Art Garfunkel - Angel Clare [SACD Hybrid Multi-channel]

Not knowing where Amazon might post this, this review is for the SACD multichannel mix of this album.See my review of Breakaway on multichannel SACD.This is a step below Breakaway. It's a 4.5 and Breakaway is a solid 5+.It's well worth getting this. There is a lot more conscious playing with the soundstage than on Breakaway and it's all fun, tasteful and not annoying.But if you can only afford this one or Breakaway, get Breakaway. Get both if you can.

This has to be one of the best sounding CD's I have ever heard. The quadraphonic mix brings out so many extra layers I never heard before, and I have listened to this CD hundreds of times.

Great album that is difficult to find

Great album done in surround is exceptional. Highly recommend for anyone who likes this album and wants to hear the quad mix.Excellent sound quality.

Beautiful multichannel SACD.

Art Garfunkel’s first solo album is obviously a product of great care, labor and attention to detail. It took eighteen month to record, an epoch in terms of early seventies record labels.The result was one of the most lush and sweetly beautiful albums of the decade, a top 5 hit on the album charts and a successful launch of Art Garfunkel’s career as a solo artist. Paul Simon had already had two successful solo albums, so his former partner needed this. There is also a certain timelessness to the album in that its style hearkens back to no particular era and sounds as fresh today as it did when it was released.That it sounds much like a Simon and Garfunkel album is undoubtedly true and was intended. This is particularly the case with the album’s first single, “All I Know”, a song by Jimmy Webb of a beautiful, almost inspirational nature. It’s arrangement follows that of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” closely from the solo piano opening to the grand climax that includes the almost explosive effect made by drums echoing in a corridor, electronically amplified The booklet in Vocalion’s SACD version seem to say that this was done to show that Garfunkel was the sole architect of the Simon and Garfunkel sound, if you accept the idea that the only thing sonically missing here is the deeper voice.That’s a very big claim to make.. Roy Halee, who was the engineer on all of Simon and Garfunkel’s albums and the producer or co-producer of “Bookends” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” was the engineer here and is given co-production credit with Garfunkel. In addition, Columbia producer Tom Wilson had famously given the duo its start by mixing rock instruments with “Sounds of Silence” unbeknownst to them. He co-produced the rushed album, “Sounds of Silence” to capitalize on the surprise hit, with Bob Johnston, who went on as producer of “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme”, the album in which their multi-layered sound really began. Producer John Simon and composer/arranger Jimmie Haskell also had roles in creating the Simon and Garfunkel albums. In fact, Art Garfunkel did not originally want to sing the lead on “Bridge Over Troubled Water” but after he agreed, it was Haskell who transposed the key to fit Art’s voice.I’m nevertheless sure that Garfunkel played a big role in developing the duo’s sound and with Halee, produced “Angel Claire”, a spectacular sounding album in a style familiar to fans of the duo. What it lacks is Simon’s satirical bite and wry humor. Garfunkel’s sensibility is more about the sheer beauty of a melody arranged very fully in a way that almost blankets the song to maximize its loveliness. This compliments his ethereal tenor voice, which itself is innocent and pristine and used to harmonize with the melody. The effect is very pretty and emotionally appropriate with most of the material on this album, though in two cases it seems to counter the meaning of the lyrics.In the 1970’s I listened many times to “Down In the Willow Garden” and considered it just a nice old English folk song until one day I realized that the young narrator has poisoned his girlfriend, cut her body open with a knife and thrown her in the river, all at the behest of his father. The song has one of the most multilayered arrangements on the album and it’s hard to understand the lyrics. But mostly, the soft and sweet accompaniment gives no hint of its dark story.Randy Newman was the only composer in the early 70’s who would have written a song about a man dying alone, with no one caring enough to stay, sung by Death Itself. Newman arranged it intentionally using the unique style of his uncle, famed film score composer Alfred Newman. This gave the song a poignant movie death scene treatment, full of sorrow and loneliness conveyed by high, quavering strings.. Again here, the treatment is a bit too sweet, making Death seem more like a good friend saying goodbye, though this is fortunately counterbalanced by an eerie, slightly dissonant, minor key waltz that closes it.The rest of the album is heavenly. “Traveling Boy” by song team Paul Williams and Roger Nichols is a well-wishing farewell song that reaches great heights in its instrumental bridge and ending which includes an electric guitar mixed with its orchestra . “I Shall Sing” was an unrecorded Van Morrison song that stands out here for its percussion and saxophone and generally raucous atmosphere, kind of the “Cecilia” of this album.“Woyaya” was a song by the Afro-Caribbean group Osibisa, and is a lilting tune with a spiritual message.This makes the children’s choir totally appropriate, not an easy thing to do in the rocking 70s. (Though The Carpenter’s “Sing” and Three Dog Night’s “Black and White” were also able to accomplish it.) “All I Know” was discussed earlier, but it is an extraordinary song that really soars with Garfunkel’s voice and the accompanying strings, guitar and drum effects. It never quite reaches the level of “Bridge Over Troubled Water” but that song has metaphysical intimations where “All I Know” is still just a love song.The highlight of the album for me is “Barbara Allen”. I’ve heard this folk song done in ways from Joan Baez’s angelic voice and guitar to Jean Ritchie’s Appalachian roots music a cappella version. Here, the remarkable arrangement opens it up in a way that is absolutely cinematic, mixing folk instruments, a large string section and even the bells tolling in the distance. It’s not just a song, it’s an experience. It’s one of the most popular and widely travelled folk songs with many versions, some with additional lyrics, some with slight alterations of the melody. But they all tell the same sad tale of the hard-hearted Barbara Allen. It’s a folk song, so you have to believe that people die of unrequited love and sorrowful regret. The somewhat happy ending was added later in the song’s history.The album was recorded with 32 tracks in an era where 16 was the norm. When making the “Bridge” album, Halee had come up with the idea of syncing two 8 tracks so he repeated the process herewith 16 tracks. This gave them the ability to create sounds, textures and depth beyond anything anyone else could do at the time and the extra time it took to make the album was due to this, not personality issues. The album was also made for Quadraphonic sound, at the time when it was seen as the future of recording. The SACD brings out the multi-layered sound far beyond the original stereo mix which itself was good. The disc also contains the Quad mix.Angel Claire? Perhaps Garfunkel felt he was like the very idealistic character in the Hardy novel (“Tess of D’Urbervilles”) or perhaps he was spoofing the fact that “angelic” was the most common adjective used by critics to describe his voice.

This is my wife's favourite album, and the quadraphonic mix on this SACD is superb. Instruments and vocal harmonies which are buried in the stereo mix really come out in 4 channel. Turn down the front channels and play the rear ones and you'll hear what I mean!Superb remastering of a great album that was dismissed as "wallpaper music" when it originally came out in 1973.Vocalion are a great reissue company and set a high standard with a great reputation. Long may they prosper.

It is great when you buy a product that fits the description- Sacd multi channel. This album is great and is fully multi channel(quadrophonic) but needs a Sacd player with a dedicated amp and speakers. Multi channel sound certainly improves the album greatly. Being also a hybrid album will also play on a normal CD player. Great price for this album.

Vocalion-Dutton come up trumps with this excellent remastered edition on stereo and quadraphonic sacd of Art's first solo album for Columbia/CBS that sounds absolutely superb. Highly recommended.

Had a tape in the distant past of Angel Clare by Art Garfunkel - now have the CD and can't stop playing it. He has the voice of an angel himself.

My brother was very happy with the sound quality