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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Neil Young-Greendale (DVD-Audio) (2003)

Neil Young-Greendale (DVD-Audio) (2003) (NTSC)

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Released 5-May-2004

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Music Music Video-Devils Sidewalk
Lyrics
Discography
Credits
Web Links
Rating Rated E
Year Of Production 2003
Running Time 78:23 (Case: 88)
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 1,2,3,4,5,6 Directed By None Given
Studio
Distributor

Warner Vision
Starring Neil Young
Case ?
RPI $32.95 Music None Given


Video (NTSC) Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 4.1 L-R-LS-RS-Sub (448Kb/s)
English Dolby Digital 2.0 (448Kb/s)
English MLP 96/24 4.1 L-R-LS-RS-Sub
English MLP 96/24 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio Unknown Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    First off a couple of confessions.......1) I chose to review this DVD-Audio disc because I have just upgraded to a player capable of playing them and this was the only one available for review because no-one else had chosen to review it, and 2) I am not a big fan of Neil Young although I do own a number of albums he appears on including Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and some solo albums. I do enjoy some of that material, although its not top of my personal hit parade.

    Neil Young has obviously been an icon of the American music scene for many, many years and has a huge number of fans in the USA and to a lesser degree here in Australia. A surprisingly large number of Neil Young's albums are available on DVD-Audio and a significant proportion of his total discography of over 40 albums. This particular album is his most recent one and was released in 2003. It is a song cycle of tunes about an extended family living in a town called Greendale who are affected in different ways by a murder one of their number commits. Neil Young also directed a feature film version of this album, which was not widely released. The album reached No 22 on the Billboard album charts in the USA.

    Musically, this is a loose, bluesy folk/rock album which features his long time backing band, Crazy Horse. Young features on guitar, organ, harmonica and vocals with Billy Talbot on bass and Ralph Molina on drums. Thematically, this album is quite anti-development and left-leaning politically.

    To my mind the best tracks were Devil's Sidewalk and Falling From Above.

    I found this album very difficult to listen to, despite having some lyrics which have been running round my head for some days after listening to it. I think this was due to the album having 10 tracks all of which were approximately 7 minutes long. I found the songs went on far too long, considering their dark and mournful nature. By the time each track hit the 4 - 5 minute mark, I was ready for it to end. Obviously, if you are a bigger fan of the man's work than I am, your results may vary.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Track Listing

1. Falling From Above
2. Double E
3. Devil's Sidewalk
4. Leave The Driving
5. Carmichael
6. Bandit
7. Grandpa's Interview
8. Bringin' Down Dinner
9. Sun Green
10. Be The Rain

Transfer Quality

Video

    The video quality is quite poor, not that this is the point of the exercise but all the photos and the video were intentionally blurry and grainy. They are 16x9 enhanced and NTSC.
    

Audio

    The audio quality is very good, however, the nature of this album means it does not really show off DVD-Audio's capabilities.

    This DVD contains four audio options, English MLP 96/24 4.1 (no centre channel), English MLP 96/24 2.0 (these two are exclusively for DVD-Audio compatible players), an English Dolby Digital 4.1 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s and English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 448 Kb/s (these two will play in any DVD player). I found the MLP tracks to have significantly more dynamism and presence than the Dolby Digital tracks, although the Dolby Digital tracks certainly were not bad. Its seems slightly strange to not have a centre channel, however, this is not a glitch in my setup as I have confirmed independently with other reviews that this is the case.

    As this album includes basically only guitar, bass and drums and is low key music, I do not think this is the disc you would use to demonstrate your DVD-Audio setup.

    The surround speakers were used for backing vocals and some other effects such as the megaphone chants on the song Sun Green. Obviously, this was limited to the 4.1 tracks.

     The subwoofer was used to add bass on the 4.1 tracks, but did not stand out.

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

Extras

Menu

    The menu included the album cover art, and allowed for lyrics and photos to be accessible during song playback (lyrics are displayed on DVD-Audio players only).

Video - Devil's Sidewalk (6:34)

    A live in the studio video on one song from the album, framed in an old TV set.

Discography

    A text based discography of Neil Young's back catalogue including work with other bands. Includes details of tracks, release dates and musicians.

Weblink

    When inserted into a DVD-ROM drive, the disc automatically comes up with a link to a website called Neil's Garage.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    This disc is the same in all regions.

Summary

    This disc contains a dense and hard to listen to Neil Young album which would probably appeal to fans only.

    The video quality is average.

    The audio quality is very good.

    The disc has a small selection of extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Daniel Bruce (Do you need a bio break?)
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV667A DVD-V DVD-A SACD, using Component output
DisplaySony FD Trinitron Wega KV-AR34M36 80cm. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL)/480i (NTSC).
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationPioneer VSX-511
SpeakersBose 201 Direct Reflecting (Front), Phillips SB680V (Surround), Phillips MX731 (Center), Yamaha YST SW90 (Sub)

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