Thanks, guys-- very enjoyable. I'm enjoying the Joni Mitchell box set (I had none of her stuff in my collection). Having just completed editing a Bill Nelson retrospective for my YT channel (coming soon-ish), it's nice to hear about solo releases appearing. I bought quite a few new releases in 2024 (Norah Jones, Travis, English Teacher, Public Service Broadcasting, etc.) , so I agree with Mike that I don't need to grab every re-re-release & new mix of older albums.
Great summary. My take is a long one, so apologies in advance... The Airpods Max give a terrible Atmos experience despite all the hype. They're just stereo headphones. I sense no surround-sound at all when I play them. Same as my 4K Panasonic TV that claims to have all-round speakers that can "present" 3D sound from Atmos. It's a nonsense! Apple Music has been my saviour this year. They have so many titles in "lossless" Atmos and to my ears they sound as good as physical (I am 67 so my hearing is probably battered, although I CAN hear the difference beween eg a 320K MP3 file and a lossless FLAC). Like you, I'm a huge Steven Wilson surround sound remix fan. Loved his Ultravox "Lament". Two Jethro Tull surround sound mixes this year ("Bursting Out" and "A Christmas Album" are greeat although some critics didn't like the "Christmas Album" surround sound mix). My personal favourite surround sound physical purchase was a second-hand surround sound Blu-Ray purchase of Elton Johns's "Yellow Brick Road" from 2014 which was full of "Wow" moments. By contrast "Diamonds" was a big disappointment - not one single Wow moment for me there. Many of the mixes are just plain dull and lazy, especially the earlier songs and the duets where they just pump both vocalists to the centre speaker which sounds somewhat mushy. Since SDE have released this expect nothing but a glowing review from them, but ignore it, as other critics and some of the comments below have done. It's a lazy release although it does have a crazy high number of tracks (nearly 50 in surround sound) so worthy of consideration. Pet Shop Boys "Nonetheless" standalone Blu-Ray release was probably my biggest disappointment surround sound wise as they're a favourite band of mine and to me their music would be ideal for a good surround sound mix. Against expectations, I do think the Brian Ferry "Retrospective" album sounds great (on Apple Music) in surround sound. Other highlights for me this year were David Gilmore's "Luck and Strange" as you mentioned, plus Hawkwind's "Doremi Fasol Tido" which gave us two Blu-Ray surround sound albums ("Doremi" and the "Greasy Truckers" Live album). "In Search of Space" released earlier in 2024 was very good too. On Apple Streaming I've also enjoyed the return of Flock of Seagulls with some good surround sound mixes from their forthcoming album. All that beind said, I think physical is on the way out. The last Beatles box set had no Blu-Ray even though the price remained high. The expensive Queen I box set had no Blu-Ray, and it's getting harder to find them even in the most expensive "Super Deluxe" box sets. The big problem for me personally is the fact the major record labels are not putting out the surround sound releases themselves (Thank you RCA for breaking that rule and actually putting "Ziggy Stardust" out yourselvves - more like this please) but deciding instead to let a monopoiy in the form of SDE put them out. All monopolies invariably have poor customer service, but monopolies run by incompetent fanbois are even worse! The Tears for Fears release was shipped in a standard Blu-Ray case instead of the usual white HD Audio case of the rest of the series used and when other people complained on social media the only response from SDE was "They delivered the wrong thing". Not "I didn't get what I ordered and am chasing to get you what both you and I paid for". Just "They delivered the wrong thing". Can you imagine a major label behaving that way? The next release - the Thompson Twins - was even worse. The title track in DTS 5.1 was instrumental with no vocals instead of the full vocal track it should have been,. Complaints on social media were initially ignored until the protests grew so that SDE finally said they were talking to BMG. Weeks later, they're still talking apparently. I wouldn't hoild your breath waiting for a corrected disc or even a basic update! Worse, without warning buyers, SDE's "Nasal Nerd" decided to change the packaging which "costs an extra £5" without telling anybody in advance. Suddenly we have one title that sticks out half an inch more on the shelf than any other titles in the series (including subsequent releases) and I believe that extra £5 price increase has stayed in place despite production going back to the cheaper format (presumably because nobody liked the so-called perfectly designed new one). And this is "Super deluxe"? From a guy constantly berating companies, in his reviews of box sets made by companies that don't sell him their product, for the most incredibly minor issues ("they didn't spot varnish the cover" etc etc). The hypocrisy