HiRez Poll Fagen, Donald - KAMAKIRIAD [DVD-A]

[kap'n krunch]

ban any member that votes below a 6!!!!
But not Snood!!!!

 

[ar surround]

I really need to listen to this one again and vote on it. If it wasn't for a nice dog on this forum, I wouldn't have even been able to obtain a copy at a reasonable price.

 

[timbre4]

We had some shenanigans in the poll; the only option I had was to reset it. Please re-vote your opinion on this disc awash in a fresh discussion of it's merits.
Thanks for your cooperation, Moderator

 

[JanBakker]

Just did, thank you!

 

[jaap74]

I've just added a 2nd subwoofer to my system and tested it out with Trans-Island Skyway, sounds incredible

 

[Simon A]

Thanks for your cooperation, Moderator

That's Super Moderator, Tim. I know being Super ain't easy but you best get used to it.

 

[IanProudfoot]

This is Surround Nirvana, a 10 all day long- and @IanProudfoot is cheating
Should I create another account as J.Pupster and get a second vote- yup a 10 also!

Eh? What have I done? Where have I cheated? Explain yourself please Pupster!! I haven't voted on this, but I have to admit that I don't enjoy it very much...
Edit...
OK I see that the poll has been reset but I will stand by my view that this is a wonderful sounding but musically tedious album for me.
If I did vote twice it was not intentional. My original account stopped working many years ago and I had to start again (Nine years ago today!). It's not obvious that I had previously voted. No 'shenanigans' intended...

 

[IanProudfoot]

I have voted again - still just a six.
If that enrages anyone, too bad
My reasoning:

SURROUND MIX - 2: Above average but not worthy of full marks.
AUDIO FIDELITY - 3: Probably perfect.
CONTENT - 1: No I don't enjoy any of it.
OVERALL PACKAGE - 0: Nothing out of the ordinary, just another DVD-A package.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Eh? What have I done? Where have I cheated? Explain yourself please Pupster!! I haven't voted on this, but I have to admit that I don't enjoy it very much...
Edit...
OK I see that the poll has been reset but I will stand by my view that this is a wonderful sounding but musically tedious album for me.
If I did vote twice it was not intentional. My original account stopped working many years ago and I had to start again. It's not obvious that I had previously voted. No 'shenanigans' intended...

Thanks for explaining Ian, it looked like you were being tricky and voted twice, my apologies. I do feel strongly, that if you vote so far off from the mode of the rest of the voters, an explanation is due, not required, but also mistakes can happen. It just seems to me also, that if you dislike the music (your right obviously) that maybe the best thing is an explanation for clarity.

 

[IanProudfoot]

Thanks for explaining Ian, it looked like you were being tricky and voted twice, my apologies. I do feel strongly, that if you vote so far off from the mode of the rest of the voters, an explanation is due, not required, but also mistakes can happen. It just seems to me also, that if you dislike the music (your right obviously) that maybe the best thing is an explanation for clarity.

No problem Pupster. I do treat these polls seriously and try to be consistent with my scores. Although I have given more 10s than I should! I do get the impression that the scores across all polls are generally compressed into the highest possible values. It makes a score of 6 look very low when it actually means above average and there's no shame in that.

 

[ar surround]

...this is a wonderful sounding but musically tedious album for me...

I agree with Ian. I've listened to this a couple of times now. Last night I followed up Kamakiriad with The Nightfly, which presents a stark contrast with the latter being much more entertaining. I'd say that my issue with Kamakiriad is that the songs are very good but run on way too long. Nightfly clocks in at under 39 minutes, Kamakiriad is over 50. (Aja is 40 minutes for reference.) It seems that the early 90's began a trend where albums had to be over 50 minutes regardless of how much material was actually available...This drives me crazy...I mean, has anyone ever complained that Sgt Pepper is too short of an album?

This is still a good album...great chill-out music. I'll give this one an 8...Saved by the fidelity, mix and musicianship. Consider it a victim of the extremely high bar set by the Steely Dan / Donald Fagan catalogue.

 

[kap'n krunch]

.....
CONTENT - 1: No I don't enjoy any of it.
.....

then why the hell do you buy it AND review it????

 

[IanProudfoot]

then why the hell do you buy it AND review it????

Is that really a serious question? I bought it because I loved The Nightfly but this just left me cold. I often buy music before I've had a chance to listen. I've tried it a few times since, but I always lose interest. As to questioning why I reviewed it, what can I say? Should we only review the stuff we like? Of course not, that would make the QQ polls worthless. All opinions are valid unless someone is just being petty and marking something down for their own agenda.

