This is a pretty good album. For those who are unfamiliar with Nickel Creek, as I (quite recently) once was, they are a contemporary bluegrass band. Their two albums released thus far have been produced by Alison Krauss.
The surround mix for SACD was done by Gary Paczosa, who was the mastermind behind the mixes for Krauss & Union Station's "New Favorite" and "Live" albums. And if you've been paying attention you'll likely recall a few posts by me and others who rated those SACDs quite highly. So it's not surprising that with Krauss and Paczosa on board for this album that I like the results.
How many "Kazaamies" does it get? I'm not sure. Probably a 4 out of 5. Edit: This disc is definitely worth 5 Kazaamies out of 5. It's THAT good!
Most of the songs have a very acoustic and almost 'live' quality about them. (It's not a dry sound, though. It's more like the 'airy' quality found on much of the two Krauss discs.) All the speakers are being utilized; and, despite the fact the songs contain instrumentation emanating from the surrounds, I can still quite easily imagine the band playing in front of me. Only on a few tracks does the surround instrumentation become too distracting for my tastes, such as on the first track "Smoothie Song".
Overall, the benefits of surround sound outweigh any negatives. I love the expanded sense of space. When Sara Watkins sings, "So I'll try hard to speak" during the chorus of "Speak", there is a slight pause during which time the 'kuh'-sound from her last sung word seems to delicately emminate out into a concert hall and touch everyone in the audience. There are numerous examples like this.
I highly recommend this SACD. The music's good. The mix is good. Gary Paczosa does justice to the songs in helping them come to life. In fact, it's done well enough that it makes me wish he had mixed Ryan Adam's "Gold" for SACD surround sound instead of Ethan Johns. (What a lost opportunity for some good acoustic music on SACD that was!) So do yourself a favor and don't miss out on your opportunity to pick up the SACD of Nickel Creek's "This Side". You just might like it.