between demonising them for what they do vs tryiing to justify it when he does it s staggering! When I pointed out that the new slipcases were big and baggy with the new format and poorly designed, and sent a photo to show how bad it was the only response from the Nasal Nerd was to say that he had architected and "designed" the product to be the best it could be and he considered it "perfect". It's a frigging slipcase not the Taj Mahal for goodness sake. My photo showed the real story but heh, let's just ignore it! I was then blocked from SDE's Twitter and Facebook accounts and an order for "Diamonds" was cancelled less than 5 minutes after I placed it. The guy is so pathetic he gave the reason "unforseen circumstances" instead of "I'm not only the thin skinned, arrogant, incompetent , narcissistic hypocrite that you and others have shown me to be, but also spiteful and petty with no idea of what customer suppoort is either". Add on the fact that the guy has only a two week order window and insists on taking money months in advance of a release so he can earn interest, and you realise you've been a mug for buying products from the guy. And, by the way, if The Cure can put out a nice bespoke package with two CDs and a surround sound Blu-Ray for about half the price of what SDE charges for a bog standard non-"super deluxe" package with a single disc are you REALLY getting value for money, or just being ripped off by a monopoly run by a fanboi? But don't just take my word for how bad the Nasal Nerd is - go check out the reviews on TrustPilot. The guy running it is a jerk, and it's crazy that for example Elton John's company can sell nonsense like "a glitter cassette vesion exclusive" directly (is there ANY demand for such a thing?) but give the crown jewels of surround sound mixes away to such an obnoxious amateur instead of putting it out themselves. Pesonally, I'm writing to all the major labels asking them to put titles out themselves instead of giving them to SDE. I would encourage others to do the same an d maybe things can change. Terrible customer service aside, SDE did me a huge favour in stopping me from ordering them (and othes alerting me as to how biased they are in their box set reviews, giving rave reviews to those who give them surround sound mixes, and slagging releases from those who don't), realising that Apple Streaming is my only real alternative option, and I should have switched to them years ago. A much bigger catalogue (exponentially higher) is great, but titles a year or more ahead of the equivalent physical release from SDE is the icing on the cake. It's a goldmine, albeit one that requires an ongoing (but affordable) monthly subscription. More to the point in terms of physical media itself, we've lost all the big Blu-Ray hardware vendors, so as players break down it's going to get more difficult to find replacement players. Yes Apple are another evil monopoly, but they have good customer support and at the moment the service itself is fantastic value for money for surround fans (assuming you have the right home setup - don't rely on headphones!)
Apple are not "evil," Ian! You said yourself that their customer service is good. I know that their tech is solid & innovative (I've been in IT for 30 years) and Apple Music pays artists better than Spotify for streaming.
@@patbarr1351 They also price gouge the heck out of very basic things like cables (deliberately designed to fray) and stop competition and are frequently fined by the EU. Their Apple Store charges on developers are outrageously high (30%!) given they do so little. They lied and lied about the issue with iPhone batteries deliberately degrading performance as new versions of ios came in a few years ago to force users to upgrade to newer more expensive models. And they've just had to hand over more than 90 million for listening in to users via Siri without users permission and passing data on to advertisers. That's before we even get into exploitation of child labour in China. Sorry but you are beyond deluded if you think they AREN'T evil.
DIAMONDS sounds great for the stereo, but the Atmos is a mixed bag and none of the older songs sound quite as good as their 5.1 SA-CD versions. Still, lie the stereo-only ROLLING STONES GRRRR! hits set (now out of print) sounds great and the latter songs in both hots sets have never sounded so good digitally. Too bad I missed the Blu-ray Audio of the new album by CROWDED HOUSE, but it sold out.
Thanks for the shoutout, Mike, and for putting me in with such esteemed company.
Luck and Strange is an instant classic and an immersive joy.
Thanks, guys-- very enjoyable. I'm enjoying the Joni Mitchell box set (I had none of her stuff in my collection). Having just completed editing a Bill Nelson retrospective for my YT channel (coming soon-ish), it's nice to hear about solo releases appearing. I bought quite a few new releases in 2024 (Norah Jones, Travis, English Teacher, Public Service Broadcasting, etc.) , so I agree with Mike that I don't need to grab every re-re-release & new mix of older albums.
