The Cure – Songs Of A Lost World

Love the full blown Atmos mix on the Blu-ray, Robert Smith deserves much credit for a cracking album and a good first foray into the world of multichannel atmos mixing.

The Blu-ray Audio disc has two available audio options, Dolby Atmos Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) and PCM Stereo 2.0 (96kHz, 24-bit). I spent the bulk of my time with the Dolby Atmos track which is delightfully immersive and sound separation is fantastic. Vocals, drums, and Gallup's virtually omnipresent bass guitar are primarily located in the front, with vocals placed typically front and center. Regardless of what else is happening in each song, Smith's vocals are never less than perfectly prioritized. However, even in the first track, exceptions present themselves, with background vocals, for example, pouring out from the surrounds. Synthesizer flourishes and other percussion elements are generally in the surrounds as well, but again, this is not a hard and fast rule, as depending on the sound and the moment, instruments and voices move freely through the sound field. Fidelity is excellent, with notes sounding crisp and clean when that is the intent and bristling with fuzzy distortion when that's called for. Importantly, Gallup's bass is well ed by the subwoofer, and is appropriately powerful and dominant when called upon to be so. To my ear, and not uncommon for The Cure, Songs of a Lost World sounds more impressive the more the volume is increased - within reason. The PCM Stereo 2.0 is a perfectly enjoyable listen as well, with pleasing depth and clarity, but the Dolby Atmos is the hands-down superior presentation.

A great comeback to form. A great record and excellent sound mixing. The BLU RAY and CD equalls sounds AMAZING. Super immersive, even on the standart Stereo mix. This is an álbum that grows from the shadows, and grows in the light on our hearts. A must!!!!

Has anyone else noticed when listening to the Atmos mix that Endsong seems to start in the middle of the first beat? At first I thought it was just where the track marker was placed, but when listening to All I Ever Am and letting it continue, it still starts abruptly.

I've been playing the Bernie Grundman mastered UK Marble Vinyl since it came out. I enjoyed the album, my Grundman Vinyl plays OK, but as has been heavily debated - the Mix isn't the best, distorted in places, and as i stated when i reviewed the Vinyl - this is obviously the sound that Robert Smith wanted. I decided to plump for the Deluxe CD - not for the Cd's, which i will probably just rip for listening through earbuds on my iPhone - but for the Dolby Atmos mix on the Blu Ray. I have a nice Sony Blu Ray player, which can decode in ATMOS, and a Sony AV Amplifier that can also decode ATMOS, with a Wharfedale 7.1 Speaker set - with x2 overheads in the ceiling above my sitting position, with Rear speakers slightly behind, angled into my sitting position. i put on the Player and immersed myself in the ATMOS mix - WOW, Dynamic Sounds - echoey guitars, synths and backing vocal sounds coming out of the Rears and if i tilt my head to left or right, I can hear different sounds swirling around! Vocals mainly in the front speakers (with nothing in the Centre Speaker) I can still hear the distortion in places, but it's much better in SURROUND. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED IF you have an ATMOS enabled system - it won't sound (quite) the same downmixed to 5.1 or on 'ATMOS' enabled headphones i'm afraid - this is my ALBUM OF THE YEAR... well done, Robert!

I see many reviews stating the cd is compressed, however cd’s are not compressed by definition. The cd in 96K/24bit should offer the most accurate sound vs. an album or digital stream which is compressed.

I took the 6Ch and mixed it down to stereo with peak normalization/true peak. That did it for me.

Hello everybody .

I have this Cd and Blu ray version .
My first listen was the Atmos mix … but i was disappointed because there isn’t no 5.1 mix … only 2.0 isn’ t it ??

Anyone else getting the impression from this and the vinyl reviews that it's exactly how Smith intended it to sound? I'm sticking with the 2.0 Atmos down mix, played louder than I normally would.

First off, I think the quality of the music is very good...if you approach it as an atmospheric mood piece. If you are expecting monster "hit" songs here or anything catchy you're going to be disappointed. Personally I don't mind it. In some ways the album reminds me Bloodflowers - an album I did not like that much at first but one that grew on me over the years.

Since the album is obviously very compressed and limited I wanted to hear it in the best light, I went with the Atmos downmix to 2.0 for my first full listen. This was done using Audiomuxer default settings, so if folks here are doing something different with their personal downmixes I cannot comment on that.

Like other ultra-compressed newer albums with Atmos versions, there is only so much that Atmos and a downmix of Atmos can do. To me it sounds like a lot of compression was just baked into the recording process because that's what Robert wanted. Still, it's probably the best of a number of bad options if you want to listen to the album.

RE: the regular stereo CD, I've played it once on headphones now and as others have noted the compression almost drives things into distortion at the edges. Drums and vocals tend to drown out most of the other instruments which is a shame IMHO. At one point it was giving me a bit of headache.

In general I don't think there's much hope for a really great sounding version of this album. The best thing that could happen is a professionally recorded live version where a more open mix gives more space for the instruments to breathe and the mastering has more headroom.

Before anyone asks I'm not bothering with the vinyl. IME these ultra-compressed albums do not sound that much better, if at all on vinyl and cramming ~50 minutes onto a single LP is just a bad plan for a loud, drum-heavy album like this. I realize there is a 1/2 speed double LP version available, but I'm over the 1/2 speed hype.

My 2 cents.