Green [CD & DVD-A] [Digipak] - R.E.M.

R.E.M. has re-released a number of their albums in DVD-Audio format. Green is Yellow, and this DVD-Audio is in a CD case. Yup, one of my favorite R.E.M. albums Green which does feature a YELLOW album cover is now out on DVD-Audio complete with a Surround Sound mix!

Look for this CD/DVD digipack in your local record store (or online) mixed right in with the regular CDs. The digipack has a CD in one fold, and a DVD in the other. The DVD features DVD-Audio Advanced Resolution Surround Sound and Stereo tracks, a Dolby Digital Surround Track and DTS 5.1 Surround track. In addition to the album in Surround Sound, the DVD also features a video documentary, and 2 videos from R.E.M.'s live album Tourfilm. Not bad, eh?

Green in Advanced Resolution Surround Sound

I am going to assume that if you are looking to pick up Green you are already an R.E.M. fan and are familiar with songs like Pop Song '89 and Stand, but want to know if you should pay more money and pick up this Re-Release. If you want some detailed reviews that focus on the music itself on this album, please read the many fine reviews listed already.

Pop Song 89 Hmmm, the song sounds about the same in surround sound. Are the rear channels on. Yup! they are just mirroring the front channels.

Get Up Yup, another great song, but not made any better with the surround mix. Sonically it sounds better, but spatially it does not.

You are the Everything A little bit of different stuff happens in the rear channels here, with some of the backing vocals coming from the rear, while Michael Stipe sings from the left of the stage.

Stand Probably the most successful song from this album, it still stands in the place where it was on the original CD mix. My head didn't get to move me around, I didn't think much about direction because it was all coming from the front left and right. My feet moved me to the rear surrounds to listen, but the rears were not calling. I stood in the place that I was, and wondered why R.E.M. didn't use the extra surround channels to make an awesome surround mix of this great album. Wonder why?

World Leader Pretend On occasion some snare drums are clearly present in the center channel, and seem rather stark and alone there. A few ambient effects are also thrown into the rear channels, but the effects in this song seem haphazardly applied, and don't really add to the music. Instead of the sense of the music enveloping me, I feel like a sound engineer was just going through the motions and assigning random sounds to the extra channels on this song.

The Wrong Child I like this sad song about a child who is different in some way trying to fit in. It has a quite desparation of someone shunned by the "normal" kids and on the CD had an air of sadness to it that really made me feel bad for the "wrong child". Here some of the instruments are mixed to the rear channel, and strings are mixed into the center in the song, isolating them and bringing more attention to them. Most of the music is still clearly mixed into the left and right channels though.

Orange Crush Another major hit from Green, I listened eagerly to the Surround Mix of this tune. The drums come in left and right and Stipes lyrics follow from the left while backing vocals come from the left and right. The portion of the song in which the military choruses and helicopter use surround sound properly. The helicopter circles around throughtout all the channels, and the chanting soldiers can also be heard from all channels. It adds to the song without sounding gimmicky.

Turn You Inside-Out Another song in which the center channel has some percussion singled out. It doesn't quite blend, and just sounds left out there all by itself.

Hairshirt I don't know what this song is about, but I like it. It's one of those that didn't get airplay and only gets appreciated by those who buy whole albums like me (and hopefully you). Does the Surround mix add anything to it? Nope. Again, the advanced resolution makes the acoustic guitar in this really ring out even better than the original CD, but the band didn't really use the extra channels in this song.

I Remember California This, and not the hit songs from Green, was my favorite song on the album. I loved its grandiose lyrics and layered instruments. Rear surrounds merely echo the front channels.

Bonus Song I don't know the name of the song that plays after the listed tracks, but it actually used the rear channels for a chorus that mirrored the lead vocals!

After listening to this album in Surround, I was impressed by the production and sound engineering quality. The album sounds crisper and more defined than the original CD. The advanced resolution mix clearly adds depth to the album. However, I was surprised at the lack of creativity in the Surround Sound mix. It just really isn't used to add that extra spatiality, and when it is used, it sounds awkward and misplaced.

Advanced Resolution Stereo Mix

This version of the DVD rocked! Since they weren't trying to add extra channels, the focus is on a perfect sonic delivery of the original stereo mix. I listned to this when all my neighbors were out, so I could let my Rotel feed my Polk Audio Floor standing monitors lots of clean pure watts! Despite not having an LFE channel in pure Stereo mode, the bass in this album rocks. It's good to have full frequency floor standing speakers for material like this, because one draw back of DVD-Audio and SACD is that it delivers a discreet signal to each channel, so subwoofers hooked up via the subwoofer LFE output won't produce the low bass on a stereo SACD or DVD-Audio, because all signals are either routed Right or Left. Subs that are hooked up with the signal running first to the sub, and then to the speakers, using the subs crossover frequency won't have this problem. I find that for most music my Polk's low frequency of 36 hz low enough, it's only for movies and concert DVDs that the Velodynes floor of 24 hz is really needed! The much cleaner sound of the Advanced Resolution really rocks the house.

Dolby Digital and DTS surround

I hope that you all appreciate that I have to go into the initial settings on my DVD player to make it play the DVD portion of DVD-Audios! The DTS surround mix and the Dolby Surround mix are the same surround mix as advanced resolution. DTS isn't as sharp as the Advanced Resolution and Dolby Digital lacks a little bit of the "oomph" of the DTS mix. I don't know why they include a Dolby Digital Stereo mix, the CD PCM stereo track sounds a bit clearer than the Dolby mix. Not much, but even if the two were identical, its redundant to have 2 stereo tracks. The advanced resolution stereo blows them both away in any event.

Documentary The menu for the documentary actually just leads to two videos and THEN a short interview:

Orange Crush Video The video for the agent orange song. A soldier who looks like a model for Abercrombie and Fitch is shown in a black and white video crawling along a beach. A little boy is also shown running down a street. What's it all mean? I don't know.

Turn you Inside Out This is a concert video, showing the band performing the song, against a giant screen of a school of fish.

Other Extras include a photo album, discography and credits.

Summary I am giving this DVD Audio /CD digipack 3 stars for average. Please do NOT confuse this with me giving the album GREEN Three stars, to me, this is one of R.E.M.s five star albums. Its a great album, I am rating the DVD-Audio against other DVD audios. Do they make the most of the extra channels? Is this worth picking up if you already own the Green CD? I loved Green, and I definitely think that those with high fidelity equipment will enjoy the advanced resolution of the DVD-Audio. However, as far as Surround Sound mixes go, the extra channels were really not utilized. If you don't have the equipment to enjoy the Advanced Resolution mixes, the Dolby and DTS surround mixes and the two videos don't really make this worth picking up. If you are an R.E.M. fan looking to hear the album in a whole new way, this doesn't quite happen here. If you just want the best possible sound, yes, its worth picking up. If you don't have this album, go ahead and spend a couple extra bucks to pick up this version though, you still get the original CD plus the DVD.

Recommend this product? Yes

Great Music to Play While: Getting ready to go out