Yeah,
@Hamilton59 nailed it. I echo every sentiment. As Steven Wilson would say, this album is simply canon—and many of us, myself included, have heard it so many times that we might get to the point where we're just kinda burnt and don't feel the need to hear it again with any kind of regularity (or as SW says in an episode of The Album Years podcast, "ever again"), and like there's probably nothing new to be gleaned from doing so.
When I heard there was an Atmos mix of this I was curious, but with it being locked into yet another monster box after I've purchased this title probably 10 times in the past in different formats... I waited. Finally I just decided I had to hear it, broke down and bought the box. I honestly don't know whether I wanted to prove to myself it was unnecessary or worth the expense. But holy moly.
The Atmos mix is truly revelatory all over again. In a way I did not think possible for something I know
this well, in stereo
and surround. It is as engaging and challenging as the day it came out, as combative and beautiful, as intellectual and visceral. And it sounds like it could have been recorded
yesterday. It is, and remains, a musical prochronism.
1969?
A masterpiece. I do not use the word lightly—but it is truly deserved, in this particular instance and release more than ever before.