Customer Reviews

Bloom: Remix Album

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I have been enjoying this album. Just Like Me feat. Will-i-am of the Black Eyed Peas is a total loser and completely doesn't belong on this CD (I wish Sarah had just done the Cat's in the Cradle song that is mixed in with this track.) All of the other tracks are interesting remixes and a refreshing change of pace.

BEWARE OF THIS CD - Sony and BMG have seen fit to include a BS copy protection program on the CD. When you install it into your PC, it will prompt you with a tiny warning and "licence" agreement. If you're like me, you won't read it and just click "yes". Unfortunately, this will then irreversibly install some crap on your hard drive that CANNOT be removed. Its suppose to "download license keys" and "allow you to play and copy the CD". Once the installer has run, there is no way to uninstall all the crap, however. The company, www.sunncomm.com that provides the copy protection software is completely useless in email dialogs about the software. For example, when I wrote them asking how to uninstall the software from my system, their response was, not instructions on how to actually remove it, but rather "our software is a small unobtrusive utility that will not harm your computer in anyway..." Huh? That's not what I asked...

Furthermore, this "copy protection" will not allow you to Rip your own MP3 versions of the tracks - you can Rip them, but they will be corrupted and not sound correct. Using Linux and a few additional other steps, there are ways to Rip your own MP3 version, but this is beyond most typical users.

In a twist of extreme irony, you can go to the Sarah McLachlan official web site and download the complete album in MP3 format for $10!!

Frankly, not buying this album is the best way to protest this kind of Draconian, "guilty until proven innocent" bull crap that the record companys are starting to pull. Just say NO.

In more irony, its actually easier to download a complete pirated version of this album off the Internet, than it is to try to Rip a legit MP3 version of your own off the CD you purchased. Go figure.

Update 1: If you beg and pled with sunncomm.com, they will eventually email you a link to an ActiveX program that will uninstall all of the software installed as a part of this CD installation.

Update 2: You can actually Rip an MP3 from this CD using Windows, but it will result only in a relatively low quality tracks. Here are the steps: 1) Use the sunncomm.com program and "rip" a copy of the cd to your HARD DRIVE (tracks will be in a low quality 128bps WMV format unfortunately). 2) Use Windows Media player to burn a "standard CD" using the tracks from Step 1. Step 3) Use your favorite MP3 Ripping tool to Rip MP3s from the CD created in Step 2. The problem with this whole process is, however, that the quality of the final MP3's is pretty poor. The version I Ripped using Linux directly from the actual CD is of much better quality. Not sure what the quality of the complete album in MP3 directly off of Sarah's web site is. Hopefully, better than what you can get using the sunncomm.com round about method...

Matt

While the actual music on the album is quite good, the fact that Arista/Sony/BMG tried to lock down the music behind copy protection means that it's likely going to be quite a hassle to listen to. In order to listen to this CD on your computer you must
1) Agree to a EULA that's 8,000 words long and forfeits every legal right you have, including trial by jury.
2) Install software that tracks your listening habits and can not be removed (Sony won't tell you on their web pages) and may or may not be spyware.
3) Give up your right to make a back up copy of the actual CD
4) Forfeit your right to listen to the music using a computer application of your choice. You are forced to use some 2nd rate player.

Or if you don't agree to these terms and want to listen to the CD on your own terms you have to either turn off auto-run on your computer when you insert the CD or on most Windows systems, hold down the shift key. After that, I was able to listen to the album from Winamp, and make MP3 copies without the agreeing to the EULA.
All in all, the hassle of getting around the restrictions that the record company tried to impose made me regret buying the CD. I certainly won't be buying any more music from Arista/Sony/BMG. Which is really ironic, since their attempt to copy-protect the CD ensured that they will make 0 future sales. I feel sorry for the artist that is caught in the middle, as I'm quite sure that Sarah McLachlan didn't have any choice in the matter and now it's her future sales that have been reduced.

This CD installs a rootkit which is be very bad for your computer. Read more about it here: http://www.sysinternals.com/blog/2005/10/sony-rootkits-and-digital-rights.html

If you appreciate techno-remixes of Sarah's songs, you'll like this album. There are some fast songs and slow songs, and overall it's a solid collection of music that fans of her 2001 remix CD will enjoy.

That said, the copyright restrictions on this CD are ridiculously bad: software is installed on your computer just so that you can listen to the CD, and ripping the CD to anything buts Windows Media Player format is difficult (but possible). I agree with another reviewer who said that these restrictions both penalize those that buy the CD and encourage others to steal music rather than buy it. I doubt that I'll buy another Sony CD with similar "copyright protections."

If you want to make copies for backup, car, diskman or MP3 Player TURN OFF YOUR AUTORUN FEATURE on your CD ROM!!!

