I cannot begin to describe how excited I am by this!!
SFTBC was a milestone album for me personally. It sound-tracked a particularly formative and special year in my teenage life. The songs, their lyrics and music spoke to me and resonated completely. I'd been a fan since The Hurting, but this album took their songwriting to another level, and their use of the Fairlight, an instrument that, to this day, is equally important to me, was massively influential to me as a musician. So much so that I currently have Ian Stanley's Fairlight Series III here in my studio. He purchased this right after SFTBC, possibly with his share of the proceeds, and this machine was used in the early sessions for the subsequent TFF album, The Seeds of Love, as well as his side project with Roland, Mancrab.
But to have this album in 5.1, and to have it mixed by the master himself, well... I'm just positively ecstatic! It's great to hear classic albums revitalised by expertly crafted 5.1 mixes, but one that is so deeply personal to me is going to be a real treat, and to say I am envious of those who have been fortunate enough to beta test it is quite the understatement.
With regards to the content, I'm imagining that Universal will want to squeeze as much out of us as possible, and if the Amazon pre-order price is anything to go by, and the way they packaged The Hurting, the 6 disc box set will be devoid of the Blu Ray. Whilst I can handle DVD-A, I'd rather have the Blu Ray for the 5.1. One doubts very much that Universal would package all audio and video content on to a single Blu Ray because, you know, that just wouldn't be the done thing, now would it
So, I can see me making a £50+ investment in the box and Blu Ray.
November 4th cannot come soon enough. I am apoplectic with excitement for this, more than any other 5.1 release I care to mention.