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Reviews: Spandau Ballet: True

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Reviews: 3
Review by emilsjr July 3, 2003 (4 of 4 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
In what is becoming a great routine, EMI has unleashed Spandau Ballet's True onto SACD. This release is a celebration of its 20th anniversary. Hard to believe it, 20 years ago this amazing album was first released.

While Spandau Ballet was an extremely popular band in their native Britain, releasing two albums and hitting the top of the album and singles charts prior to this release, they were criminally ignored almost everywhere else. "True" was their third album and finally, America noticed. Following the footsteps of Duran Duran and The Human League, they were members of the New-Romantic movement which backed R&B styled vocals with 80's synth-beats. The movement's main influence was Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music and the lead singer of SPandau Ballet, Tony Hadley, clearly was a Ferry deciple. Although this album only lasts 36 minutes, it is one of the best ways to spend 36 minutes. Out of these 8 songs, 4 were hits. They were "Communication", "Lifeline", "Gold", and the best known song, "True" (still on of the best ballads ever). The other 4 tracks are just as strong. I can not think of any artist today that could churn out 8 great songs and leave it at that.

This SACD improves greatly on the various red-book releases I have heard of this bad. Bass is much stronger here. Unlike the digital like sound that accompanies the sax solo on "True" when listening to the CD, the song here takes on a more smooth and mellow feel. The vocals are nice and strong. The seperation is very pleasing and the constant hooks of the album shine through. Compared to the digital wall of sound you get with the CD, the SACD allows all the instruments to have their place. Compared to other SACD releases of material from this period (Wham and Human League), this disc represents the biggest improvement over its cd counter-part.

If you like this type of music, there is no better way to hear it.

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Review by Marc P November 22, 2004 (2 of 2 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
True is without a doubt the best know album by Spandau Ballet and everything before and after is always compared to this recording. And so it should, True was the highlight of their career and gave the band major chart success all over the world.

To me this SACD is a real winner, on the one hand great music and on the other great sound. The SACD gives far better sound than the redbook versions available of the same songs. This album is a must have if you like 80’s pop music.

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Review by wolf359 March 27, 2009 (2 of 2 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
The tracks on this disc have beome very much a part of the musical landscape of the 80's with most people being familiar with the singles even if they are not au fait with the album as a whole. I was very lucky in these days when pop sacd is a rarity to find this locally at a normal price. I bought without a thought as they say.

Firstly the disc is a hybrid stereo only release and as I prefer multichannel to stereo I was a little disappointed but this quickly changed to delight as I realised what a step up this was from the standard RBCD. It has been said by many posters that SACD allows more "space" for the music to be heard at its best potential, that is even true on my modest system the vocals are more clearly delivered, the instruments sound to have more and better dynamics. It is in essence a more finished produced then the RBCD which now I realise sounds muddy in comparison. It is not the best SACD out there but in terms of what pop could sound like it is illuminating. I am pleased with my purchase and only wish that more of this standard pop inventory was available. I have not given the full 5 star treatment because its not a Dark side of the moon and it only stereo but if you find a copy and are into 80's pop it is worth obtaining (but only if the price is right)

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