HiRez Poll Miracles, The - LOVE CRAZY [SACD]

[rtbluray]

Please post your thoughts and comments on the 2020 Multichannel SACD release from Dutton Vocalion of the album "Love Crazy" by the Miracles.
The Quadraphonic mix is also available to stream in Dolby Audio via Apple Music:
https://music.apple.com/us/album/love-crazy-expanded-edition/1392126843Please note that the album "Miracles" is also included, but it is stereo-only.

Love Crazy
LP PC 34460 (1977) STEREO/PCQ 34460 QUADRAPHONIC
1: LOVE CRAZY INTRODUCTORY (B. Griffin; Moore)
2: LOVE CRAZY/LOVE CRAZY OVERTURE (B. Griffin; Moore)
3: TOO YOUNG (B. Griffin; Moore)
4: SPY FOR BROTHERHOOD (B. Griffin; Moore)
5: A BETTER WAY TO LIVE (B. Griffin; Moore)
6: WOMEN (MAKE THE WORLD GO ’ROUND) (B. Griffin; Moore; D. Griffin)
7: THE BIRD MUST FLY AWAY (B. Griffin; Moore)
8: I CAN TOUCH THE SKY (B. Griffin; Moore; D. Griffin)
9: LOVE CRAZY OVERTURE (REPRISE) (B. Griffin; Moore)
AVAILABLE ONLY ON THE SACD MULTI-CHANNEL LAYER

Remastered from the original analogue tapes by Michael J. Dutton


Multi-ch Stereo
Tracks 1 - 8 available in stereo and multi-channel

Tracks 9 - 16 available in stereo ONLY


SA-CD
This hybrid CD can be played on any standard CD players

CDSML8569

 

[fredblue]

"Love Crazy" is one of my most-played, most beloved Quads. from the moment i first span the old SQ LP through the Surround Master i was enchanted by all the funky music that was pouring out the speakers. just my caper!

the mix is one of those later CBS Quads by Warren Vincent and Dick Bogert, with Bass in the Rear Left and Drums in the Rear Right, a mixing approach that i know not everyone is big on but personally i adore this one in Quad from start to finish.

for surround activity its worth it for "Spy For Brotherhood" alone, which is a hoot with fun use of panning and instrument and sound effect placement.

the Quad throughout is a real room-filling mix with cool little bits and bobs popping up in every part of the surround soundfield, never less than fully engaging of the senses!

then there's what's to me is the cool "bonus" material.

firstly, the surprise little couple of minutes of the "Love Crazy Reprise" that wasn't on the SQ Quad LP at all and was only ever on the super duper ultra-rare Q8 Quad 8-track!
not a big deal to many i imagine but it elicited a 'wow' from me when i first saw Vocalion had included it on the new SACD! i appreciate the attention to detail.

second, technically not a bonus but part of the package, is the 1978 "The Miracles" album.

albeit Stereo, this is a fairly rare birdie, never officially released in the U.S. and making its Hi-Res worldwide debut! i'm not yet into the tunes in the same way i am "Love Crazy" but i've lived with and loved that Quad for years and only heard the later album once through so far, so the material may grow on me given time.

the liner notes give a good account, a sorta 'whatever happened to the band after Smokey went solo' and together with "Love Crazy" (and the earlier "City Of Angels" before they moved to Columbia) for me at least make a pretty convincing case for The Miracles having legs after he left.

"10".

more nifty graphical manipulation, incorporating the two albums' artwork, by covering a trouser leg with a genie's lamp was, i thought, rather.. in-genie-ous! ha!

 

[ar surround]

Adam @fredblue I'm glad to see your positive review of this album/mix. I was considering not including it in my January order of six given the lackluster review on Allmusic and that the second album is only stereo. But I assume that Love Crazy will grow on me given that it is one of your most-played, most beloved quads.

Hmmm, I wonder if the stereo album Miracles and the quad album Love Crazy will need to be extracted in two passes from the ISO ripped using the Sonore freeware. @beerking , you seem to be our resident expert on this matter.

 

[4-earredwonder]

Couldn't help but vote a 10. And don't be put off by the second album MIRACLES in Stereo. It's a bargain priced two~fer and D~V's impeccable mastering is superb!