Glad to see you again! Happy 2025
Thanks guys...good video...Mark Williams
Ordered ‘Pyramid ‘ BluRay.’ By the Alan Parsons Project. Honorable mentions ‘Fuse” by Everything But The Girl and ‘Animals ‘ by Pink Floyd.
Appreciate your reviews, just waiting for a good price for some of them 🤞🎸🎶👍😎
Hopefully, Jethro Tull "Under Wraps" gets the remix deluxe edition released this year. Thanks for the post.
Great summary. My take is a long one, so apologies in advance...
The Airpods Max give a terrible Atmos experience despite all the hype. They're just stereo headphones. I sense no surround-sound at all when I play them. Same as my 4K Panasonic TV that claims to have all-round speakers that can "present" 3D sound from Atmos. It's a nonsense!
Apple Music has been my saviour this year. They have so many titles in "lossless" Atmos and to my ears they sound as good as physical (I am 67 so my hearing is probably battered, although I CAN hear the difference beween eg a 320K MP3 file and a lossless FLAC).
Like you, I'm a huge Steven Wilson surround sound remix fan. Loved his Ultravox "Lament". Two Jethro Tull surround sound mixes this year ("Bursting Out" and "A Christmas Album" are greeat although some critics didn't like the "Christmas Album" surround sound mix). My personal favourite surround sound physical purchase was a second-hand surround sound Blu-Ray purchase of Elton Johns's "Yellow Brick Road" from 2014 which was full of "Wow" moments. By contrast "Diamonds" was a big disappointment - not one single Wow moment for me there. Many of the mixes are just plain dull and lazy, especially the earlier songs and the duets where they just pump both vocalists to the centre speaker which sounds somewhat mushy. Since SDE have released this expect nothing but a glowing review from them, but ignore it, as other critics and some of the comments below have done. It's a lazy release although it does have a crazy high number of tracks (nearly 50 in surround sound) so worthy of consideration. Pet Shop Boys "Nonetheless" standalone Blu-Ray release was probably my biggest disappointment surround sound wise as they're a favourite band of mine and to me their music would be ideal for a good surround sound mix. Against expectations, I do think the Brian Ferry "Retrospective" album sounds great (on Apple Music) in surround sound.
Other highlights for me this year were David Gilmore's "Luck and Strange" as you mentioned, plus Hawkwind's "Doremi Fasol Tido" which gave us two Blu-Ray surround sound albums ("Doremi" and the "Greasy Truckers" Live album). "In Search of Space" released earlier in 2024 was very good too. On Apple Streaming I've also enjoyed the return of Flock of Seagulls with some good surround sound mixes from their forthcoming album.
All that beind said, I think physical is on the way out. The last Beatles box set had no Blu-Ray even though the price remained high. The expensive Queen I box set had no Blu-Ray, and it's getting harder to find them even in the most expensive "Super Deluxe" box sets.
The big problem for me personally is the fact the major record labels are not putting out the surround sound releases themselves (Thank you RCA for breaking that rule and actually putting "Ziggy Stardust" out yourselvves - more like this please) but deciding instead to let a monopoiy in the form of SDE put them out. All monopolies invariably have poor customer service, but monopolies run by incompetent fanbois are even worse! The Tears for Fears release was shipped in a standard Blu-Ray case instead of the usual white HD Audio case of the rest of the series used and when other people complained on social media the only response from SDE was "They delivered the wrong thing". Not "I didn't get what I ordered and am chasing to get you what both you and I paid for". Just "They delivered the wrong thing". Can you imagine a major label behaving that way? The next release - the Thompson Twins - was even worse. The title track in DTS 5.1 was instrumental with no vocals instead of the full vocal track it should have been,. Complaints on social media were initially ignored until the protests grew so that SDE finally said they were talking to BMG. Weeks later, they're still talking apparently. I wouldn't hoild your breath waiting for a corrected disc or even a basic update! Worse, without warning buyers, SDE's "Nasal Nerd" decided to change the packaging which "costs an extra £5" without telling anybody in advance. Suddenly we have one title that sticks out half an inch more on the shelf than any other titles in the series (including subsequent releases) and I believe that extra £5 price increase has stayed in place despite production going back to the cheaper format (presumably because nobody liked the so-called perfectly designed new one). And this is "Super deluxe"? From a guy constantly berating companies, in his reviews of box sets made by companies that