Not yet available in the United States**, this disc has seen release probably everywhere else in the world. My copy is from Canada, but the music sounds a lot more like southern California. Ironically, the Thrills are from Ireland and their alternative country/rock songs are influenced in the styles of the Beach Boys, the Byrds, and Neil Young. It is, therefore, not too surprising that I also hear similarities to their Scottish neighbors, Teenage Fanclub.
With such great songs, I had fairly high expectations. So how does the DVD-A sound?
The recording doesn't sound particularly harsh, but it isn't exactly warm and inviting either. A quality surround mix could have helped offset these less-than-stellar sonics, but various decisions only make matters worse. For instance, the real joy in listening to this band should be their jangling guitars and other instrumentation. However, these are buried deep in the mix and play a secondary role to the vocals. The singing is satisfying, but in no way should it be so much louder than everything else. What is worse, vocals are isolated into the center channel, which sounds unnatural---even for a studio recording of pop/rock material. Not all is lost, though. After a while, the vocal placement becomes tolerable; and a little tweaking of the channel levels might could help tame their overbearing loudness---a little, anyway. (Don't expect miracles.) Finally, a good thing about the mix is that it has a fair amount of activity going on in the rear channels without going overboard.
I'm probably being too negative. It's listenable, after all. But it's just that I was hoping for better.
**Note: This DVD-Audio was eventually released in the U.S.
