Customer Reviews

Young Americans (W/Dvd) (Spec)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love this album. The original stereo mix is great. Great songs, great performances, great sound. I'm not even going to get into that. My review is for those of you strictly curious about the 5.1 mix.

The 5.1 mix, in short, is awful. If you've ever thought to yourself, "Boy, I wish that bongo drum was loud as hell" or "Why can't those backup singers sound like they're singing in a garage down the road?" then maybe you'll like this. The strut and soul of these songs is lost in the obnoxious frills of this surround mix. There are constant issues with the reverb on both lead and backup vocals. I'm sure the original tracks are hard to deal with, but the effects that make this album sound like a classic piece of coked-out 70's soul only sound awkward when shifting around in the stereo field at any instant. The only track that I find even interesting to hear in 5.1 is "Win". The worst tragedy of this remix is "Fame". It sounds so dry and brittle that I can't even handle it. This isn't "Fame". This is something else... Then again "Fascination" sucks pretty bad too. Man, what a waste of money.

The Dick Cavette show stuff is great though. Bowie just can't quit fidgeting with that cane.

(...)

I honestly think the Dolby mix listening experience depends on the type of fidelity system one has. I do agree with the previous poster that certain instruments really are much too loud on several of the songs, but I found the backup singers coming out of the rear channels to be really something else. The songs featuring string arrangements are especially compelling with Bowies' vocals centered, background singers in the rear and the orchestration lushly swirling around seemingly from everywhere. I don't know if Dolby DTS makes this sound better, but that's the scheme that I use to listen to just about everything, including this (I just prefer DTS over 5.1). Aside from the occasionally loud bass drum or percussion instrument, I just haven't found any deal breaking faults like the prior reviewer has. No disrespect to his opinions, but I guess people just hear things differently.



The five star rating is for the total package of this latest re-issue. The CD version of the mixes is outstanding, the Dolby disc while not drop dead essential, is nice enough to have. The Dick Cavett interview and the musical performances are both really very interesting archival things. Yeah they've been floating around forever as bootlegs, but now's your chance to get it legitimately. The liner notes are also excellent, tracing the path of the album itself and the Bowie timeline of events that surrounded this recording (like found on the Ziggy, Aladin and Diamond Dogs reissues).



So in short, no don't buy this if you're happy with whatever version of YA you have. But if you do have the cash to burn then by all means indulge yourself.



Young Americans was and still is, a great great album.

"Young Americans" still surprises me to this day with it's amazing R&B. The sound was more clearly mixed than "Diamond Dogs" and it was a real departure for Bowie. The regular remastered CD with, "John, I'm Only Dancing", "Who Can I Be Now?" and "It's Gonna Be Me" sounds even better than the original CD. The extra three tracks are on par with the other songs and its bewildering that in an era when 12 songs per album were standard, Bowie released an eight song album. "John, I'm Only Dancing" is a much more improved R&B version than the rock version.

The 5.1 mix surprised me. It is not perfect and I like it that way. Luther Vandross's back-up vocals come mostly from the rear speakers and you can hear him much more clearly. The congas on "Young Americans" are a little loud for the mix, but it makes the whole experience seem more like a live studio recording instead of a carefully remastered remix. In fact, Bowie mentioned in the liner notes that he liked recording this album with all the instruments playing at once while he sang. There are other surprises. On this DVD you can hear John Lennon speak briefly after one song and the finale of "Fame" has each word of 'fame' descending going around the room from speaker to speaker, but the loud shout of 'fame!' before, 'what's your name, what's your name, what's your name...' is missing. It catches you!

The Dick Cavett interview is a treat, with Bowie sniffing and wiping his nose while fidgeting with his cane. So he did a lot of coke during this period. Who cares? The album is a perfect choice for surround sound. And that sound will vary from system to system.

I can now reflct upon the unfolding of Young Americans in 5.1.

I must say it's not the same experience as the hearing the 5.1 mixes of Talking Heads material, since Young Americans wasn't recorded as expensively - and doesn't have as many overdubs as much of the Heads works. In other words, don't expect a total revelation here.

On the other hand, there are new things to be found, especially when you get to side two and such tracks as Across the Universe and Somebody Up There Likes me. Putting the backing vocalists into the rear is a master stroke. Sitting the center of my setup is like sitting in the room while the album was recorded, surrounded by Bowie in front, and the singers behind.

Some of the new seperation does allow you to fully realize the depth to some of the songs - the use of handdrums on Young Americans is a stand out, and you can really enjoy them now like never before.

