Best CDs of 2007: The Ones That Got Away

Our Best CDs of 2007 list will appear soonly in the Feb/March '08 issue (you may even find it posted on the site before that if you dig around some), but I wanted to take a moment and bulletpoint a ten-spot of discs I enjoyed in '07 that 1) didn't get on my personal Top 10 list (also posted) and 2) didn't get a full review either in the mag or on the site. All 10 of these entries are worthy of your time, your ears, and your dollars. (Yes, I said dollars. No stealing now, ya hear?)

1) The Ike Reilly Assassination: We Belong to the Staggering Evening (Rock Ridge Music). I LOVE Ike. Gritty songwriter. Sweaty performer. Knows how to build/bulldoze a groove and stay in it. You may have even heard a song from this album on Dirty Sexy Money recently ("You're So Plain") without realizing it. More good 'n' grimy tunes are coming in the new year, and I'm eager to receive, baby.

Merry Krimble!

What? You think it's too late for my guide to the season's holiday CDs? HUMBUG! That's why they made Twelve Days of Christmas, Rudolph!

After all, just ask the artist who has the biggest-selling CD of 2007. Springsteen? Kanye? Eagles? Those High School Musical kids? No, it's Josh Groban! His holiday CD, Noël (143/Reprise), has just become the first Christmas album ever to top the charts for 4 weeks in a row. Total sales so far: 2.77 million. It's a collection of the usual faves, from "Silent Night" to "O Come All Ye Faithful."

But if you're looking to get something different from what all the massive faithful are buying, you've come to the right place. Have I listened to all of the discs below? Of course not! Just check out the names/titles (in alphabetical order), scan the blurbs, and dive in!
—Ken Richardson

More Gabriel, more surround

For those of you who enjoyed my piece on Peter Gabriel (and other folks at the AES Convention) in the January 2008 issue (Random Play, page 16), the quotes had to be severely trimmed for the print edition. (What else is new?)

Want more? Here ya go!

First up: Gabriel.

On surround in general: "I like 5.1. From back in the old quad era to today, the idea of being able to immerse people in sound is still an attractive thing for me. In stereo, it really does feel that, sometimes, you haven't quite got the space in which to place everything — especially if you're working on a texture-rich piece. Suddenly, in 5.1, you've got this much wider, bigger space."

Beck's "Odelay" in surround. NOT!

Yes, my friends, the Surround-Sound NOTwatch continues!

Next up: Beck's 1996 album, Odelay. Seems that Geffen is releasing a Deluxe Edition on January 29. CD+DVD-A? No. CD+DVD-V? Sorry. SACD? Nope. DualDisc? Ha! MVI? That's only from Warner, brother.

The answer is: 2 regular ol' CDs. To be sure, there will be 3 bonus tracks on the first disc and a whopping 16 extras on the second disc — with more than a dozen of these recordings making their U.S. debut. But nothing in surround. This despite the fact that Beck has been a genuine fan of multichannel mixes in the past, releasing Sea Change on both DVD-A and SACD and Guero in a Deluxe Edition that did include surround, on DVD-A. Yet another missed opportunity . . .

The Surround-Sound NOTwatch so far:

Beck: Odelay
Michael Jackson: Thriller (see my post below)
Pink Floyd: Oh by the Way (complete boxed set)
U2: The Joshua Tree
Radiohead: Radiohead (boxed set of Capitol albums)
     (for info on those three, see my post below)

Keep the Faith, Multichannel-Music Mavens! —Ken Richardson

Hats Off to Led Zeppelin

Yes, from all accounts, they pulled it off last night.

Exhibit A: Just look at those photos!

Exhibit B: Ben Ratliff's review in The New York Times and David Fricke's review at Rolling Stone's Rock & Roll Daily.

Exhibit C: The set list:

Guitar Hero a Wii Bit Off

Wii users, stop banging on your speakers. It's not your system or your ears. Your Pearl Jam solo is suffering from a glitch in the Wii version of Guitar Hero 3 that's putting out mono sound rather than a multi-channel version advertised as Dolby Pro Logic II on the package. The only way your Guitar Hero 3 will output multi-channel audio is via an update due out early next year.

Activision sent out this mea culpa with a promise of making good--without providing details.
    

"Thriller" in surround. NOT!

Here we don't go again: According to a report on Billboard.com, Epic/Legacy will release a 25th-anniversary edition of Michael Jackson's Thriller on February 12. (Actually, last year was the 25th birthday of this 1982 album, although it did make its mark in 1983. But I digress . . .)

It will include a remix of "Billie Jean" by Kanye West, remixes of "The Girl Is Mine" and "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)" by will.i.am, and a remix of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' " by will.i.am and Akon.

It will not include a surround-sound remix of the entire album by anyone! I've said it once (see my post below on Pink Floyd, U2, and Radiohead), and I'll say it again: missed opportunity!

Not only that — this is actually the second missed opportunity for Thriller. The album appeared on SACD way back in 1999, but that was a stereo-only, non-hybrid disc.

Other goodies on the 25th edition: the "Billie Jean" demo, the rare tracks "Carousel" and "Someone in the Dark," the unreleased track "For All Time," and a bonus DVD with the "Billie Jean," "Beat It," and "Thriller" videos plus the Motown 25 TV performance of "Billie Jean." But no multichannel goodie? That's just bad.

And the surround-sound NOTwatch continues . . . —Ken Richardson

"300" Conquers High-Def Awards

So says the headline of a press release we received about the first annual High-Def Disc Awards, presented primarily by the weekly B2B trade publication Home Media Magazine.

Specifically, 300 won two different awards for its two different high-def formats: The Blu-ray edition grabbed High-Def Title of the Year, while the HD DVD edition nabbed the Best Bonus Feature nod for its blue-screen PIP.

What did we think of the 300 high-def discs? To find out, click here. (For our review of the standard DVD edition, click here.)

And will the film be our fave Blu-ray or HD DVD of the year — or at least, one of our Top 10 plain-vanilla DVDs? Stay tuned for the February/March double issue of Sound & Vision — which just happens to be our 50th Anniversary Issue!

In the meantime, see below for the full HMM press release.
—Ken Richardson

Secret Spice!

I want to say one word to you. Just one word. (Yes, sir.) Are you listening? (Yes, I am.) Branding. (Just how do you mean that, sir?)

Here's how I mean that: When it comes to bands maximizing their potential — when it comes to bands being "successful" — branding is all-important. Remember those days when people howled at Jimmy Page and Pete Townshend for selling music to commercials? Those days are long, long gone. History. Today, it's not just about selling old music to commercials; it's about linking your new music to an entire company. And that's called branding. Good? Bad? Necessary? I'll leave that discussion for another time. But here's an example:

Tonight (Dec. 4) at 10 p.m. (Eastern) on CBS, you can watch the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show — featuring the VS supermodels in the photo above, shown prepping to jet to the show on "Runway Angel," their own Virgin America plane. (Nice to know that the VS supermodels are virgins. But I digress.) In addition to music by Seal and will.i.am, the Spice Girls will appear in their debut reunion performance. But that's just the beginning of the branding between the Girls and Victoria . . .