voted a 9. Great songs and arrangements. I had never listened to This album before but I really enjoyed it! I have a few of the 45's and they sound nice but This SACD is obviously a nice step up. Very nice use of the Quad sound field.

 

[lennon fan]

Judging from the response in this forum, I hope this does really well for them. A great, choice title that holds up so well all these decades later. REALLY impressive!

 

[van1]

We need to remember that this is a Columbia Pop recording from the 1970s era. And it certainly sounds that way.
So the high end sonics aren't going to match an audiophile recording.

For me, the new Dutton Vocalion Surround SACD edition is definitely an improvement from the way the album sounded on Q8 Tape or SQ Vinyl LP when originally released by Columbia Records.
But it's not a state of the art Surround Sound release by today's standards. I agree with you on that.

Sometimes a 40+ yr old Surround reissue, like this one, needs to be graded on a curve to be fair on a poll like this one.

A solid 9 from me. All around excellent in every aspect...material, performance, sound quality, mixed from the very beginning with quad in mind. What's especially gratifying is that I did not dare buy this album back in the day, so this is like getting an extra bonus...

Girlfriend: You should get Art Garfunkel's album.
Young AR: Why?
Girlfriend: It's nice and mellow.
Young AR: Whaaaaaa...are you crazy!!!!???
Girlfriend: Giggle

I’ll give this a 9, especially as noted by AR, i wouldnt have actively sought this out when i was younger. anyway, Loving the D-V release of this piece of ‘Art’ and wondering how it was received at the time as im a late 40’s whippersnapper.

Was it considered AM pop or easy listening, did it get FM ‘rock’ air play? It has a very diverse song selection and i wouldnt consider something like ‘waters of march’ to be easy listening, credit to the producer richard perry. Looking back, i’d group Art with Nilsson or james taylor

 

[ClarkNovak]

Was it considered AM pop or easy listening, did it get FM ‘rock’ air play?

Definitely AM pop / Top 40 (a couple of singles released made the 40, including the title track which was a moderately good-sized hit). This got played right up against the Doobie Brothers, Spinners and James Taylor. It got no play on FM stations - not nearly heavy or "meaningful" enough for AOR stations.

 

[key_wiz]

Definitely not AOR, but crossed over into Adult Contemporary which, at the time, were the stations that played Elvis and Sinatra along with “soft rock” stuff like S&G and The Carpenters

 

[atlantasteve]

First D-V purchase. Brings back memories from my years listening to soft rock before I discovered Zeppelin/Rush/ZZ Top. Lovely production.

 

[GOS]

Oh boy. Honestly, I think I listen to this title at least once every 2 weeks. It continues to be just a stunner and one of my most sentimental favorites of all time. This is just so immersive, great detail, and great quadness. Oh, and the music is just wonderful. Geez........

 

[weekendtoy]

Oh boy. Honestly, I think I listen to this title at least once every 2 weeks. It continues to be just a stunner and one of my most sentimental favorites of all time. This is just so immersive, great detail, and great quadness. Oh, and the music is just wonderful. Geez........

Agreed.

While I've always liked Simon and Garfunkel in 'the best of' variety, I never heard any Garfunkel solo stuff. I was really taken back how much I like this album. Coupled with an excellent surround mix, this one is a home run.

 

[fredblue]

(n.b. i put this post in another QQ thread but i'll just leave it here, it sums up everything i feel about this disc.)

Breakaway is a good example of the evolution of my own personal listening journey, an exploration that has led me to awarding 10's to so many of these albums DV have done on SACD, the kind of records that twenty years ago i'd have chuckled at the notion i'd give almost any of them the highest possible rating in an online Poll.

the 1 or 2 tracks i'd heard on the radio aside, Breakaway was an album that didn't register a blip on my radar 15 years ago, the excerpts i'd heard didn't strike that chord with me.. 10 years or so i discovered a Q8 DTS rip online and it got me interested, admittedly almost just by virtue of being something "new" to listen to in surround.. but there was some allure in that Q8 rip because every now and again i'd come back to it, enjoying it more and more but longing for a sound quality upgrade.. 5 years ago i picked up the SQ LP and was totally hooked, the sound and texture of everything snapped into focus (even if the 4-channel imagery/definition didn't but that's SQ for you).. time passed and i got a Q8 of my own to play and started to pick the discrete mix apart, seeing what was going on in each track mixwise and how it affected my interaction with that song, its no "set and forget" mix.. its interpretive of the mood, tempo and lyric of each track and i think that helps keep things fresh.

fast forward to 'now' with the SACD and all the barriers to my total enjoyment of the Quad have been stripped away.

track after track of impeccable performances, beautiful arrangements, sound quality on the SACD that is a whole other level from the Q8 and SQ LP, couched in a fabulous surround mix has me mesmerised and by the end of the disc i'm a quivering mass of emotions.

when a disc stirs your soul in a way it didn't a decade ago and in ways many other discs don't for me, it could never be anything but a 10.

 

[salsdali]

I can say at what was one of the lowest points in my life in having to write a written letter to my sister in prison it was Simon & Garfunkel that helped me dig deep into my soul and helped me express my inner most feelings.

Very few, although there are some, other "bands" or singers have done that for me.

 

[fredblue]

I can say at what was one of the lowest points in my life in having to write a written letter to my sister in prison it was Simon & Garfunkel that helped me dig deep into my soul and helped me express my inner most feelings.

Very few, although there are some, other "bands" or singers have done that for me.

thank you for sharing your deeply personal experience and connection with Simon & Garfunkel. for me they just have that magical quality, together especially but some of their solo work too.. they touch people's hearts and communicate sentiment, often in a simple yet impactful way.. there's pathos, there's feeling, there's sorrow, there's joy, there's drama, there's the everyday, there's beauty, there's darkness, there's light.

Paul Simon is to me one of the finest songwriters of the last 100 years and Art Garfunkel's one of the most affecting voices in the history of recorded Popular Music. The Beatles sang "take a sad song and make it better..", sing a sad song and ultimately bring pleasure, as much as listening to an upbeat song, emotions heightened in the listening process of a reflective piece of music can bring solace, peace and soothe the soul.. i'm gonna play the pants off this disc when i get home tonight!

 

[ar surround]

(n.b. i put this post in another QQ thread but i'll just leave it here, it sums up everything i feel about this disc.)

Breakaway is a good example of the evolution of my own personal listening journey, an exploration that has led me to awarding 10's to so many of these albums DV have done on SACD, the kind of records that twenty years ago i'd have chuckled at the notion i'd give almost any of them the highest possible rating in an online Poll.

the 1 or 2 tracks i'd heard on the radio aside, Breakaway was an album that didn't register a blip on my radar 15 years ago, the excerpts i'd heard didn't strike that chord with me.. 10 years or so i discovered a Q8 DTS rip online and it got me interested, admittedly almost just by virtue of being something "new" to listen to in surround.. but there was some allure in that Q8 rip because every now and again i'd come back to it, enjoying it more and more but longing for a sound quality upgrade.. 5 years ago i picked up the SQ LP and was totally hooked, the sound and texture of everything snapped into focus (even if the 4-channel imagery/definition didn't but that's SQ for you).. time passed and i got a Q8 of my own to play and started to pick the discrete mix apart, seeing what was going on in each track mixwise and how it affected my interaction with that song, its no "set and forget" mix.. its interpretive of the mood, tempo and lyric of each track and i think that helps keep things fresh.

fast forward to 'now' with the SACD and all the barriers to my total enjoyment of the Quad have been stripped away.

track after track of impeccable performances, beautiful arrangements, sound quality on the SACD that is a whole other level from the Q8 and SQ LP, couched in a fabulous surround mix has me mesmerised and by the end of the disc i'm a quivering mass of emotions.

when a disc stirs your soul in a way it didn't a decade ago and in ways many other discs don't for me, it could never be anything but a 10.

