Donald Fagen-The Nightfly (DVD-Audio) (1982) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Booklet Menu Animation-New Frontier Music Video-New Frontier (4:51) Lyrics Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	1982
Running Time	39:02
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Donald Fagen
Case	DVD-Audio Jewel
RPI	$32.95	Music	Donald Fagen

    Filling in my evening after a sod awful day at work, one of the classic albums of the early 1980's in its resurrection on DVD-Audio makes it into the player. I am still trying to work out why I stuck my hand up for this effort, for the simple reason that I have always hated the album. My opinion has varied somewhere between pretentious jazz-inspired crap and overrated meanderings through the musically-challenged minefield of Fagen's mind. One test listen was all I needed to assiduously avoid adding the album to my CD collection (this was an early digital recording I believe) and that is about as close as I have ever wanted to get to the album. The only problem was that my opinion was way different from the rest of the world and so I simply was unable to avoid the album on radio. So why do I raise these obvious impediments to a thoroughly unbiased look at The Nightfly on DVD-Audio? Simple really - I felt the need to spout! No, not really, it just is to set the mood that I went into this review session with.

    If you have more interest in the album and artist than I, you probably already know that Donald Fagen was one of the founders of Steely Dan (also a band that never did much for me - bit of a common theme emerging here). Along with Walter Becker, he decided to call it quits on the band after the releases of the masterpiece Gaucho and headed off into the badlands of a solo recording career. His debut solo release was this particular disc. He is obviously not the most prolific person on earth as the follow up was released over ten years later. Along the way Steely Dan reformed too, and have had a spasmodic schedule of releases since.

    So why exactly was this album such a success upon initial release? I don't know. Sitting down to a full review session twenty years later, a session that included five separate listens of the album I might add, I am still none the wiser. It still sounds to me like pretentious rubbish, and only serves to further fuel my disdain for the music of the man and his band.

    However, you do not have to be a fan of the man's music to appreciate that this was, and always will be, a well-engineered recording. Whilst that engineering might well have robbed the music of some of the soul of the man, it sure lets you hear that music. Funnily enough, the man responsible for this remaster is none other then Elliot Scheiner, who happened to be involved in the original recording. He also was responsible for producing the previously raved-about Automatic For The People. Starting to see a pattern here?

    While the music is really not to my taste, the quality of the presentation certainly is. Another DVD-Audio disc in which I would certainly recommend that you indulge.

Video

    The only video on the disc is the music video in the extras, everything else comprising NTSC menus and stills. These are clear and quite sharp. The lyric stills accessible while the songs are being played in DVD-Audio mode are good.

Audio

    There are five soundtracks on the disc: an MLP 5.1 surround soundtrack, an MLP 2.0 stereo soundtrack, a DVD-Video compatible Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, a DVD-Video compatible Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and a DVD-Video compatible dts 5.1. I will confess to having listened to all the soundtracks, but only the 5.1 soundtracks in their entirety.

    As the default on the disc, the first soundtrack up for listening was the DVD-Audio MLP 5.1 soundtrack. This is a very nice soundtrack, without being spectacular. Understated might be a good description, and as such certainly matches the understated nature of the music. The overall mix is rather enticing in my view, although some might quibble about the extent of the rear channels. Whilst the vocals are certainly present, the way the whole surround sound is presented means that the balance is extremely good and I really did not notice the extent of the rear vocals in the overall presence created by the surrounds, notably in I.G.Y. The one review I found of the disc in the USA actually complains about the mixing of the lead vocals into the surround channels, especially the rear. Since we are both listening to the same disc, this is an interesting conundrum! It does however illustrate that positioning is very important when listening to surround mixes - where you sit can change the impression of the overall mix - as well as personal preferences as far as sound is concerned. The result we have been given is certainly very evocative of the recordings I have heard from this album on the radio. To my mind that is the important quality in the mix - it adds a lot of presence but does not destroy the ambience of the music and sound. At the end of the thirty nine minutes of the disc, I was very pleased with what I heard.

    The MLP 2.0 soundtrack is a nice clean sound, lacking in the copious presence that the six channel recording provides. Obviously this is nothing but what was expected. One thing that I find myself pondering more and more when listening to this sort of soundtrack is - why bother? It would be very interesting to find out exactly how many DVD-Audio-equipped persons actually do not have six channel set-ups, or otherwise choose to listen to these palpably inferior sounding two channel soundtracks.

    The DVD-Video compatible Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is again a much different beast. Unlike the other two six channel soundtracks, this one is loaded with bass. Indeed, so much bass that one does have to question why, as it really does the music no good at all. The overall feel of the soundtrack is significantly different to the other six channel soundtracks. So different in fact that it almost makes the album sound as if it is a completely effort by an altogether different artist. While the bass contributes to a vastly more present sound, it does at times bring a degree too much reverb to music that just does not suit this style of sound at all. This is perhaps no more evident than in the lead track, I.G.Y. On the balance, I would consider this to be the poorest soundtrack on the disc for that very simple reason: it does not in any way suit the music. Plenty of people will of course disagree with me.

    The DVD-Video compatible dts 5.1 soundtrack is an excellent effort though, with a much smoother sound than the Dolby Digital soundtrack, and with a bit more body than the MLP soundtrack. With the far less focused bass that the format brings to the mix, the result is a vastly more palatable soundtrack, one that is very much easier on the ear and does enough to make the music shine. In other words, everything that is so wrong about the Dolby Digital soundtrack is so right here. The surround encoding is still good, although it to some extent lacks the distinctiveness of the earlier soundtrack.

    The DVD-Video compatible Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack is not too bad an effort, although nowhere near the league of the six channel efforts.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Booklet

    An unacceptable eight page effort, the only high point of which is the shortish essay from Donald Fagen himself, penned in December, 2002.

Music Video - New Frontier (4:51)

    Probably well known to those who took any serious note of the man's music back in 1982, but a completely new experience for me. Very much a child of its time, it is in fair enough condition for a twenty year promotional music video. It suffers some modest aliasing, and a general softness of colour. It is presented in a full frame format that is not 16x9 enhanced, and comes with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.

Lyrics

    Accessible during playback in DVD-Audio mode, but from only the menu in DVD-Video mode, there is nothing terribly exciting about them.

Credits

    Basically repeating those included in the booklet.

    This DVD-Audio is identical in content and format around the world.

    If the music is to your taste, then this is an essential purchase. It is very doubtful that you have heard the music sounding so good before, and the surround sound format seems to work wonders with it. For those like me who are not so enamoured with the music, this is still worthwhile checking out for two excellent six channel soundtracks. It is a pity that the Dolby Digital six channel soundtrack is not good enough to make a trio of worthy soundtracks though.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall