fourml8r
Senior Member
for streaming i will listen to it as lossy as it may be. would definitely buy a physical disc in a heartbeat. saw the sphere concert last month in vegas and it was really something else.
U2 - Achtung Baby (Atmos), digital release date Jan 26, 2024
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Achtung Baby in surround has been on my wishlist forever. Would be an instant buy for me but I fear a physical release will be locked in yet another bloated box set. If so, will have to be content with streaming.
I’ve been hoping since Dylan’s Time Out of Mind got the Apple/SDE ATMOS releases that more Lanois-produced albums might get the surround treatment. Until then I thought it highly unlikely because Lanois has a fair bit of say and doesn’t seem to care for remixes (though a few stealthy tracks made it through from that Dylan album years ago).
I like this album but more than anything I think it’s U2’s large legacy audience that might bust the door down for more releases like this. This does feel ripe for some box set eventually but maybe his collaborations with Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, and Dylan can find their way through SDE. Those really are my holy grails… especially Harris’s Wrecking Ball and Dylan’s Oh Mercy… but Gabriel’s Us should be utterly gorgeous.
No matter the case, this at least kicks open the door for other U2 catalogue. At the very least the other legacy landmark albums Joshua Tree and All That You Can’t Leave Behind.
As to the album itself, I’ll mostly be curious to hear the songs that never quite clicked for me, like Zoo Station, or songs that the band was never quite happy with like Wild Horses. If past is prologue then personal favorite songs like The Fly, Until the End of the World and Acrobat won’t live up to my perceived potential. I like their original mixes but they’re cluttered to my current taste, so the potential for ATMOS to spread the elements discreetly is mouth watering. I suspect atmospheric songs like So Cruel and Love Is Blindness will benefit greatly from spaciousness that lends itself to their haunting quality.
Here’s hoping these mixes lean towards tastefully ambitious. To me, this is more evidence what a win-win ATMOS streaming is, despite the frustrating lossless and exclusive ceilings. Just four years ago I was scouring obscure SACDs and box sets beyond my budget. Now I can listen to the latest Billie Eilish, modern obscurities like Matilda Hackman, modern alternative like Sleater-Kinney, or legacy releases like this or the Beatles or even older jazz with the touch of a button on Apple TV…or a click of a link to the streaming thread here that leads me to worlds I may never have explored.
If I had the money of U2, I’d hire Eno and Lanois for whatever and challenge them to outdo their original stereo mix.
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Is that in Atmos?
Yes!
I don’t have the time for a full listen but I popped it on and am sampling tracks with the front LR off. Others are better at forensic listening. Suffice it to say that I’ll be curious others’ takes.
JoshBasswood
Well-known Member
Listening in Atmos in the Netherlands right now!
Just listened to some of it downmixed to 5.1. I didn't listen to it all because (and I know this isn't a popular opinion) this is the album where they started to lose me. I loved all of their 80's material and saw then do some stellar shows then. But much of this album falls flat for me. However, there are still some songs in this album that I think are great. "Ultraviolet" is a real favorite.
Anyway, as for the mix, several tunes have some cool discrete stuff going on in them like during "The Fly" and "Zoo Station". Some tunes like "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" have some extreme, heavy vocal reverb going on in the rears. It's certainly worth a listen. If @PaulatSDE were to release a blu-ray, I'd grab a copy.
Anyway, as for the mix, several tunes have some cool discrete stuff going on in them like during "The Fly" and "Zoo Station". Some tunes like "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" have some extreme, heavy vocal reverb going on in the rears. It's certainly worth a listen. If @PaulatSDE were to release a blu-ray, I'd grab a copy.
JoshBasswood
Well-known Member
It is indeed a very 'active' mix that is really different to the original stereo mix. The centre channel seems to be quite redundant in the mix, though. Can't play it very loud now, hopefully tomorrow.
I sampled a few tracks and so far, I'm mostly unimpressed. The original stereo version of "Mysterious Ways" sounds so punchy and exciting, but there's a kind of diffuse and distant quality to the Atmos mix. The core instrumentation (drums, guitars, lead vocal) is stuck 100% to the front wall, with just the big reverbs/delays and a synth pad filling up all the other channels.
Fortunately, some of the other tracks seem to fare a bit better. I agree with others that "The Fly" is a highlight - the falsetto vocals appearing first in the front heights, then switching to the rear surrounds was definitely cool.
Fortunately, some of the other tracks seem to fare a bit better. I agree with others that "The Fly" is a highlight - the falsetto vocals appearing first in the front heights, then switching to the rear surrounds was definitely cool.
