"Brick" is a new boxed set that contains eight of the Talking Heads' studio albums packaged in a white plastic box, or a brick, as Rhino Records would call it. You don't get any artwork on the backsides or spines of the jewel cases, which is somewhat of a pain since all the discs tend to look alike when stored in the plastic brick. Inside, each album is presented on DualDiscs. The CD sides contain most of the bonus tracks while the DVD sides contain various videotaped performances, photos, and whatnot... Oh, and then there is this: A complete high-resolution surround mix of each album! The fidelity of most of these albums is outstanding. And, I can only speak for myself, but I feel the superb quality of the surround mixes justifed my $120.00 investment. Jerry Harrison, the band's keyboard player, has put quite a lot of action into all of the channels. So I don't feel cheated---at least on the audio side of things. The alternate mix of "Burning Down The House" is incredible! And I also enjoyed hearing the hit songs "Wild Wild Life", "And She Was", and "Once In A Lifetime" in surround sound.
That said, I would have preferred the opportunity to purchase the individual titles instead of a boxed set that cost over a hundred dollars. This was my first Talking Heads purchase and I wasn't sure how much I'd like the music. (Thankfully, I like it quite a lot!) Interestingly, it is rumored that the individual titles will come out some time in January 2006. If they do, I would definiately recommend picking up a title or two! (However, please read the word of caution below.**)
**A WORD OF CAUTION: First of all, these are DualDiscs, which are thicker than standard discs and might could get stuck in some players or maybe even cause damage. But beyond that, there have also been reports of incompatibility between some DVD-Audio players and the discs in this boxed set. It seems some players (Pioneer 578A/588A, Yamaha C350/C750/C6770, Onkyo DV-SP502, and perhaps others brands and models) are allegedly unable to recognize the high-resolution DVD-Audio tracks due to possible authoring issues and/or firmware issues. So you would be relagated to listening to lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 for the DVD side. This sounds very similar to what happened with the Pioneer DV-563A where it wouldn't play the DVD-A tracks of newer releases unless the player's firmware had been updated. Hopefully, the problem doesn't get any worse; but I felt it would be a good idea to mention this possible problem because this boxed set is very expensive. FWIW, I am using a Denon DVD-2200 and the high-resolution DVD-A tracks play fine. (Ironically, the CD side doesn't play on the Denon at all. But I digress...) Here a link to a thread over at QuadraphonicQuad that discusses players with potential incompatibilities. It might be worth checking out.
**NOTE: Someday, I might get around to indiviual reviews of the discs. But I do find them all to be pretty good. Too bad they are DualDiscs.
