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Review by Beck June 15, 2007 (3 of 3 found this review helpful)
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Performance:  Sonics:  |
I think this is the Police's best album. Certainly it features one of the greatest album sides of all time. Contrary to some of the other reviews, I think that the sonically the SACD adds a little to the CD release. Some of the percussion and background effects (eg During De Doo Doo Doo 'when their eloquence escapes you' you can hear the quiet shredding of a guitar in the background much more distinctly)
Still, I think the whole Police catalogue is worth it on SACD...
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Review by progboy October 8, 2012 (2 of 2 found this review helpful)
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Performance:  Sonics: |
A few months back I was surprised to have found this gem from the 80's re-released and available on SACD format at a low low price .......i was bummed out that I missed this one the first time around ! I should mention that I am still a big fan of The Police albums. Zenyatta is one of my favourite of the Police albums with some of my fav tracks...Canary In A Coalmine....Driven To Tears...and Bombs away.
This was a total High School album for me and I must have listened to this album countless times having owned this on vinyl, CD and Remastered CD.
I really had no big expectation on the sound of this one and read a few of the other reviews here on this site and really had just an average expectation when I ordered it.
Although there are a few wrinkles on this recording there are also a few highlites...
First the down side....I find some of the guitar parts kind of hidden and less accentuated as I would have liked.....almost a dull finish on Andy Summer's guitar on some tracks...and lost a bit in the mix at times. Perhaps this is the way it was recorded and now I finally get to hear the "real mix" ...I am not sure but my Remastered RBCD has a better guitar presence IMHO.
On the plus side I love the bass placement and speaker separation and also find the drumming very clearly differentiated and pulled from the sound with nice clarity (clearly Stuart Copeland was a great drummer!). Sting's bass is very well differentiated as well in this SACD layer and sounds pretty punchy and deep....just the way you like it kids !!!!
I do like this SACD overall and think it may be the best single presentation of Zenyatta Mondatta that I have ever heard.
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Review by JW July 18, 2003 (1 of 2 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics:  |
ZM is probably the most polished and sophisticated or perhaps musically 'mature' Police album. It's upbeat and it definitely swings more than it rocks. In that sense it reaches out to Sting's solo career with jazz inspired albums as 'The Dream Of The Blue Turtles' and 'Bring On The Night' (now those were well recorded discs whose master tapes should be used for DSD remastering!).
Sonically ZM is also the best one of the bunch. I bought 5 of the SACD's and I am still forming my opinion about them - at a later stage I will add more comprehensive listening notes about the sonic merits of these remasters. This may lead me to review my ratings as well. For now it is my view that compared to other SACD's the The Police remasters don't impress me that much. Perhaps that's why we have some discenting opinions here amongst the reviewers so far. Depending on the perspective you take you can rate an SACD 1 or 5 stars - compared to vinyl, to CD, to 45rpm reissues etc. I tend to rate them compared to other SACD's and well recorded RBCD's.
More to follow.
Follow up:
Overall the sonic merits of this series are questionable, measured against the high standard SACD is capable of. They may be better than the previously released RBCD, but have they received the best possible treatment to let them shine on SACD? I think that a similar result could have been achieved on RBCD 'done right' and from there stems my slight disappointment in this series. None of them merit a higher than 3 star rating in my view. Having said all that, I have to note that perhaps the mastertapes did not allow for a better transfer. I cannot judge that. Check out my other reviews of The Police remasters to compare notes and see what you think. After repreated listening I would rank them as follows:
1 Zenyatta Mondatta: good bass, balanced sound with extended treble
2 Regatta de Blanc: sound equal to ZM
3 Ghost In The Machine: richer and darker sound than others with good bass
4 Synchronicity: better than Outlandos but a little veiled
5 Outlandos d'Amour: metallic treble that at times sounds congested, somewhat flat
Jw
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