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October 24, 2007 - 7:43pm
#1
OK, so I bought "Raising Sand"...
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Great review.
I still can't get over the concept of the two of them making an album together - but I haven't heard it.
If you had stated this first I would have stopped reading.
Buddha, I bought this CD on your recommendation.
I am incredibly impressed. Astounding music making, fascinating stuff. Tremendous musicianship from both the vocalists and the instrumentalists.
You were not exaggerating.
I primarily listen to classical music and am far from easy to impress with any form of pop/contemporary music.
Further observations:
The overall sound is a lot like what Daniel Lanois created for Wrecking Ball. For example, the reverb and other ambient sounds leap out from compression as effect. T-Bone Burnett apparently likes Mr. Lanois' work.
Bass and reverb always come up in level in the quite spots of the music to fill the spaces - an interesting effect, but it gets exhausting. There is relentless sound pressure.
It is highly compressed. The entire CD has a dynamic range of 4 dB RMS.
I wonder how delicious it would sound if it had not been so processed.
Dead on about the Lanois-ity of the sound!
I tended to be forgiving of the dynamics because of the subdued style of the performances.
I wonder if there could be a more Hi Fi mix somewhere. I ordered the LP for a friend, I'll make him play it for me and report back.
The pace of the percussion on a few of the songs reminds me of Hounddog...the David Hidalgo project of many years ago.
Very enjoyable disc...makes my commute much more pleasant.
I was ready to go to Amazon or Deepdiscount and buy this, but highly compressed music fatigues me in a matter of minutes. What a shame. So-called modern recording technology rears its ugly head once again.
I've been listening to this CD again. It sounds better than I thought it should, given my earlier determination that it had quite limited dynamic range. Hmmmm...thought I.
I looked at the entire CD again. I was wrong. The overall RMS value of the entire CD is -12.2+dB with the greatest value of -0.1, a crest factor of over 12dB.
It is a highly processed studio recording and compression is used as an effect. However it isn't nearly as squashed as I had initially concluded. This isn't bad at all for a modern pop(how do characterize this music?) recording.
Sorry.
The music and performances remain superb. It is a CD well worth buying.
Thanks for your re-evaluation, Elk!
While this would not be on my 'must have' list, I think my wife might enjoy it, and maybe me, too. I guess I will give it a try in the near future due to your comments.
I am still embarrassed...
SUPERB REVIEW. Me hooked on vinyl double...wassa differunce betwixt vinyl and cd??? Do I need to buy a cd to find out...I even took my Goldring 1042 out of the box to try this one...gee...good old fashioned chemistry and that band is something else again...only got Plant's other solo stuff on cd and it's...okay...but this is something else...and it does get better on each listen...
Hi, Dormston!
Glad you like the album!
Elk, I was sitting here wondering why the heck I am not digging Lyle Lovett's new disc, and then BOOM! It hit me, thanks to your post, I bet it's over compressed.
Sometimes with a flawed wine, I will try to taste around the flaw; and I probably try to find reasons to be forgiving of music, but "It's Not Big It's Large" just seems so relentless, I can't get into it.
How do you measure?
Very interesting that you happen to mention Mr. Lovett's latest. I recently read how it is brutally compressed and clipped. Yet many of his earlier recordings have superb sound, such as "Joshua Judges Ruth".
I'll second that! All the CURB albums I have heard have absolutely SOTA sound with 'Joshua', 'I Love Everybody' and 'The Road to Ensenada' being my personal favourites. These are among the best 16/44.1 recordings I have heard and right up there with esoteric audiophile fare like Stockfisch.
I remember hearing 'Church' from JJR played many years ago at a hifi show (actually, I think it was the Stereophile show in NY which I visited on my honeymoon - but that's another story!) Dave Wilson was using it to show off his latest speakers and playing it at his usual 'demonstration' levels. Hugely impressive (particularly the dynamics) but the sound was just not my cup of tea. I never have gotten on with Wilson speakers.
Coincidentally, the first time I heard Alison Krauss was also at a show where the SACD of 'New Favourite' was being used to demonstrate the top-end dCS rig with Nagra electronics driving Verity Audio Parsifal Encores. NOW YOU'RE TALKING! Hearing 'Let Me Touch You For a While' and 'The Lucky One' was utterly spellbinding and quite literally, sold me the system. Those were the days!
Hi, Elk and Struts!
Thanks for the replies.
I agree, previous Lyle Lovett discs have been much better.