The DVD also includes a show Bowie did at the time with Dick Cavert. Dick was a bit, erm, straight for Bowie, but it's interesting none-the-less. You get to hear Bowie do two tracks (annoyingly the note say he did three, but they didn't inlcude the third). He starts with 1984, and ends with Young Americans. 1984 is simply superb, and it's fascinating to hear such a song played in a mainstream show. Young Americans wasn't fully gelled yet, so it has slightly different lyrics, which is always fun.

Bowie was at the height of White Soul image, and he's clearly thin and well on his way to next persona - the Thin White Duke. Sadly, it's also clear he'd been snorting some chemicals before the show was aired. All the usual signs - fidgetting, jerky movements, lack of concentration, and a perpetual sniff, are evident. Despite that the longish (20 minutes or so) interview is interesting in that Cavert keeps trying to paint Bowie as an elite artist with fantastical ideas, while Bowie keeps his feet well on the ground and is quite dismissive of airs and graces. It's a good watch.

Now for the negatives. As with the Talking Heads 5.1 mixes, in all honesty they can be a bit hit and miss. Sometimes a certain song just... well falls apart. It loses its balance, its drive, and sounds like something deflated, and/or, completely different. With Young Americans it's Fascination that just, well, goes to pieces. Perhaps I wil come to terms with the new mix, but first time around it sounded fractured and messy, as though the4 band are no longer playing together. The familiar melody has been lost as the indivudal sounds of the band playing go in seemingly different directions. It's the only true mistep here, and I'm not sure what to make of it. The rest sound great.

The worse thing though, the heinous thing, is EMI's assinine decision to make the default playback on the DVD a PCM Stereo mix! Wtf?!?!?

Let me explain - the disc ships with two discs - one a CD including the new stereo mix, the other a DVD with the 5.1 mix. You get three mixes on the DVD, PCM Stereo, 5.1 Dolby, and 5.1 DTS. With the Talking Heads discs (packaged the same way), you could put the DVD in the player, and simply press PLAY. What you get is the 5.1 mix. This makes perfect sense, because if you wanted the damn stereo mix, you'd put in the CD, surely?!?

With Young Americans you get the stereo mix from the DVD by default. To switch to the DTS track, you have to circumvent the menus. Which is crap, because the player I use for DTS is hooked up to my projector, and I'm not going to start that up just so I can listen to Young Americans!

And no - the damn AUDIO button does not change tracks on the fly. What a poor decision! Yes, you have to simply learn the remote sequence to get what you want: UP - SELECT - UP- UP - SELECT - PLAY. But really, it's completely stupid and I don't know what they were thinking.

All in all, this is a very good release of the classic album, and is definately worth picking up. It has a couple of annoyances, but I can live with those. They've slowly been given the ultra-deluxe treatments to classic Bowie (ziggy, Aladin Sane, Diamond Dogs, and now this), so I suppose Station to Station is next. I hope so.

If you're a fan of Bowie and this album, this is a no brainer.

Bowie's longtime producer Tony Visconti strikes again! After the wonderful DVD-Audio and CD re-releases of David Live and Stage, Mr. TV has worked his magic on the classic Young Americans album.

If you've never heard this album, it will rock your world. If you know this album well, the new version will rock your world even harder! I was simply amazed at how great the sound is, especially the surround effect in 5.1. I heard instrumentation and vocal arrangements that got lost in the earlier stereo album mix. It was like hearing the album for the first time all over again!

If you don't have surround sound yet, the included stereo CD is just as exciting. The mix is much brighter and more powerful than before, so you won't be disappointed.

Also, the DVD includes the rare video of Mr. Bowie's completely coked-up appearance on the Dick Cavett show -- absolutely essential viewing for any Bowie fan!

This is the fourth Bowie CD to be repackaged as a double-disc Anniversay set, and in many respects is the best value of the bunch. This time, in addition to a wonderfully remastered CD of "Young Americans" we get a DVD that contains the entire CD in a 5:1 mix (DTS is my favorite flavor), as well as two great videos from the Dick Cavett show and an interview that is interesting albeit painful to watch.

While "Young Americans" is nowhere near the top of my list of Bowie CD's, the five stars goes for the quality and value of the package as presented. While some others have complained about the surround mix, I enjoy it immensely. If I want the original mix, it is on the CD in wonderful quality; if I want the surround mix, it is there as well. The surround mix is very active without feeling gimmicky. Frankly, I much prefer this mix to the SACD of Ziggy Stardust.

The Dick Cavett footage is a great bonus, and includes live performances of "1984" and "Young Americans"(the latter appeared on the DVD Best of Bowie"). The interview segment was taped when Bowie was in the darkest hour of his well-publicized cocaine addiction, and as such is painful to watch but hard to turn off. Anyone who has seen Bowie in an interview since 1980, and is accustomed to listening to an exceptionally lucid, witty man, will be shocked by this segment.