don't sell him their product, for the most incredibly minor issues ("they didn't spot varnish the cover" etc etc). The hypocrisy between demonising them for what they do vs tryiing to justify it when he does it s staggering! When I pointed out that the new slipcases were big and baggy with the new format and poorly designed, and sent a photo to show how bad it was the only response from the Nasal Nerd was to say that he had architected and "designed" the product to be the best it could be and he considered it "perfect". It's a frigging slipcase not the Taj Mahal for goodness sake. My photo showed the real story but heh, let's just ignore it! I was then blocked from SDE's Twitter and Facebook accounts and an order for "Diamonds" was cancelled less than 5 minutes after I placed it. The guy is so pathetic he gave the reason "unforseen circumstances" instead of "I'm not only the thin skinned, arrogant, incompetent , narcissistic hypocrite that you and others have shown me to be, but also spiteful and petty with no idea of what customer suppoort is either". Add on the fact that the guy has only a two week order window and insists on taking money months in advance of a release so he can earn interest, and you realise you've been a mug for buying products from the guy. And, by the way, if The Cure can put out a nice bespoke package with two CDs and a surround sound Blu-Ray for about half the price of what SDE charges for a bog standard non-"super deluxe" package with a single disc are you REALLY getting value for money, or just being ripped off by a monopoly run by a fanboi?
But don't just take my word for how bad the Nasal Nerd is - go check out the reviews on TrustPilot. The guy running it is a jerk, and it's crazy that for example Elton John's company can sell nonsense like "a glitter cassette vesion exclusive" directly (is there ANY demand for such a thing?) but give the crown jewels of surround sound mixes away to such an obnoxious amateur instead of putting it out themselves. Pesonally, I'm writing to all the major labels asking them to put titles out themselves instead of giving them to SDE. I would encourage others to do the same an d maybe things can change.
Terrible customer service aside, SDE did me a huge favour in stopping me from ordering them (and othes alerting me as to how biased they are in their box set reviews, giving rave reviews to those who give them surround sound mixes, and slagging releases from those who don't), realising that Apple Streaming is my only real alternative option, and I should have switched to them years ago. A much bigger catalogue (exponentially higher) is great, but titles a year or more ahead of the equivalent physical release from SDE is the icing on the cake. It's a goldmine, albeit one that requires an ongoing (but affordable) monthly subscription.
More to the point in terms of physical media itself, we've lost all the big Blu-Ray hardware vendors, so as players break down it's going to get more difficult to find replacement players. Yes Apple are another evil monopoly, but they have good customer support and at the moment the service itself is fantastic value for money for surround fans (assuming you have the right home setup - don't rely on headphones!)
Apple are not "evil," Ian! You said yourself that their customer service is good. I know that their tech is solid & innovative (I've been in IT for 30 years) and Apple Music pays artists better than Spotify for streaming.
@@patbarr1351 They also price gouge the heck out of very basic things like cables (deliberately designed to fray) and stop competition and are frequently fined by the EU. Their Apple Store charges on developers are outrageously high (30%!) given they do so little. They lied and lied about the issue with iPhone batteries deliberately degrading performance as new versions of ios came in a few years ago to force users to upgrade to newer more expensive models. And they've just had to hand over more than 90 million for listening in to users via Siri without users permission and passing data on to advertisers.
That's before we even get into exploitation of child labour in China. Sorry but you are beyond deluded if you think they AREN'T evil.
2025: New Dream Theater in surround in March
DIAMONDS sounds great for the stereo, but the Atmos is a mixed bag and none of the older songs sound quite as good as their 5.1 SA-CD versions. Still, lie the stereo-only ROLLING STONES GRRRR! hits set (now out of print) sounds great and the latter songs in both hots sets have never sounded so good digitally. Too bad I missed the Blu-ray Audio of the new album by CROWDED HOUSE, but it sold out.
Don't miss the wonderful 5.1 mix of Pure Reason Revolution's "Coming Up To Consciousness" They released a cd+DVD set. Bruce Soord guests on guitar.
You all skipped a very important album. Grobschnitt: Solar Music Live Remix 2024. An OUTSTANDING release!