 

[Clint Eastwood]

Is that really a serious question? I bought it because I loved The Nightfly but this just left me cold. I often buy music before I've had a chance to listen. I've tried it a few times since, but I always lose interest. As to questioning why I reviewed it, what can I say? Should we only review the stuff we like? Of course not, that would make the QQ polls worthless. All opinions are valid unless someone is just being petty and marking something down for their own agenda.

I will say this...when I first listened to this album I was lukewarm about it...not to your extreme...but I wasn't wild about it...but the more I listened...the more I liked it and now it's on the same level as Nightfly...the reason I was able to "grow" into the content is the excellent fidelity...as you noted in your evaluation....it enabled me to listen to it more and more....my advice is to listen to individual songs first...not the entire album at one sitting...maybe it won't make a difference...but it did for me...although I don't agree with your score...I commend you for providing an explanation

 

[J. PUPSTER]

I have to say (not wanting to throw a GOS Hand Grenade in here ) that I erred in letting my musical bias trample all over my social etiquette with this. I should have handled it more discreetly now that I've cooled off some. We all have our musical passions or we wouldn't be here.

The reason I'm so passionate about this title goes back to the fact that I missed out on all the wonderful years of analog only Quadraphonic formats and discovered just how wonderful it all was only about 20 years ago. My first exposure was with The Nightfly, Kamakiriad, 'Aaron Neville ‎– Nature Boy: The Standards Album', 'Cassandra Wilson ‎– Traveling Miles' (DTS), and of course all the Steely Dan DVD-A releases.

I don't know if my preference for the mixing style on these had a large influence on my current overall preference; but the main thing about the Fagen/Steely Dan titles is the way Elliot Scheiner mixed them, mostly with main vocals in the center area, and lots of discrete action in the rears with some movement, etc. etc.

Having different opinions and likes of music is part of what makes all this interesting, new discoveries and just learning all the ins and outs of what music is all about. If we all liked the same stuff, it'd be a pretty boring world.

 

[kap'n krunch]

Is that really a serious question? I bought it because I loved The Nightfly but this just left me cold. I often buy music before I've had a chance to listen. I've tried it a few times since, but I always lose interest. As to questioning why I reviewed it, what can I say? Should we only review the stuff we like? Of course not, that would make the QQ polls worthless. All opinions are valid unless someone is just being petty and marking something down for their own agenda.

Now that´s weird!!!!
hmmm...
it´s not that different...yes, I do not like "Morph the cat" nor "Everything must go" but I DO like "Sunken Condos"...
Well yeah I guess I would not have been so rash in the review either, it´s not like I totally dislike the ones I don´t like...
But, man, Kamakiriad is a freaking masterpiece..

Well, to each their own...

 

[IanProudfoot]

Now that´s weird!!!!
hmmm...
it´s not that different...yes, I do not like "Morph the cat" nor "Everything must go" but I DO like "Sunken Condos"...
Well yeah I guess I would not have been so rash in the review either, it´s not like I totally dislike the ones I don´t like...
But, man, Kamakiriad is a freaking masterpiece..

Well, to each their own...

Following today's discussion I played a few tracks and was bored by it. I appreciate the playing and the sound quality, but not the songs. I really tried but it felt like I was wasting valuable listening time so I played something else instead.

 

[steelydave]

Far be it for me to bully anyone for their tastes, but even if this album isn't your cup of tea musically, I find it hard to see a world where this is anything less than a 7.

There's plenty of discrete rear channel activity, and even panning effects, like the sound of a flare moving from right to left behind the lyric "some loser fires off a flare, amen..." in Snowbound.

I don't think this album could sound more like it was recorded in 1992 if it tried, and I get if that's not your cup of tea - the sterile sound of the album took a long time to grow on me, but there are some absolute classic Fagen tracks on this album, starting with Snowbound and Tomorrow's Girls.

Like my Fitness Consigliere @fredblue (who probably owns the worlds largest collection of terrible surround music) said to me in a private conversation recently about another good 5.1 mix that was getting panned, if you think this is a 6, you probably haven't heard many (or any) of the literally hundreds of forgettable 5.1 mixes released by the major labels in the original SACD/DVD-A era circa 2000-2004, which I think are truly emblematic of the kind of mediocrity that a "6" represents.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Following today's discussion I played a few tracks and was bored by it. I appreciate the playing and the sound quality, but not the songs. I really tried but it felt like I was wasting valuable listening time so I played something else instead.

I'll give you extra credit for listening again and trying to like it Ian, but man I would have hated to get my school papers graded by you if you were my teacher back in the day Just out of curiosity, what's a title that you give a 10 for all around?

 

[jaap74]

I think some people need to chill out and just let people give the ratings they want........... No idea why people take a 6 so personally ?