 

[beerking]

Adam @fredblue I'm glad to see your positive review of this album/mix. I was considering not including it in my January order of six given the lackluster review on Allmusic and that the second album is only stereo. But I assume that Love Crazy will grow on me given that it is one of your most-played, most beloved quads.

Hmmm, I wonder if the stereo album Miracles and the quad album Love Crazy will need to be extracted in two passes from the ISO ripped using the Sonore freeware. @beerking , you seem to be our resident expert on this matter.

Thank you for that kind up lift, I'm certainly no expert in the ripping process, just learning as I go.
Well that's how I approached it, when I ripped it yesterday.
First was the multichannel layer, then the full stereo layer.
In fact, with my software, I ripped all the Multichannel Discs first, then concentrated on those with stereo layers.
I don't use the Sonore freeware, mine is via the SACD Extraction Gui.
These are all ripped to .dsf.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Adam @fredblue I'm glad to see your positive review of this album/mix. I was considering not including it in my January order of six given the lackluster review on Allmusic and that the second album is only stereo. But I assume that Love Crazy will grow on me given that it is one of your most-played, most beloved quads.

Hmmm, I wonder if the stereo album Miracles and the quad album Love Crazy will need to be extracted in two passes from the ISO ripped using the Sonore freeware. @beerking , you seem to be our resident expert on this matter.

@beerking should double check me on this, but with the gui version, I believe you can just check both. It would be easy to just try it and see.

 

[beerking]

@beerking should double check me on this, but with the gui version, I believe you can just check both. It would be easy to just try it and see.

View attachment 45727

Yes I believe you can Pups but I just played it cautious!!

 

[fredblue]

Adam @fredblue I'm glad to see your positive review of this album/mix. I was considering not including it in my January order of six given the lackluster review on Allmusic and that the second album is only stereo. But I assume that Love Crazy will grow on me given that it is one of your most-played, most beloved quads.

Hmmm, I wonder if the stereo album Miracles and the quad album Love Crazy will need to be extracted in two passes from the ISO ripped using the Sonore freeware. @beerking , you seem to be our resident expert on this matter.

the pressure is intense!
the heat is on!!

look forward to your review
in the words of The Stylistics;
"i'm keeping my fingers crossed.."

 

[ar surround]

the pressure is intense!
the heat is on!!

look forward to your review
in the words of The Stylistics;
"i'm keeping my fingers crossed.."

Don’t worry...no pressure. Oh, I’m so far behind on these DV discs that it will be months before I can give it enough listens to vote on it!!! I’m hoping that DV puts me even further behind the eight ball in the next couple of months.

 

[skherbeck]

Listening to this one last night, I have to say I'm glad I purchased it. I havn't listened to the stereo album yet, but "Love Crazy" has an enjoyable, discrete quad mix, with bass left rear, drums right rear, & horns and harmony vocals in the rears. The fidelity is good, although not as good as, say, the Harold Melvin DV quads or Billy Paul's "War Of The Gods" from DV. In terms of content, I don't recognize any of these tunes, but I found a few that I really like that have made my surround playlist (LOVE CRAZY/LOVE CRAZY OVERTURE , WOMEN (MAKE THE WORLD GO ’ROUND) , & I CAN TOUCH THE SKY). I felt the title track benefited from slightly raising the front channels, but generally this quad is well-balanced throughout. I give this an 8.

 

[fredblue]

Listening to this one last night, I have to say I'm glad I purchased it. I havn't listened to the stereo album yet, but "Love Crazy" has an enjoyable, discrete quad mix, with bass left rear, drums right rear, & horns and harmony vocals in the rears. The fidelity is good, although not as good as, say, the Harold Melvin DV quads or Billy Paul's "War Of The Gods" from DV. In terms of content, I don't recognize any of these tunes, but I found a few that I really like that have made my surround playlist (LOVE CRAZY/LOVE CRAZY OVERTURE , WOMEN (MAKE THE WORLD GO ’ROUND) , & I CAN TOUCH THE SKY). I felt the title track benefited from slightly raising the front channels, but generally this quad is well-balanced throughout. I give this an 8.

