Paul Simon-You're the One (DVD-Audio) (2000) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Booklet Biographies-Cast DVD Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	44:10
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Audio Format Select Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Paul Simon
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Paul Simon
Case	DVD-Audio Jewel
RPI	$32.95	Music	Paul Simon

    Even today, Paul Simon is probably better known for having been part of the duo "Simon & Garfunkel." Together, the pair (Art Garfunkel along with Paul) were responsible for many, many well known songs throughout the 1960s such as The Sound of Silence, The Boxer, I Am A Rock, Mrs. Robinson, Scarborough Fair and Bridge Over Troubled Water.

    Unfortunately, the pair broke up after recording the album Bridge Over Troubled Water in 1970, and Paul Simon has since forged a semi-successful solo career. In 1981 the duo reunited for a concert but that didn't last long.

    In 1986, Paul decided to celebrate his fascination with African music by releasing Graceland - a crossover album melding African musical style with pop sensibilities and featuring the contributions of several prominent South African musicians including Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Ray Phiri, Bakithi Kumalo and Isaac Mtshali as well as other musicians. It became a hit, winning the Grammy Award for the Album of the Year and selling 15 million copies worldwide. Almost overnight, Paul managed to popularize a new genre in music: World Music. In 1990, he followed on that success by releasing Rhythm of the Saints, featuring the percussion and melodies of South America, and Brazil in particular.

    This album, You're The One is not "themed" and features Paul returning back to his folk-pop roots. However, traces of Graceland and the African influence are still there, notably in the use of musicians such as Vincent Nguini on the electric guitar and Bakithi Kumalo on bass. The album as a whole is fairly gentle and laid back, and yet the lyrics are quite sophisticated and deep, with occasional biting humour.

Video

    Like most of the Warner DVD-Audio discs released to date, the video content on this disc is in full frame NTSC.

    As each song plays, the video displays a still containing a close-up of part of the album cover, the name of the song, and a list of musicians playing in the song.

Audio

    There are four audio tracks on the disc: MLP 88.2/24 5.1 and MLP 88.2/24 2.0 on the DVD-Audio section of the disc, and Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) and dts 5.1 (1536Kb/s) on the DVD-Video section.

    The MLP 2.0 track sounds incredibly clean and crisp and well articulated, with a wide and deep soundstage. Basically, as far as I can tell this is pretty close to a "reference quality" recording, with tight (and surprisingly deep in certain places) bass, crystal clear high frequencies, and a strong, well imaged voice.

    The MLP 5.1 audio track sounds very similar to the MLP 2.0 track. The centre channel and subwoofer are silent, and the rear speakers are only used for ambience. I suspect the surround track may have been artificially generated from the stereo mix.

    The dts 5.1 audio track sounds very similar to the MLP 5.1 audio track, except possibly with less presence, not as "crisp" and slightly duller. The Dolby Digital 5.1 track restores the brightness and crispness, but unfortunately adds a bit of harshness as well as reduced high frequency resolution.

    For some reason, the dts track is flagged as DTS ES Matrix 6.1. I assume the flag has been incorrectly set as there isn't much coming from the surround back speakers and it is highly unlikely they would remix a 5.1 track into 6.1 prior to dts encoding.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Extras on this disc are extremely minimal, even by DVD-Audio standards.

Menu

    Full frame and static.

Booklet

    This is a 16 page full colour booklet containing colour photographs, song lyrics and credits, and musician and production credits.

Biographies-Cast

    This is a set of 10 stills providing an essay on Paul Simon and the album.

DVD Credits

    This is a set of four stills providing musician and production credits.

    This disc appears to be identically featured across all regions.

    Paul Simon - You're The One is a collection of rather introspective songs that combine some of his earlier material with a hint of world music influence.

    The MLP 2.0 and 5.1 audio tracks are clear and crisp and near reference quality, however the surround mix is not very adventurous. In addition there are Dolby Digital 5.1 and dts 5.1 audio tracks on the DVD-Video section of the disc.

    Extras are minimal.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall