Keane - Hopes and Fears 20 (SDE BluRay #21 w/David Kosten Atmos Mix May 20th, 2024)

[JediJoker]

This should be up my alley based on your description, since I am a huge fan of The Smiths…

Similar vibe, I guess. Don't expect it to sound like The Smiths, though.

 

[dobyblue]

At home playing this half way thru. Very nice songs reading the lyrics describes a certain mood.
My son came in during the first song he liked it...

Ok the dualdisc is very cheap out there no reason not to have a copy.

And this is sparse music.
Honestly the 5.1 mix on this sounds fine to me I don't have golden ears.
What was wrong with it?
I'll play it again as time permits maybe there is a big defect I'm not noticing...

Once you hear the “Fronts and Rears” version it’s hard to go back. See the posts by our very own fredblue here for more info on how you can make the 5.1 mix sound better:

https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...pes-and-fears-sacd-dualdisc-dvd-a.4134/page-3

 

[Tres Discrete]

Similar vibe, I guess. Don't expect it to sound like The Smiths, though.

No - but “happy music and bleak lyrics” are what attracted me to The Smiths all those years ago - a potent combo!

 

[bnyhof]

To all the US folks who have doubt about this one. Buy it, you will not regret. What's that you say? You don't know about keane? Buy it.

I was thinking of stopping at #20, but you convinced me to continue GOS. This plus the news that there will be more 70's rock.

 

[Infomas]

To all the US folks who have doubt about this one. Buy it, you will not regret. What's that you say? You don't know about keane? Buy it.

They got some airplay here in the US. Somehow I came across them, although I was more adventurous than most people back then. They are on a couple of radio station compilations, including KGSR in Austin Texas. For some reason, the first time I heard Bruce Soord, Keane came to mind.

 

[Strilo]

This was another no-brainer for me from SDE. I already pre-ordered!

 

[heegwon]

Ordered! But it was a hard decision.

Apart from the standout tracks, it’s not a consistently solid album for me. But hoping that the new mix will change my mind. If not, I figure I can resell, and hopefully recoup the international postage costs. Should be easy enough in Australia.

 

[James_in_VA]

Thanks. Never have heard it before. Not out of my wheelhouse. A melodic, soft rock band (based on that example only). Worth checking out a bit more.

Thanks Mr. Universe.

If heard and read about Keane in magazines (remember those?) but I barely recognize this track. Surprises me as I was still listening to new music in '03. Anyway, reminds me of Coldplay. Sounds OK to me.

 

[James_in_VA]

I asked about it for PSB mentioning it would be easier to swallow the shipping costs if we could order a couple titles at the same time, Paul told me on X they’d never do that and then chastised me lumping me in with a blanket statement about people always having something to bitch about. . . . .
I posted my order history to show I’ve been supporting the series for a long time (with order numbers scratched out) and he blocked me. . .

@dobyblue
I'm American but I've served and/or worked in 50+ countries. I understand that the pejorative "see you next Tuesday" isn't quite as offensive where Paul is from. That said, I think he was being one.

 

[The Rang]

Ordered! But it was a hard decision.

Apart from the standout tracks, it’s not a consistently solid album for me. But hoping that the new mix will change my mind. If not, I figure I can resell, and hopefully recoup the international postage costs. Should be easy enough in Australia.

Exactly the same for me (except for the Australia part)

 

[Bill B]

Sounds OK to me.

Unfortunately, with all the other releases coming out, not OK enough IMO. I’m passing. There are just too many other releases that I really care about to pick up something I don’t care about.

 

[jefe1]

I'm passing too. The dualdisc is good enough for me and there are too many other discs I want that interest me more.
Can you say The Missing Piece? Coming tomorrow
Affordable Quadios that you can buy in bundles. The semi regular DV offerings. And the 60s compilations I am buying thanks to that @Uncle Obscure and his thread....
Choice is good

 

[Bill B]

I'm passing too. The dualdisc is good enough for me and there are too many other discs I want that interest me more.
Can you say The Missing Piece? Coming tomorrow
Affordable Quadios that you can buy in bundles. The semi regular DV offerings. And the 60s compilations I am buying thanks to that @Uncle Obscure and his thread....
Choice is good

Amazon sent me a notification today that my The Missing Piece will now arrive on April 8th instead of tomorrow. Those bastards.

 

[JoshBasswood]

@dobyblue
I'm American but I've served and/or worked in 50+ countries. I understand that the prerogative "see you next Tuesday" isn't quite as offensive where Paul is from. That said, I think he was being one.

Paul can be very churlish indeed. He knows very well that there are downsides to his business model that he cannot fix easiliy [like: (i) forcing people to pay in their own currency with a not so great exchange rate; (ii) high costs for P&P with no cheaper option for non-tracked/non-insured; (iii) no option to combine existing pre-orders with new ones]. While I can imagine that it is fatiguing to get similar complaints all the time, it is just a no-go to block people; or to not approve posts that contain feedback on these points (which is what he does in the comments section of his website).
If I were him, I would address these issues in a FAQ on his website and leave it at that.
No doubt the logistics of his operation (which have obviously been outsourced to a handling company, at least in part) cannot cater anyone's needs. Especially the combining of outstanding orders and holding back products in order to ship them together is probably a logistical nightmare (very curious how CD Japan manage that). These are things he can simply explain.
But he just cannot help himself and keeps getting his knickers in a twist, even when people are not offensive or unreasonable. And as he is a monopolist for some of these releases, he can get away with that.
However, to put another perspective on it: it also somehow adds to the charm to see that there is an actual human being running the show. A bit like that grumpy owner of the only decent music-store in town.