Everytime you insert it in your PC it autoloads, makes you verify a CD Key then forces you to listen through a modified Windows Media Player. You can copy songs to your hardrive, but you can't burn them and you can't rip them as MP3's. They stutter.

So, make sure that your Autorun is turned off, if you don't know how then go to your CD-ROM properties in WIN XP and tell it to "TAKE NO ACTION" On all media types of disk.

Now, insert disk. If you already did this with autrun and installed the CD Key you are forever out of luck unless you use System Restore to go-back before you did it. So do it. Now, you can burn copies for your own, legal, personal use and not to distribute or sell to others. Remember, burning is legal, distributing or boot-legging is a crime. I don't condone it and am not suggesting it here.

I love Sarah and I am a big fan of remixes and so this album was eagerly awaited by me. I was not disappointed by the tracks, it's an awesome cd. BUT... I am extremely displeased by the copy protection scheme (www.sunncomm.com) that was put on this cd and that is what I want to communicate to potential buyers. I myself only have one "non-computer" cd player, my car. This is the 21st century after all. All 3 of my computers are less then a year old and are top of the line and exceed the stated compatiblity requirements. Yet the cd failed to play in all 3 of my PC's due to the copy protection software failing to run and just erroring out. So I can only play the cd in my car. And I can't rip it to my iPod either. I buy physical media because I want to rip the media to my Home Media Center PC at a 320 bit rate for home listening and to my iPod at 320 bit rate for personal listening. The label has prevented me from doing both. If you are a similar consumer then you should just buy the tracks at iTunes and not the physical media. I myself perfer physical media over iTunes because it's limited to only 128 bit rate, but in cases like this, something is better then nothing.

Not a review per se, but this cd is one of the famous recalled Sony/BMG "Rootkit"- infested anti-copy/spyware cd's. It is known to crash computers and open a backdoor to malicious hackers!

I love Sarah, but she has (unwittingly, I hope) had this cd released containing the most sleazy, invasive spyware ploy ever foisted by a major corporation on the American public. All thinking, caring music lovers should boycott Sony for their cynical, destructive, abusive business practices. Just Google "Sony cd recall" for this scary story.
You will never buy Sony again afterwards!

This album, similar to the new David Gray, is copyrighted by the same company. I have been unable, even after contacting the company to download a playable version to my computer that doesn't run through their software, thus cannot use it with my ipod. As well, my $800 Denon CD 5 disc player is having trouble playing it as well. If anything, this sort of copyright protection punishes the people out there who are purchasing music and certainly encourages more on line stealing of music if anything. I would encourage anyone to avoid buying this album and find a playable friendly user version on a sharing site instead. The music is great, but shame on sarah for not having the vision to avoid this type of over aggressive reactionary big brother is in your CD player type of scam. I am bringing the cd back to the store today for my money back!

I am a huge McLachlan fan, owning all her CDs to date, including the sub-par Remixed, and all her concert DVDs (which are excellent quality BTW!).

However, I'm holding off on buying this because of the rootkit vulnerability. I thought Sony and any other company that was doing this recalled those CDs months ago?!?! She had copy-protection on her last couple CDs, but not the rootkit version.

This is completely ridiculous and will actually stop me from buying this. The only people these harm are the legit ones who really want to own the CD to have in their collection. Music pirates who just want to rip it onto their iPods will find a crack for it and don't care about a nice package and liner notes. Music companies just don't get it.

The concept of remixes is one that inspires massive dislike or intent interest based on the audience. For me remixes offer a new musical interpretation on favorites, ones that present the artist in a new light. See the thing about Sarah is that her voice, unbelievably lush and beautiful, is the perfect companion for today's modern house, trance, and ambient music. If you are a fan of electronic music or a serious Sarah fan, you will enjoy this CD greatly. If you don't like either, then don't buy the album.

This CD reminds me quite a bit of the Back to Mine series of ambient and mellow house music. The beats are not rocket fast, the melodies and overlays are designed to compliment rather than compete, but there is enough of a groove in the songs to keep you moving.

Must Downloads: Black Eyed Peas w/ DMC's slinky, funk mix of Just Like Me, Hyper's pulsing mix of Stupid, the floating ambience of Talvin Singh's Stupid mix, Gabriel and Dresden's trance mix of Fallen, and the spacey, synth heavy Junior Boys mix of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy(total 80's synth vibe).

Love 'em or hate 'em tracks: Tom Middleton's Vox mix, Thievery Corporations's Dirty Little Secret mix, and Sly and Robbie's Train Wreck Mix.

This is a great album to play at 1am after a night out, when you are home relaxing with friends, or enjoying a glass of wine or two after a long, stressful week. This is more of a genre album. Fans of Sarah who arent into electronic music will probably not enjoy it, but to those that are fans of both, it is a creative, sometimes brilliant, occasionally bland, but overall solid remix album of an artist whose voice is unforgettable.