Hi Gang,
In reviewing Elvis CDs I always search for the positives.
After all, what's the point in saying that the 'Double Trouble' or 'Paradise Hawaiian Style' FTDs contained bad songs?
People who buy them presumably like the material and if there are some fun new outakes, Elvis studio interaction or audio improvement then that is what is worth investigating.
Even a real stinker like 'PHS' is pretty good fun as presented by FTD.
Of course not all of us are lucky enough to afford a good quality HiFi to be able to appreciate the great work that Kevan Budd, Sebastian etc do with the new Elvis releases.
I am sure that a lot of fans will listen to the DSD audio improved CDS in their cars, on low-end stereo systems, even on iPods.
However BMG obviously know that it IS a major selling-point since they regularly place stickers on the CD covers "DSD audio from Master recordings" etc.
However in the end it IS assuredly the content that matters the most.
So let's get on to 'An American Trilogy'.
Yes it is a great early 1972 live track selection.
agreed.
Maybe it could have done with filling up with more Opening Night tunes but, hey, perhaps I'm just being greedy.
But reading Johnny Savage's FECC review here today ...
"the improvement in audio quality by engineer Lene Reidel, as with the entire CD, is terrific."
Yes, the Opening Night is fabulously improved over the old bootleg, but the
"Whole CD" - I don't think so!
Lene Reidel may not have the luxury of labours-of-love time that die-hards like Kevan & Sebastian do but this CD is a real step backwards from previous issues of the same material.
Did she not listen to the 'Burning Love' compile which had a far more impressive high-end?
Listen to the crispness to Ronnie Tutt's cymbals on earlier 'It's Over' releases.
What about Vic Anesini's wonderful work with 'The Impossible Dream' on 'Elvis: Inspirational' which positively shimmers, and is better still?
Did Lene never listen to the most recently released version of the work she was doing?
(And yes, there is a digital splat at 04:09 on 'It's Impossible')
But what really s**ts me here is even noticeable on my crappy car stereo!
What on earth is James Burton's guitar doing mixed to the left and Glen D Hardin's piano stuck on the right channel with the orchestra strings and backing vocals?
Was Glen's piano ever on the right of the stage next to The Stamps? I don't think so.
I even had to check that the CD channels weren't mistakenly reversed. But they are not, she has positively mixed it this way. (Bring back Dennis!).
But does this actually make any difference to the music?
Well actually to me it does, and that's why I noticed.
Did Glen Hardin arrange 'It's Impossible'?
If he did, he should be most annoyed as now that fabulous piano intro (left channel on all releases so far) is buried on the right channel with the orchestra. It's hardly there at all. Same on 'It's Over'.
In fact Glen's piano is messed around like this on the whole CD.
And then what about that lovely part where J D Sumner joins in with Elvis on 'The Impossible Dream'?
Well guess what, that's also (nearly) mixed out too.
Maybe Lene wanted to present us with 'different' mixes so that we weren't buying the same mixed tracks all over again, but I doubt it. The multi-track part of the CD overall is missing high-end treble, so something more is going on.
Now as I said, I do look for the good things in reviews so I won't add so much audio detail to my EIN review - but this is a great forum to share my feelings as you all understand.
I hope that Johnny Savage paid for his 'An American Trilogy' FTD as I did.
Yes, the content is very fine indeed as my EIN review will state, but I would like to see Johnny Savage explain how he thinks that
"the improvement in audio quality by engineer Lene Reidel is terrific on the entire CD".
Cheers
Piers