I wonder if they'll do a remaster of this new disc...I'm a fan and I find it unlistenable.
Cheers, guys!
I, too, am a fan of Lyle and was disappointed with his latest release. Couldn't put my finger on the reason why, but now I know...compression, never gave it a thought.
This makes me wonder if any of these artist ever listen to the final product, that you and I purchase. Buyer beware!
I just received the LP a couple of days ago. The vinyl was not as nice as I usually see from Rounder. Both LPs were slightly warped and there were some light scratches at the beginning of one LP. Nothing major though so I kept it. I do not know if the tracks are ordered the same as they are on the CD, but I found the first LP kind of boring actually. The 2nd LP was quite a bit better (starts with Trampled Rose). The 2nd LP has some nice atmospheric tracks and one "rocker" - Fortune Teller - with an honest to God lead guitar solo. The recording is a little bit strange, not bad at all, just a little different from what I have heard from T-Bone Burnett before. I then pulled out the only Daniael Lanois album I have - For the Beauty Of Winona - and I guess I would have to agree that Raising Sand does have some of those characteristics. Overall though, I like Raising Sand. It was something different for both the artists and worked out rather well.
Mike
Greetings. This might be pure coincidence, but as such thick vinyl (196 and 198g for mine, scales need calibrating so maybe not 100% correct) I also was astounded to find the dratted things warped! I put it down to the mail as I got one of the first releases I could grab...but since I read your post, now I am not so sure...I was going to do my usual sandwich between two plates of glass alongside the chicken casserole sometime soon and never thought much about it until now...wonder if there's more of the same or is it not worth bothering about? The thing that struck me was that I could find no damage whatever on the packing, sleeves or gatefold...still plays okay if you take your eyes away from the revolving mountain peaks of passing plastic...remind me again how good digital is and how it never seems to get warped...
Hi All,
Does anyone know if the vinyl mix is different to the CD mix. Wilco have done this recently with Sky Blue Sky, with brilliant results. Raising Sand is one of my top three of 2007, but I am sure that a "vinyl mix" would be even better
Joe, what are your other top two?
We are about due for a "Best of the Year" thread.
Top 5 in no particular order
Raising Sand - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Sky Blue Sky - Wilco
Comicopera - Robert Wyatt
Boxer - The National
Sound Of Silver - LCD Soundsystem
Re-issue
Steve McQueen (special edition with acoustic versions cd) - Prefab Sprout
NOW you're talking! See my review (along with a bunch of others) on Amazon (and note that still not a single reviewer has bestowed less than 5 stars) to see just how wholeheartedly I agree!
Guys, I was just starting university when the Sprouts broke through and I had the pleasure to see them live several times. My impression is that their mainstream success came long after they had released their best material and that it consequently never received the recognition it deserved but I didn't mind because I had 'discovered' them.
This is without doubt my favourite album of all time and this reissue has superb SQ. So if you didn't catch it first time 'round don't worry. This time 'round it's soooo much better!
Sorry folks, Troll the Luddite (aka Dormston) here, and I just have to post that my warrrrrrpped vinyl has not gone into oblivion...yet..and that (with no liability of any kind!) folks are on the case and looking good! This could be the long awaited revival of the black plastic as Rounder are currently demonstrating service above and beyond the call - and all that..AND you can see bends in analogue stuff...tee hee...you do not have to listen to your brain playing tricks...remind me again how confusing digital thingies are...
OOPS, I forgot to vote...this is number one...what comes next...ANYONE HEARD OF SEASICK STEVE??? HE WAS JUST ON A NEW YEAR SHOW AND GOSH...IS THAT GUY GOOD OR WHAT??? A Mississippi foot stomping box tied to a three string guitar...GOOD GRIEF...it must be a wonderful dream!!!
Buddha - I picked up the Spoon CD on your recommendation (my thoughts in the Spoon thread) and was not disappointed. So, I went looking for this locally just before Christmas. The collector in me lucked at at the Circuit City in the neighbourhood. I found a copy still with its slipcase (there were others without). I also lucked out with Under the Blacklight by Rilo Kiley and got one in the original purple case (good catchy pop tunes, the girl can sing).
I listened to Raising Sand while working today (which means the headphone rig) and enjoyed it. A tune or two seemed out of place, but, I'll have to listen again before deciding. Out of curiosity, I popped it into the transport of my main speaker rig and was impressed by the front to back layering on this recording. When I have time, I'm going to have to listen to this on the big rig--the headphone experience paled by comparison, even just checking out snippets.