Agreed, took a quick listen to a few songs and diffuse sounding is dead on. Very disappointed upon first glance.
Mistermono
Member
Agree with the comments above. Was hoping for something more adventurous.
Still a great album.
Still a great album.
Not a great mix imo. Center channel is barely used and when it is it’s mainly reverb. Why would you not have Bono’s vocals iso’d in the center? Not very well balanced either,, you need to crank the rears.
For something that was 17 months in the making it doesn’t sound like a well thought out soundscape.
I’m still glad we have this mix but this could have been amazing in the hands of someone like Steven Wilson.
For something that was 17 months in the making it doesn’t sound like a well thought out soundscape.
I’m still glad we have this mix but this could have been amazing in the hands of someone like Steven Wilson.
SharpKnight
Active Member
Saw the Talking Heads film at an AMC in Long Island, NY on my birthday last year. Sadly it seemed like they had only the front speakers turned on with just two parties attending. Me my wife, and a family with an enthusiastic dad.
Only listened briefly but am pretty happy with this Atmos mix. As noted previously, center channel isn’t used much but I don’t mind phantom center channel stereo mixes and love quad mixes so this doesn’t bother me at all. The Dolby Atmos mix is adventurous IMO and lots going on in the surround speakers. I would buy this Atmos mix in blu ray if not locked in an expensive box also.
himey
2K Club - QQ Super Nova
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Certainly, Blu-ray worthy!
Will mostly echo all of the above... I know this album like my handprint, and as much of a fan of U2 as I am, I am also close enough to be pretty (hyper) critical, which I'm very aware of and usually expect to be torn on whatever new thing they're doing. I was very torn on them doing Vegas without Larry but went anyway, and actually walked out saying "you know, that's the first time I've seen them sorta showing up as an "age appropriate U2" and didn't feel like they were (or Bono was) still trying to be 30 years younger, so I was pleasantly surprised by that experience.
This mix... it certainly does highlight certain atmospherics in a way that's like "huh, I didn't realize they were using like an accordion patch in the pads on "One" but there it is very isolated in the rears... interesting". Some of the things you can hear Bono sorta mumbling in the background in the stereo mix (something they do across most of their albums) you hear more prominently here, which is also... interesting... but it's all sorta more of a curiosity than anything else? I love when we get a surround mix that is just definitive, with all of the qualities you love from the original but it's opened up in technicolor, and you think "well, whenever I have the option to listen to it this way, it's second to none."
If I were going to play this album for someone for the first time, this is definitely not what I'd play them. Doesn't mean it's "bad", but that this mix feels more like a companion piece, or an "alternate mix", for me. it's for people who already know and love it, not for the uninitiated. I agree that the power feels neutered (on some songs more than others), and in some cases it almost feels like the core instrumentation is happening in the room next door ("Trying To Throw Your Arms" would be one). I'd want to have it if it existed physically, though perhaps primarily because I'm a U2 (and well, physical atmos) completist.
Right away though, on those opening notes of Zoo Station, when I thought for sure they'd have wide separation between the whining guitar and then the pummeling distorted drum hits... like, why in the world wouldn't you offset and isolate those things? Maybe even move them around to signal "we're about to blow your mind, yo." Out of the gate I was thinking "ah, OK, this is gonna be that kinda party."
This mix... it certainly does highlight certain atmospherics in a way that's like "huh, I didn't realize they were using like an accordion patch in the pads on "One" but there it is very isolated in the rears... interesting". Some of the things you can hear Bono sorta mumbling in the background in the stereo mix (something they do across most of their albums) you hear more prominently here, which is also... interesting... but it's all sorta more of a curiosity than anything else? I love when we get a surround mix that is just definitive, with all of the qualities you love from the original but it's opened up in technicolor, and you think "well, whenever I have the option to listen to it this way, it's second to none."
If I were going to play this album for someone for the first time, this is definitely not what I'd play them. Doesn't mean it's "bad", but that this mix feels more like a companion piece, or an "alternate mix", for me. it's for people who already know and love it, not for the uninitiated. I agree that the power feels neutered (on some songs more than others), and in some cases it almost feels like the core instrumentation is happening in the room next door ("Trying To Throw Your Arms" would be one). I'd want to have it if it existed physically, though perhaps primarily because I'm a U2 (and well, physical atmos) completist.
Right away though, on those opening notes of Zoo Station, when I thought for sure they'd have wide separation between the whining guitar and then the pummeling distorted drum hits... like, why in the world wouldn't you offset and isolate those things? Maybe even move them around to signal "we're about to blow your mind, yo." Out of the gate I was thinking "ah, OK, this is gonna be that kinda party."
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