I really, really wanted to be blown away here - but was seriously disappointed.
It was allegedly a DVD-A in stereo, but this is not true as the Audio_TS folder is empty. It's a DVD-Video disc in all but name with additional ROM content, featuring - wait for it - a Ringtone creator, a set of MP3 files and some IM icons & some computer wallpaper.
That's it, folks.
Oh - I forgot the documentary on the making of the album. Whoop-de-bloody-do.
You are supposed to register the disc and get exclusive content, but when you actually take the trouble to do this you find out there is, er, nothing extra available yet. Apparently it might happen some time in the future.
There is one more 'bonus' feature - registering your comments on the release. I waded through this to have 30 minutes worth of typing rejected as my post code is not a US/Canada one.
Peeved?
You bet I'm peeved, as the stereo mix is punchy, dynamic & brutally overcompressed again. But it still has the depth we expect from High Rez.
Switch to the DD stream, and the sound quality takes a nosedive right down as low as you can get. It's muddy, badly defined & a bloody mess to be brutally frank. All that I can think when I hear this is "What would the stereo heads say f they were restricted to the MP3 versions?" They'd go potty is what would happen, yet Surround fans are supposed to be grateful for the crumbs in DD. The thing was not mixed in DD, so WTF?
The biggest worry here is that if we all boycott these releases, the labels will claim there is no demand for multichannel - and stop.
Yet if we buy them, they will claim we are happy with DD mixes - and indeed have already started this process.
If you're buying this for the surround whatever you do, do NOT play the stereo or you will end up as annoyed & irritated as I am.
5-10 for the surround & the High Rez stereo.
(Although at 3Gb for the 24/96 LPCM, think what could have been done with MLP Lossless instead - a 50% reduction in size. The disc is only 6.35Gb, so it's not as if there is no room to do the job properly).
Lose all points for ignoring the DVD-A fans, and not releasing in Lossless but instead adding on a shitty documentary that 99% of buyers will never even bother playing.