I've only listened to the Mama album and
Invisible Touch so far. And so far . . . I'm kinda iffy. There was only one truly superb surround song on the Mama album, and that was "It's Gonna Get Better" -- absolutely beautiful. Every other song had
something that made it a little questionable. "Mama" just didn't have any impact, both "That's All" and "Home by the Sea" had an annoying handclap or tambourine beat per four bars coming from directly behind me
and nothing else. It was very distracting! And "Second Home by the Sea" had some moments when the bass just overpowered everything (but maybe that's just my room). Having said that, there were some nice moments -- SHbtS, other than the bass thing, had some really nice atmospherics and POWER! Mike's guitar solo at the end was very clear and strong. "Illegal Alien" actually sounds better in surround -- why, I don't know. But I liked it, and actually found myself singing along to it. I liked having the crowd at the end coming from the surrounds -- made it feel like it was an audience or something. And IGGB was perfect. The other songs weren't great, weren't bad, just didn't stick out to make me remember them just now.
Invisible Touch fared a bit better. "Invisible Touch" sounded like it had been DPLed for most of it, and then Tony's keyboard solo came out of the surrounds, but somewhat artificial-sounding. I dunno. "Tonight, Tonight, Tonight" started out with some great IMPACT and just got better and better. Nice atmospherics, tight bass, very nice. "Land of Confusion" thundered along such that I was dancing in my seat! Same with Domino, actually. Take note that on "Anything She Does", the song goes on a little bit longer than on the original mix -- it's only a few seconds, but I was like wha-? And my favourite track on the album, "The Brazilian" made me so happy! Good use of surrounds, but that (I don't know what to call it) fire-breathing sound that comes at the top of the last verse had zero impact. But that was made up for by some sounds I can only describe as "hoo hoo ha ha" coming from the surrounds that startled me, but in a good way! At first, I was like, what the hell is that? But very quickly, they just became this cool driving force that added to the song in a terrific way.
All in all, I liked IT a bit better than the Mama album, strictly from a surround point of view. I can't remember if Nick Davis did this with the albums from the first box set, but in these two albums, he spread Phil's lead vocals along the front three speakers. I dunno why. It doesn't make much sense -- anchor the voice in the centre, that's why it's there! And Nick tends to place ALL the effects strictly in the surrounds, rather than have them move about or come from unexpected places. It makes for sometimes predictable use of surround, but there are occasional surprises.
These two albums are LOUD, which I guess means that Nick is still heavy with the compression. I don't have a gigantic problem with it, though. I love the music so much, I can get past it.
Don't look for a huge improvement in sonic quality, though. Hugh Padgham (sp?) did such a great job on the original mixes that the sonic improvement is much less noticeable than on the previous box set.
So far . . . I like it. A lot. A whole lot. But I'm much more a hardcore Genesis freak than I am an audioholic. So take this quick review with a grain of salt.
cheers,
supervij