Spy For Brotherhood is a catchy tune and would’ve probably been a Hit imho had Columbia not withdrawn the single for fear of a backlash from the authorities (the lyrics are a thinly veiled stab at the groups’ perception of black oppression by the establishment, etc) how many casual radio listeners or disco goers really paid that much attention to the lyrics at that time, i don’t know, i mean it’s hardly What’s Going On is it, it’s more a vamp than singer songwriter social commentary thing stylistically after all..

 

[key_wiz]

Album sounds great. Nice, active surround mix. Sounds very modern in fact, Another winner mastering job from Dutton.

weak album though. A couple of good, upbeat dance/disco songs, but they weren’t able to repeat “Love Machine”. And the ballads are horrid. Not sure how many times I’ll be playing this one.

Haven’t listened to the second album yet. But I consider these stereo albums “bonus tracks” for this purpose of this forum and these polls.

a “7”

 

[sjcorne]

Spy For Brotherhood is a catchy tune and would’ve probably been a Hit imho had Columbia not withdrawn the single for fear of a backlash from the authorities (the lyrics are a thinly veiled stab at the groups’ perception of black oppression by the establishment, etc) how many casual radio listeners or disco goers really paid that much attention to the lyrics at that time, i don’t know, i mean it’s hardly What’s Going On is it, it’s more a vamp than singer songwriter social commentary thing stylistically after all..

Found this interesting post about "Spy For Brotherhood" on Billy Griffin's Facebook page, circa 2014:





(...I wonder if there are any Q8s in that stack?)

 

[fredblue]

Found this interesting post about "Spy For Brotherhood" on Billy Griffin's Facebook page, circa 2014:
View attachment 46156


View attachment 46157

(...I wonder if there are any Q8s in that stack?)

well there you are, hence my feelings for the songs' unfair floppage!

seriously, i really think "Spy For Brotherhood" is as good a song as anything they put out in their latterday career.

their most fun song is "Ain't Nobody Straight In L.A." which still elicits a chuckle from me to this day.. its cute but at the time it must've been very daring!

"homosexuality
is a part of society,
i guess that they need some more variety..
freedom of expression
is really the thing"

pushing the envelope of social commentary to a latin infused disco lilt!

i guess the stack o'tapes would be those carts with less tape on the hubs, the type with radio station jingles and stuff on them rather than music

 

[marpow]

I voted 10. Reading the reviews above me really helped the way I listened to this and certainly influenced my vote. I think my favorite is track 3 Too Young, the jet noise and shoes walking around all speakers, is cool.
The quad experience as with all DV releases is spectacular and because I lived during the time of this material I can easily relate.
I really liked I Can Touch The Sky, lots of moving parts, sounds great.
I ripped mine via Sonore ISO and OPPO 105, two rips, one for MCH and one for stereo, this way when I play through my JRiver player, I have two separate selections, makes it easy. I almost never rip the stereo and the MCH, only when such as this, Argent, etc it is needed.
The track DR's range from 11,12,13.

 

[Scott65]

very good material, very good quad mix. 9

 

[steelydave]

The Miracles' lead singer on these albums, Billy Griffin, posted about this release on his instagram account:

 

[GOS]

Only 9 votes, seems so odd to me. Come on QQ, you surely own this title. Vote up.

 

[ar surround]

Only 9 votes, seems so odd to me. Come on QQ, you surely own this title. Vote up.

I have it but do not like the performance all that much. As a matter of principle, I won’t give any Michael Dutton effort a low score. Thus no vote from me.

 

[4-earredwonder]

I know I don't speak for myself when I say I consider each and every one of Michael J. Dutton's QUAD and Stereo remasters GIFTS and this Miracle's two~fer is NO exception. I only hope at some juncture D~V can release what I consider the Miracles' piece de resistance CITY OF ANGELS which AFAIK had no QUAD remix.



And Michael does seem to obtain the very BEST QUAD/STEREO analogue master tapes. Although I do miss AUDIO FIDELITY'S QUAD/5.1 SACD reissues, unfortunately, as we learned in hindsight, Marshall Blonstein was not always privy to the very best available master tapes. And I know for a fact he paid considerbly more for those QUAD/5.1 masters than D~V has!