What you have written affirms two of my feelings about music:
1) Tastes can expand over time. When this album first came out, my girlfriend said that I should get it. My reaction was as if she had told me that my dog had died. Nowadays I like it quite a bit.
2) Fidelity and a well done mix are just as important as the music and production. Some material shines because of these factors...So much to the point that material for which I had no previous interest I now find highly enjoyable. (Do I dare mention DV quads again? )

 

[fredblue]

What you have written affirms two of my feelings about music:
1) Tastes can expand over time. When this album first came out, my girlfriend said that I should get it. My reaction was as if she had told me that my dog had died. Nowadays I like it quite a bit.
2) Fidelity and a well done mix are just as important as the music and production. Some material shines because of these factors...So much to the point that material for which I had no previous interest I now find highly enjoyable. (Do I dare mention DV quads again? )

so true.. if i had stuck to just all the same old stuff i played when i was a teenybopper it would've been a pretty samey last 20 years of surround music listening.

yes, in some respects i've come full circle in that some of my all-time faves; Queen, Bowie, Elton, Motown, 70s Soul/R&B (especially things like the Philly sound of The O'Jays/Billy Paul/Lou Rawls and the Rock tinged 3+3 era Isley Brothers records) have all been fairly well-served in Surround and that's been wonderful in its own way.

however, a large part of my collection prior to getting into 5.1 and the old Quads comprised of a lot of Rock; Van Halen, Rainbow, Deep Purple, Montrose, Jethro Tull, Boston, The Who, Led Zeppelin.. Tull, The Who and Purple aside, much of which has never been done in any form of surround.. so it was either stick to the same old stuff that had been done in 5.1/Quad, go back to plain stereo all the time which felt like a backward step, or broaden the old musical horizons and try anything in 5.1 and Quad!

well i took the latter route.. and here we are chatting away about Art Garfunkel's smooth little number from 1975, a record that's about as far removed from most of my old comfort zone music as you could get but that i absolutely love.

long live Rock & Roll..!!

oh and give Pop a chance too

 

[popshop]

I grew up with a lot of Simon and Garfunkel, and both solo careers being played in the house. A lot of Breakaway is familiar to me but recently I was struck with the similarities of Garfunkel's "Rag Doll" and another song I love: "Oh well, okay" by Elliott Smith. Anyone who has heard him already knows they were an influence on him, but on this I'd say it's a very direct influence. I like it.

 

[Neil Palfreyman]

Okay, giving this new purchase from DV a first listen and I get it. - I understand all the praise and recommendations - it's astonishing what "The Wizard of Watford" has done with this. Clean, perfect quad balance and great music as well. I'll need to listen a few more times before I rate it, but it will be high!

 

[tomeh]

On my purchase list now. Can't wait to hear it. I'm a big Garfunkel fan. What a voice.

 

[Blockdog]

Get the other one, too.

 

[JediJoker]

Get the other one, too.

BIG second on that one. Angel Clare is a 10/10 reference/demonstration disc.

 

[Healthcare29]

I knew nothing of Art's solo career, not my style & I hated Bright Eyes, #1 for a lifetime, awful song written by the guy who tortured me aged about 5 with the Wombles, but picked this up based on the recommendations here & glad I did, it is firmly in the easy listening genre, nothing wrong with that of course, I'd pick up any Quad Carpenters in a heartbeat if ever.... It's very lush & a subtle mix that I have to crank up loud to appreciate.
I'd imagine that this will sell well for DV, being that it'll cross over & appeal to most tastes,
Gave it an 8 (still a good score) by the end of the disc I'm wanting a bit more aggression.

 

[jaybird100]

Art's voice is as clear as a bell, and the surround mix fits the arrangements. I especially liked the surround mix of the title track. Overall, though, I really liked this one. Now, if I can get my login to work on the DV site, I'll order his other one!