Sheila Nicholls - Wake   (DVD-Audio)

 

Music: B+     MLP 5.1: A-     DTS 5.1: A     PCM Stereo: B     Extras: C+

 

 

Sheila Nicholls proves what conviction can do when applied to what would in other ways be considered annoying or even too preachy.  She does it with zest and appeal, as her songs tend to border on being too direct, her passion is felt as she pours her soul into her work.  Unlike many musicians working today, Nicholls’ knows how to keep the right balance in her work.  As a follow up to her 1999 debut Brief Stop, Nicholls quickly demonstrates that she is nowhere near ready to ever stop.  This time around her vocals cut even deeper than some of the tracks off of Brief Stop such as “Fallen For You” which appeared that same year in the John Cusack film High Fidelity. 

 

Brief Stop showed off the singer/songwriters potential with more piano-based compositions, but she quickly withdrew from that this time around, probably to avoid being compared to Sarah McLachlan.  Rather she comes out strong almost along the same vein as Aimee Mann, although her lyrics are not quite written in the same poetic manner, it is simply a matter of different approach.  Wake shows a more charismatic Nicholls’ who incorporates much more in terms of instrumentation and imagination.  This was a perfect album for DTS Entertainment to include as one of their DVD-Audio’s and to make this one of their first featuring an ES Extended Surround channel.  Perhaps they will go back and do Brief Stop in the near future.

 

Wake opens with a very potent track called “How Strong”, which starts out rather delicate, yet the chorus becomes richly immersed with various arrangements while Nicholls vocals become lower and even to the point of grunting as she charts new territory.  Songs like this could be comparable with some of the work done by Bjork, Ani Difranco, Fiona Apple, or even Tori Amos.  This is one of the more steady tracks with a pumping bass line that quickly establishes this DVD-Audio as one of the most incredible in terms of sonic appeal and capabilities of being so solid, while at the same time pulling together instruments from various channels.

 

This DVD-Audio is capable of three playback methods, DTS 5.1, MLP 5.1, and PCM Stereo.  All three are generously rich and detailed, with the multi-channel mixes delivering far more in spatialness, which is the obvious intent.  What is surprising is the amount of low-end presence that can be identified throughout.  Even in slower, more dramatic songs the bass is a constant steady force, but the vocals still penetrate through with ease.  Some listeners might find this amount of low-end to be distracting, in which case they may want to consult the MLP option since it tends to back off on the low end and bring forth a bit more fidelity and separation. 

 

Taking it one step further this DVD-Audio is capable of discrete 6.1 channels of sound with the DTS-ES option for those who have a 6.1 receivers and speaker setup.  This allows for more back-channel coherence as the gaps are filled between right surround and left surround.  What tends to happen with ES channels for music is that vocals are spit from the instruments in the surrounds similar to how the vocals dominate the center speaker in the front and allow for the left and right speakers to handle the instruments.  When it comes to film, the ES channels are designed to match on-screen action much better and create more ambience in the surrounds with the musical cues.  However, the difference here is that there is no set structure for how the mix must sound.  The artist (in this case the mixer) has the advantage of structuring the mix to their idea of a comfortable listening experience.  Utilizing modern technology the mixer can give more separation between instruments and vocals and going with ES channels seems to be the best way to go since even more of the vocals are divided into each speaker.

 

Track Listing

 

How Strong

Bread and Water

Faith

Love Song

Maze

Ruby

Moth and the Streetlight

Seven Fat Englishmen

Won’t Get Lost In You

Come To Me

Breath

 

There is also a bonus video presented on the DVD-Audio for the song “Faith”, which is an interesting video something along the lines of a P.T. Anderson video.  The video is capable of being played in all three of the audio options as well.  The picture quality here is very natural with some haloing that can be annoying as well.  The colors are saturated and on the verge of bleeding, but nothing too bad.  Since this is a full-frame video that was likely shot on a lesser digital format, the results are admissible. 

 

If Sheila Nicholls’ were compared to a famous writer it might be that of William Blake, especially that of Songs of Innocence and Experience.  For Nicholls’ seems to always tread the lines of asking why must innocence be lost and that constant fear of losing the ‘inner child’.   Not the fear of losing that inner child in the same creepy way that Michael Jackson claims though.  Perhaps its fair to say that her album Brief Stop is more along the lines of ‘innocence’ while Wake is definitely more along the lines of ‘experience’.  Her experiences and maturity shows through as we quickly learn by comparing the two albums how she has managed to grow as a singer/songwriter and become more evolved in her arrangements, but also in the material.  The question now though is where do artists like this go next.  The industry in its current state seems to be going through a change and moving towards a more jazz-oriented basis with the success of artists like Norah Jones.  Sarah Mclachlan’s Surfacing album is well-over five years old at this point, so its hard to judge what will become of female artists that want to incorporate piano and vocals, but still have a more alternative sound.  Not only that, but look at the recent success of Jewel crossing over from a singer/songwriter from Alaska to a Madonna-esque dance diva with her latest album O304.

 

Nicholls’ shows definite promise as a musician willing to change and luckily her material presented here allows for the music to truly be a highlight.  Although DVD-Audio is still not the hot-selling product that it could or should be and (in the meantime) Sony’s SACDs do not exactly seem to be capturing the market either, both have made impressive early claims in a market ready for multi-channel music.  Wake is one of the reasons why.

 

 

-   Nate Goss