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Review by PaulHoncoop February 12, 2005 (11 of 12 found this review helpful)
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Performance:  Sonics:  |
As good as the Avalon (Roxy Music) sacd what the quality of sonics concerns.
Another great job from the producer at that time; Rhett Davies.
Great solo album from Brian with many guest musicians as Mark Knopfler, David Gilmour, Nile Rodgers and so on. Boys and Girls contains the hits Slave to love, Windswept and Don't stop the dance.
The surroundmix sound sublime and detailed. Brian's voice is warm and well placed with the music.
No bonustracks on this one, after 38 minutes the enjoying is over....weep....
In the booklet you find all the songlyrics, well done.
Performance; i always called this album Avalon II. Brian's best solo album.
Sonics; Great, great just great!
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Review by fredblue May 20, 2009 (4 of 4 found this review helpful)
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Now this is a very curious disc.. first off, it is LOUD!
Secondly, I could not for the life of me understand the lack of a "special edition" status or "20th anniversary" reissue, as the timing was perfect and, in my humble opinion, the album deserved a higher profile release, not least as it features such a clutch of impressive guest artists! Not complaining, as it's on Multi-channel SACD after all, mastered/mixed and engineered by the legendary Bob Ludwig and Bob Clearmountain no less which is (regrettably..) better treatment than 99% of catalogue releases have ever and doubtless will ever receive!!
I guess I am also alluding in part to better physical packaging than the bizarre "upside-down" graphics on the booklet/jewel box inlay! I have no idea what happened there? I presume somebody fell asleep at the printers and it was too late to rectify the artwork once it was all pressed up?!
Now, to get down to 'brass tacks'.. the tracks! Everything in the mix is over-loud and it is to the detriment of the subtle touches of the music, which itself is great! Not as superb for me as "Frantic", especially as it's production values date it somewhat, whereas the more recent albums have a lovely earthy sound without the artificial '80's sheen and drum sound... "The Chosen One" being the worst culprit on here by a mile..that drum sound just screams "1985" at me! This is still for me a very solid, very enjoyable set of songs, however.
Also, if I can level any major criticism at this disc, it is that it is all a bit too bass-heavy for me.. particularly on the title track! It's unfortunate because this is something I have personally spent hours and hours tweaking my system so that the LFE rumbles away nicely (with a view to not overpowering or colouring the sound mix, while also not annoying the rest of the house/street..!!) and have spent yet more time tweaking to ensure that the bass-management of my receiver works as efficiently with my speakers and room as a combination of audyssey and my ears will allow!
And yet.. this still sounds boomy and over loud, even at -40db, which is ordinarily a confortable level for my M/C SACD's ...and way too low a volume level for the "Ziggy Stardust.." SACD.. but you'll have to read my recent review here on SA-CD.net for my thoughts on that!
The mix itself though is nicely spread, with a balance of isolation in the rears as well as ambience, say for example the sax in "Don't Stop The Dance" which has a little "bleed" over into the other channels, whereas the backing vocals are rooted firmly in the rears and it's all very effective and immersive. It's just a shame those backing vocalists are so LOUD in the mix! They aren't so overpowering in the 2-channel mix!
That said, certain tracks naturally lend themselves to such an "aggressive" use of the rear channels with "A Wasteland" taking on something of a cinematic/widescreen quality to the presentation. The soundstage on that track seems much more open than on most of the other album tracks.
Back to the rear vocal activity, I'd add that "Windswept", and the title track, are the only times in this mix the backing vocals (actually Ferry's own harmonising and/or backup vocals rather than the boys/girls!) in the rear channels sound as if they have been mixed at equal volume to the main vocals, rather than overwhelming them!
In fact, I'd go so far as to say "A Wasteland" and "Windswept" are probably the most effective tracks on this album in M/C, for me. They just work in surround, perhaps because they more naturally lend themselves to such a presentation... while things like "Slave to Love" seem to lose some of their intimacy with the over effusive mix.
Fairly hard to sum up as, like I said at the beginning, it's a bit of a curiosity this disc... I'm going to give it 4 *'s for the album itself, which I do enjoy, though not as much as Ferry's "Frantic".. and I'll award it 3&1/2 *'s for the M/C Mix. I do recommend it, I'd just grab "Frantic" first, then this.
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