David Alan (DVD-Audio)
Music: B- MLP
5.1: B+ DTS 5.1: B+ Dolby (2.0 only): B- Extras: D
The Country Music genre continues to take many twists and
turns, but that does not always mean anything groundbreaking or
innovative. There are few artists in
the genre who are trying to do something new or have a vision, but through his
band PCH, David Alan could have went for something different. Oddly now, that 1997 album has been reissued
as a DVD-Audio title under his own name and this move does make some sense.
Though it offers some good musicianship, this is very
basic Country that is not over-glamorized like the Garth Brooks/Shania Twain
cycle has brought us, but does not feel like a trip back to anything down to
earth either. Instead, the 10 tracks offered here are of the garden-variety
school of what both the semantics and syntax of the genre established a long
time ago.
This may be comforting to some, but is nothing to get
excited about either. There is the
“girl song” (Mary Lou), the “I am impressed with your femininity song” (The
Woman In You), the “traveling song” (Locomotive), the “tear in my
beer song” (Give Me Back My Heart), the “I’m getting old though I am
still young song” (Memorize This Moment), and the “I met her in this
town song” (Mississippi Girl) covering all the bases. This may be reassuring to some, but obvious
otherwise.
The album certainly does not fail much on a sonic
level. These are accomplished musicians
and Alan has a decent voice, while the actual recording holds up well enough
for being a few years old. The music is
offered in 3 versions. The Dolby
Digital 2.0 (before DTS Entertainment abandoned this for PCM CD Stereo tracks)
is here for cross-compatibility with all PC DVD-ROM drives and for those
without 5.1 sound systems. It is the
lamest mix, as expected. The
High-Definition Meridian Lossless Packing and somewhat lossy DTS 5.1 mixes are
about the same; impressive enough, but with little difference between the
two. The MLP is marginally fuller, but
not enough to say it makes a strong difference, but would still be the
preferred playback signal, unless bass becomes an issue. That is, of course, a varying factor, as too
many DVD-Audio set-ups do not have good (if any) base management through their
receivers.
That is why DTS is always such a fine alternative. The disc offers no extras, but can claim to
be one of the earliest DVD-Audios in the Country genre. This is bound to make it early test material
for fans, so if it sounds like something you would still be interested in
hearing, it would not hurt to take a listen.
- Nicholas Sheffo