If you are a fan of Bowie's and are sitting on the fence about this release, I encourage you to try it out - it is a great package and well worth the purchase price. Now, if anyone out there is paying attention - please, please, please put together a special edition of Station to Station with the 1976 Nassau Coliseum concert as a bonus disc....

I don't care what the review says, this is the best cover of Across the Universe ever! The best song on the CD next to Fame and better than Fiona Apple's and Rufus Wainwright's, which are pretty good themselves.

I love the drumming at the end of the song and both John & David going at it (if that is John Lennon with him). A cover song is supposed to sound different than the original but keep some elements and this song is definitely David Bowie's version not Beatles which is a classic by itself. Why do the song the same as the original?

Anyway, David is no stranger to great covers, Let's Spend the Night Together is even better than the original.

And I love it when they cover him too. I love Seu Jorge and even the much maligned Barbra Streisand cover of Life on Mars? I give her props for tackling it in her Butterfly album (the best song on that CD too) and I like her vocals in it even though the instrumentation is not as mystifying as David's with Piano and Cello's etc... Her voice was great, if she could redo it with his music that would be a treat.

I'm not sure why anyone would have a problem with this surround mix. It doesn't jump out at you like others I've heard (particularly on some of the Depeche Mode Special Editions), but it's perfectly adequate without distracting too much from the straightforward soul, rock and dance/disco sounds that Bowie explores on this album. I completely disagree with what another reviewer wrote about the mix on Fame; that song is a real treat in surround. It's no drastic reinvention or alteration - just Fame nicely spread across all 5 speakers in your surround setup like any fan would expect, and like any great song, it makes me want to crank the volume as much as possible even if it means pissing off the neighbors. Thank god I'm not in an apartment.

That being said, as everyone knows Young Americans finds Bowie comfortably entering his blue-eyed soul period. Back when it was released, this must have thrown everyone for a loop. But looking back, consider this a warmup for what eventually would become the perfect distillation of Bowie's unique sound with funk and soul: Station to Station. Young Americans isn't quite as good as that disc, but it certainly holds its own in the Bowie catalog. There are no weak tracks here, and besides the obvious hits, check out Bowie's wild, soulful take on Lennon's Across the Universe (way better than it should be), as well as the great bonus cut It's Gonna Be Me. The remastering does a nice job bringing out how tight the background singers and musicians were on all these tracks, which again shows new life in full suround on the bonus disc. In an age where honing music to perfection is the norm, it's nice to hear the raw skill of these musicians and singers behind Bowie's impassioned vocals.

If anything, buy this set simply for the bonus videos. Besides two excellent live performances, Young Americans and 1984, from the Dick Cavett show, you get a full one-on-one session between Cavett and Bowie. Talk about intense - here's Bowie playing nervously with his cane, wiping his nose, and obviously a bit too young to take much of it too seriously. Besides the apparent side effects of coke, he's as amused at our reactions to him as we are to his ever-changing personnas. Frtunately, Cavett doesn't take him too seriously either, and the two strike a fun and easy rapport. This is priceless stuff - with the only thing missing being a reunion between the two to offer some commentary. Guess I can wish.

Let's hope this special edition is just the start of the entire Bowie catalog being released in this format. I know Bowie fans have been inundated with rereleases and remasters, and it's gotten a bit ridiculous. But if surround-sound, videos and vintage interviews are part of the offering, I'll sell my set of Virgin remasters and come along for the ride.

young americans as an album is great - my reason for this review is to find out if i'm just hearing things or if there are a couple mistakes on the standard cd of this album (not the 5.1 mix)

at 3:45 in the song young americans, the background singers seem to drop completely out of the mix for a full second in the right speaker. also, maybe 5 to 10 seconds or so before this, there is a click that kind of sounds like skip in the cd but its not - these aren't huge things but for an audiophile, they're distracting at the least, esp. with headphones - can anyone else verify that this is on all of the copies of the special edition album? its not just mine, right?

Since a lot of the comments here are regarding the sound quality, I thought I'd chime in too. I don't have a surround setup so these comments are just regarding the stereo CD. A careful comparison with the Ryko CD reveals the stereo "stage" is different on this new release. For instance, on "Win" on the Ryko release, the guitar is off to the far left, the sax to the far right, just like the original RCA LP. On this new release, the instruments are much more towards the center, creating a narrower soundstage. Furthermore, the sax seems to drift from right to left at some points. This leads me to believe the stereo disc is mixed down from the surround version, which I imagine has some of the instruments moving around at points. While the sound quality is overall quite good, I would prefer the stereo imaging mimic the original, not change things. The original LP did have a bit of an exaggerated stereo effect, but that's the way it was recorded.