Brothers In Arms - 20th Anniversary Edition [Dual Disc]

Dire Straits | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 16, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Dual Disc
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B0009WFF7M
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,464 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. So Far Away

2. Money For Nothing

3. Walk of Life

4. Your Latest Trick

5. Why Worry

6. Ride Across the River

7. Man's Too Strong

8. One World

9. Brothers in Arms

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply outstanding in 5.1 surround . . ., October 27, 2005

By 

Martin2005 "hunky-dory" (London, UK.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brothers In Arms - 20th Anniversary Edition (Audio CD)

This release is a two-sided disc with CD stereo on one side and superb DVD-Audio surround sound on the other. Of course, the real 'meat' on this disc is the surround-sound 5.1 DVD side which is simply stunning! If you have a DVD-Video player hooked-up to surround-sound home-theater system, then you'll get a great sound in Dolby Digital 5.1, or 24bit LPCM stereo.

However, very best sound experience possible will come to your ears if you use a "DVD-Audio" player with its six-analog outputs going straight to your receiver's "Multichannel Analog Inputs". (These inputs bypass all the receiver's digital circuitry to keep the high-resolution analog signal intact. By the way, the DVD-Audio surround-sound is presented in 96kHz / 24bit on the disc.

Some readers here may know that there is also a SACD version of this album, but be aware that the SACD has been converted from the DVD-Audio's 24bit studio master. So, in short, this DVD-Audio will give you the very best and truest reproduction of what was crafted originally in the studio.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars hearing 5.1 will make it hard to go back to basic 2 channel stereo, April 25, 2006

By 

Albert G. Smith Jr. (Daytona Beach, Fl USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brothers In Arms - 20th Anniversary Edition (Audio CD)

I have owned "Brothers in Arms" since it was released in 1985, first on cassette and then on CD. It has always been on my short list of music that comes out of my 800-plus discs to be played often. For all of my enjoyment from this fine album over the years, it has been rendered obsolete after just a few minutes of hearing this 5.1 rendering playing through my home theater system. The mastering is not just a faux 5.1, but a true experience that makes hearing the songs feel like it is the first time. The rear speakers stay busy with short fills, the center speaker is pure vocal, making Knopfler's voice so clear and distinct, and when that thunder storm cracks on the title track, the sub lets you know it is really thunder, you can feel it.

For the price, you can't get a better rendering of a great album. In short, the 5.1 DVD is a perfect way to hear this music, but at a cost. It will make it hard to enjoy basic left / right stereo recordings again.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars prime cut, July 25, 2006

By 

Flight Risk (The Gypsy Moth) "Exiled Yankee" (usa) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Brothers In Arms - 20th Anniversary Edition (Audio CD)

For years I've read that this was a fluke success for a band that defied labelling. An album that gets to 20th-anniversary status - and is still selling well - AND got a Grammy this year - well, somehow I don't really see that as a fluke. I see it for what it was and is - superior musicianship, top-notch writing, and an instantly recognizable voice that brings listeners to places few others can.

When this album first came out, it rarely left my stereo; now, twenty years along, I have four copies of it that I am aware of - it's possible there are more, with numerous relocations on my part; if I couldn't find my current copy after moving somewhere, I was apt to just go buy another to save time. This was the apex for Dire Straits, their absolute shining moment; it showed Mark Knopfler for the guitar master he is, as well as his unmatched talent for penning good songs. He deserves all the accolades he has gotten for bringing this watershed effort to fans everywhere.

There is nothing to say about the music that hasn't already been said, other than personal favourites on an album without a bad song on it; "Ride Across The River", which I could not listen to sitting down; "The Man's Too Strong", which is fairly spooky; "Walk Of Life" (I was a busker in Australia and can relate), one of his most upbeat songs; and the ubiquitous "Money For Nothing" which drove a former employer crazy every time I played it (20 years on, I'm still in love with that guitar riff, though I'm sure Mark Knopfler is tired of it).

This band may have left critics scrambling for description, but they knew how to make their adoring fans happy in a way that few bands have ever accomplished. It says something that the people who loved them then still do - to the point of making this album a 20-year event.