 

[Mistee]

I'm passing too. The dualdisc is good enough for me and there are too many other discs I want that interest me more.
Can you say The Missing Piece? Coming tomorrow
Affordable Quadios that you can buy in bundles. The semi regular DV offerings. And the 60s compilations I am buying thanks to that @Uncle Obscure and his thread....
Choice is good

Same, sadly.

One of my favourite things is to buy new surround mixes of good albums I don't know (or know that well), and I really thought that was going to be the case here. But I've listened to the album on the internet four times now and it's just not clicking, suggesting to me why I was probably not into Keane the first time around. I'm pretty good at knowing straight away if something's going to grow on me and I have a more eclectic taste in music than most. There are a couple of songs I like, but just not enough.

In the end, I'm not a completist, so I have a few gaps in this series (not many, really, maybe just Gilbert O's ), so it's not too hard to skip this one. Having said that, if you are a completist, and you're not that 'keen' on this one either, this would also be a good spot to stop, as you have a complete set of the first 20.

Also, sadly, I'm finding the other comments in this thread about Paul Sinclair's behaviour to be rather disappointing. Though Anne at SDE (Paul's wife?), whom I've had some email exchanges with, seems very, very nice.

 

[Muppet69]

If it wasn’t for Paul’s shear enthusiasm for making his SDE surround series (even if I don’t personally like quite a few of them and haven’t bought all of them just so I have the complete set) we wouldn’t have the pleasure of having these in the first place. I am in awe that a little website has become such a popular place for music lovers and artists alike to become what it is today. Paul, Anne and whoever else is behind the scenes at SDE deserve a massive thanks for elevating surround music like they have. Impressed is an understatement for the achievements they’ve made so far, so thank you SDE for being there and giving us Music we can Hold in our Hands!!!

 

[Dynamic Editor]

If it wasn’t for Paul’s shear enthusiasm for making his SDE surround series (even if I don’t personally like quite a few of them and haven’t bought all of them just so I have the complete set) we wouldn’t have the pleasure of having these in the first place. I am in awe that a little website has become such a popular place for music lovers and artists alike to become what it is today. Paul, Anne and whoever else is behind the scenes at SDE deserve a massive thanks for elevating surround music like they have. Impressed is an understatement for the achievements they’ve made so far, so thank you SDE for being there and giving us Music we can Hold in our Hands!!!

Err... I think you're confounding stuff here. Someone can be good is one respect but bad in another. If there are valid criticisms to be made, they ought to be made.

 

[Muppet69]

Err... I think you're confounding stuff here. Someone can be good is one respect but bad in another. If there are valid criticisms to be made, they ought to be made.

Possibly, but I was actually rather drunk when I wrote this. Nobody is perfect and what floats one person’s boat might sink another’s so really SDE are doing good thing’s imho.

 

[Mistee]

Possibly, but I was actually rather drunk when I wrote this. Nobody is perfect and what floats one person’s boat might sink another’s so really SDE are doing good thing’s imho.

Pretty certain that was never in question. I'd be very surprised if not everyone here is very happy SDE exists.

 

[GOS]

Keane's debut Hopes and Fears will be issued as an SDE-exclusive blu-ray in May, #21 in the ongoing SDE Surround Series.



The album features three UK top 10 singles in 'Somewhere Only We Know', 'Everybody's Changing' and 'Bedshaped' and was a massive success. It has since gone on to sell more than 2.7m copies in the UK alone, a million copies in America and 6m worldwide.



The SDE blu-ray features a brand new Dolby Atmos Mix by David Kosten (David produced Keane's last studio album Cause and Effect, and created the Atmos Mixes for Tubular Bells and No Parlez) as well as a 5.1 mix and a 96/24 stereo mix.

I notice that on the SDE order page description of this title, they make a point to make it clear the 5.1 and stereo mixes are both new mixes as well. Pasted from SDE...

The SDE blu-ray features a brand new Dolby Atmos Mix by David Kosten (David produced Keane's last studio album Cause and Effect, and created the Atmos Mixes for Tubular Bells and No Parlez) as well as a brand new 5.1 mix and a 96/24 stereo mix.

Neither the new stereo mix nor the 5.1 mix have anything to do with the old mixes on the SACD. Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road has created a warm, detailed and dynamic hi-res stereo remaster from the original unmastered mixes of the album and the 5.1 mix is brand new, derived from the Atmos Mix.

David Kosten: "I’ve mixed the whole album in Dolby Atmos, going back to the original multi-track parts to recreate the complex and multi-layered productions. It’s such an emotionally direct and deceptively simple sounding set of recordings – who knew that there were two dozen or more keyboard parts on many of the songs – synths, CP70, acoustic and electric pianos, pianettes, etc – all lovingly crafted and blended together with ridiculously fine vocals and drums!"