I was listening to the old Elektra quad Lp of this one the other day, and it IS a different listening experience compared to the later DVD-A 5.1 remix. Already knew that, but for once I took the time to listen to both in tandem (quad, then 5.1) and take a few notes.
What's so different? A few things:
1. The original quad is a more 'in your face' mix to showcase the format, while the 5.1 is a more thoughtful, and at times, subtle mix, with better isolated bass, for instance.
2. The 5.1 mix is more polished. By that I mean it has a pure 'studio ambiance,' a 'you are there' feeling that is not often apparent with the quad mix. The drawback, however, is that the overall sound tends toward the antiseptic. It all blends together very well, but it's not the active mix that the quad was. From first song to last, there is little variety, for instance, in instrument placement. Which makes sense, but the fun of the old quad was that this didn't seem much of a concern, except to make sure Carly's vocals were reasonably up front...
3. In the 5.1 mix, Carly is the show; all instrumentation and other vox is secondary to her lead vocal presence. For me this is a more intimate mix, but something has been lost, because the session musicians seem with the new mix to be just that, session guys in a studio, rather than the more cohesive band one (or I) thought was heard in stereo and quad(an illusion, of course, but that's the magic of mixing--to make the painstaking and rehearsed and redone seem spontaneous).
4. The 5.1 mix is discrete, but less discrete and reckless (yeh, that's the word) than the quad--at times. A blatant example is on "Waited So Long," when James Taylor cheekily sings "She's no virgin" near the end (and who knew better, right?
). The old quad had this vocal not only isolated, but LOUDLY isolated; the 5.1 spreads him out and softens the effect. In fact, the entire mix is 'soft' compared to the harsher, louder quad. But this is not necessarily bad: on "It Was So Easy," Carly's lead vocal is isolated in the center speaker, and if you listen to just that channel, she really comes alive--you can feel her voice, hear her breath. The center channel is a joy in and of itself just to listen to her. [Although all of Carly's vocals are isolated for the most part, only a few are truly so, most having a little studio ambiance or piano bleeding in].
Bottom line, though, is much changed between quad and 5.1, more differences than I would really want to list. On "It Was So Easy," the ragged, almost weird sound of the guitar at the break is much more conventional sounding. Worse, the backing vocals of this song are buried compared to the louder elements in quad. And that's pretty much the key difference: in quad, Carly's vocals were as loud as her backing, but on the 5.1, she dominates completely. Even "Night Owl"--JT's old Flying Machine rocker--is rendered a bit muted here (and no, not just because the tapes were probably NR'd somewhere along the way). It is a clean sound, no mistake, but if ever Carly needed a bit of a messy sound, "Night Owl" is the one, and in stereo and quad, it had that messiness, but that's gone in 5.1.
So the fan really needs both versions, because both have pluses and minuses, and due to the best aspects of both, I'd hate to have to choose.
ED