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Reviews (1)
Nov 02, 2016
Coldplay finally conquers the loudness wars with a dynamic 5.1 surround mix (stereo mix is awful though, only buy for surround)
1 of 1 found this helpful Studio recordings being mixed into surround sound (refers to anything above 2.0 stereo including 3.0, 4.0/quad, 5.1 and now a few object-based Atmos/Auro3D mixes) is obviously a niche market compared to stereo CDs and digital downloads, but after a lull in the late 00s following the major labels pulling out of the SACD/DVD-Audio format war shortly after 2006’s Depeche Mode and Genesis releases, it has been with open arms and big smiles that surround fans have welcomed a resurgence in surround releases over the past few years driven by Porcupine Tree founder Steven Wilson’s extensive remixing of King Crimson, Yes, XTC, Tears for Fears (as well as offering all his solo albums and others along with Universal’s releases from artists like Bob Marley, Bryan Adams, Soundgarden and most recently Temple of the Dog.
Coldplay’s albums have gotten louder and louder throughout their career, with Ghost Stories (their best album since Rush of Blood for me) and A Head Full of Dreams being the most heavily compressed releases in their catalogue…both slammed in the mastering stage to an ungodly DR5 for those who understand the DR numbers (the higher the number, the more dynamic/alive the music will sound). The newest album is so compressed that you can hear audible distortion in parts, but the entire listening experience on a good system is unfriendly. Ten Jensen is the culprit for Ghost Stories, Emily Lazar whose name I’m seeing more and more on the worst examples of loudness wars mastering, did A Head Full of Dreams.
Surround mixing often escapes the heavy dynamic range compression known as “The Loudness Wars” that affects most modern stereo releases. Coldplay has a couple of examples of this via their live releases such as Coldplay Live 2003, Coldplay Live 2012 and Ghost Stories Live 2014, but now with this 5.1 Surround disc we finally get some studio material in surround from the band. The results are nothing short of a revelation compared to the stereo mix. Gone is the distortion, gone is the listener fatigue. If you’re handy you can create your own stereo mixdown from this disc that’s far more palatable than the awfully mastered 24/192 stereo mix on the Blu-ray.
The album doesn’t hold up to the high standards of Ghost Stories. For me Ghost Stories has been in fairly constant rotation since its release, I listen primarily in the car as it doesn’t sound very good on my main system due to the mastering. With A Head Full of Dreams I can now listen in the main room, the dynamics are intact. The songs aren’t bad either.
The biggest reason to buy this disc though, is to show the band and their management that there is interest in the band’s studio material mixed into surround sound. I would gladly pay the MSRP for this disc to buy studio 5.1 mixes of all their albums. While Rush of Blood, Parachutes and Ghost Stories are my favorites, each album has enough good tracks that I’d buy them again in surround.
I enjoy vinyl also, but Coldplay’s records seem to be primarily the same sources as the digital releases and certainly aren’t mastered specifically for vinyl.