Chris Thile - Not All Who Wander Are Lost (Stereo)

self-important, self-indulgent BS

When I heard the first Nickel Creek album, I was enchanted. When I heard this first Chris Thile album, I was enchanted--until I got past the first cut. Song for a Young Queen is a gem, and could make a young woman long to be loved by this guy. But the rest of the album is a collection of material got up by a promising young artist who has fallen under the unhappy and corrupting influence of the Dreaded Bela Fleck. It screams, "It doesn't matter if anyone else likes it. If I like it, it is, by definition, good." Unfortunately, Chris has implanted his Bela influence onto Nickel Creek, and they will fail as a result. They may even break up, which would be a sad thing. Bela Fleck has the capacity to remove all traces of humor and comprehensibility from the music he generates, and that resulting music is utterly self-regarding (as well as totally disregarding of the audience). But the self-congratulation remains. You can see it in Chris' internet postings, in which he claims, for example, that his greatest inspiration is "a pickle." Say, what? Poor Chris should have stuck with the great Bluegrass roots and foresworn the self-referrential BS. A genuine prodigy does not need to make a break from his roots. Doc Watson knows this. Chris Thile does not. November 5, 2006

Two great discs in one

This album rocks. I don't need to go into all of that here. If you are looking for that try the review of the regular (non-SACD) recording.

This disc contains not only the wonderfully fantastic excellent music of Chris Thile and friends, it also contains alternate recordings of some tracks on the SACD layer. If the technological superiority of SACD (~3,000,000 vs. 44.1 k samples per second etc.) is not worth buying an SACD player then the music this disc should be. It is great. __Insert glowing recommendation here.__ Blah blah blah.

My only caveat is that this is not a multi-channel recording so some might think its audio is not quite as super as it could have been. All I can say about that is that the performances and music stand on there own merits in stereo. Leave that high tech stuff for less talented musicians to dress up their performances. (No offense Nickel Creek, I was referring to Pink Floyd)

Anyway, this disc is stellar. Buy it. If you already own the regular CD give it to a friend like I did and buy this hybrid disc. When you find someone with an SACD player you will be thankful. August 29, 2003

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