Today, Rhino announced four new titles in its ever-growing line of Quadio Blu-rays: Randy Newman's Good Old Boys (1973), WAR's The World Is a Ghetto (1972), Gil Evans' Svengali, and Average White Band's AWB.  The Second Disc had the opportunity to preview this quartet of Blu-ray reissues of classic albums in quadraphonic (four-channel) sound, and we're happy to report that this is another feast for surround fans with all four titles making good - or better - use of surround.  (Those equipped only for stereo sound can still enjoy the two-channel mixes in high-resolution 192/24 sound.)

The follow-up to Newman's beautifully widescreen Sail Away, Good Old Boys began life as Johnny Cutler's Birthday, with each song sung from the point of view of the eponymous southerner.  The germ of the idea formed when Newman watched an appearance by Georgia governor Lester Maddox on Dick Cavett's talk show.  He saw the cosmopolitan, erudite New York host and his guest, football hero Jim Brown, asserting their moral superiority over the racist, segregationist governor and by extension, the south.  He then imagined how the televised conversation might have played to a southerner.  For Good Old Boys' eventual opening track, Newman adopted that southerner's bitingly sarcastic voice, shining a light on hypocrisy and employing an incendiary racial epithet more than once in still-shocking fashion - all set to a jaunty melody conjuring Americana in all its shades.  Language was just one envelope that the singer-songwriter would push in his quest to expose racism, both on and beneath the surface, and explore the southern identity from every angle.  "Rednecks" was the starting point of the startlingly rich concept album that became Good Old Boys.  The Johnny Cutler concept was dropped from the eventual LP as the multi-layered songs were sung by various characters, but Cutler's spirit remained.

"Rednecks" introduces the style of the quad mix here: immersive without being flashy, subtle without being boring.  Newman's voice and piano are up front, as they should be, while bass and horns offer support from the rear channels.  The mix is completely in service to Newman's sharp songwriting; Lenny Waronker and Russ Titelman's clean production; and the musicianship of Newman and his band (including Jim Keltner, Milt Holland, Ry Cooder, Bobbye Hall, Dennis Budimir, and numerous other star session players).

Race, of course, is at the beating heart of Good Old Boys.  It's a deeply human album and profoundly American album, too.  While Newman's albums generally were greeted with critical hosannas, some took him to task for the dark, satirical humor as heard on the album, however warranted the targets.   But not all of the songs were unforgiving.  "Louisiana 1927" is a ravishing ballad reflection of the Great Flood, while "Birmingham" evinces empathy with the working class of the city despite an ironically bouncy tone and sound that leaves it just ambiguous enough.  Nick DeCaro's strings surround Newman in quad, adding to the songs' grand sweep.  They've never sounded better, or more piercing.

The touching "Marie" is sung by one of Newman's famously unreliable narrators.  It's a master class in writing for character (in this case, he's inebriated and struggling to express his affection for the woman he loves), matched with a peerless melody and a lush string arrangement by Nick DeCaro that works in perfect sync to reveal truths about the singer and his relationship to the song's subject.  DeCaro's strings occupy the rear channels, a soft bed accompanying the delicate vocals and piano.   The same raw tenderness permeates "Guilty," each piano note and woozy stab of brass amplifying the singer's emotions.  The character studies are movingly varied; "A Wedding in Cherokee County" is once again filled with frank language and observations as it satirically probes the vagaries of love and relationships.  There are at least a couple of bona fide lyrical gut punches in "Back on My Feet Again;" the quad mix brings it to vivid life, with the rousing background vocals of Eagles' Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and Bernie Leadon standing out in the four-channel mix.

"Kingfish" takes on the voice of Depression-era Louisiana governor (and left-wing populist) Huey Long, and the political-speech-as-song will likely sound all too familiar today.  Newman takes the connection one step further by covering a song actually co-written by Long, "Every Man a King" in choral style.  He was probing social and political territory that wouldn't have been touched by his more reflective contemporaries, humanizing persons real and fictional who seemingly didn't warrant a second glance.  By frequently utilizing mordant, unsettling humor and comforting, often gorgeous music and orchestration, Newman also invited audiences to confront their own prejudices.

Good Old Boys is one of the strongest Quadio entries to date: a perfect album which makes full use of the added dimensionality of quadraphonic sound.  Steve Stanley of Now Sounds has handsomely designed the package which includes lyrics as well as the Quadio series' usual master tape image and a replica Reprise disc label.  Sail Away was also released in quad; can we have that Newman masterwork next, please?  Pretty please?

WAR's 1972 album The World Is a Ghetto was reissued for Black Friday's Record Store Day event in November 2023 as a lavish 5-LP box set.  Now, Rhino is revisiting it once more in another essential treatment with this Quadio Blu-ray.  The hard-hitting, socially-conscious soul-jazz (-funk-blues-rock-psychedelia) best-seller was the California band's fifth album and third following the departure of vocalist Eric Burdon of The Animals.  Howard Scott (guitar/percussion/vocals), B.B. Dickerson (bass/percussion/vocals), Lonnie Jordan (organ/piano/timbales/percussion/vocals), Harold Brown (drums/percussion/vocals), Papa Dee Allen (congas/bongos/percussion/vocals), Charles Miller (woodwinds/percussion/vocals), and Lee Oskar (harmonica/percussion/vocals) comprised the big band of songwriter-musicians.

The quad mix is a very different experience than the stereo, immediately making good use of all four channels with the familiar No. 2 pop hit "The Cisco Kid" (the band's biggest-ever hit on the Hot 100).  Quad affords the opportunity for each song to introduce the various elements discretely; the raucous and pointed "Where Was You At" opens with a lone guitar in the front right channel.  Bass kicks in the lefts, then voices, piano, and the rest, spread across the soundscape.  The guitar is crisp, the organ ethereal, and the harmonica appropriately mournful on "City, Country, City," one of the extended, jazz-influenced instrumental jams that sit comfortably on the album alongside the tighter pop-soul nuggets.  WAR was very much a percussion-based band, and that solid rhythmic core springs to vivid life, as well, on the immersive mix of "City, Country, City."

The World Is a Ghetto isn't a passive listening experience in any form, but the possibilities of four channels open the production up even further.  The intricately-arranged, slow-burning "Four Cornered Room" used the studio like another instrument in the band, incorporating heavy use of phasing which lends itself to the quadraphonic setup.  Subtle details emerge in the moving, relatively spare title track as vocals, languid winds, funky guitars, and ever-present percussion conjures a hazy, dark, and haunting milieu that's as moving today as it was more than 50 years ago.  The driving sound of the closing sing-along "Beetles in the Bog" is visceral in this highly recommended Quadio presentation which also features design from Steve Stanley.

Average White Band's funky sophomore set AWB spun off the insistently catchy instrumental "Pick Up the Pieces," and happily, the sax-driven tune as immersive in quadraphonic sound as one would hope.  In fact, the album's mix by Gene Paul will frequently leave you wondering, "Where did that come from?" as the four channels are well deployed to bring Arif Mardin's big production into even clearer focus as it discretely spotlights the individual contributions of band members Alan Gorrie (bass/lead vocals), Hamish Stuart (guitar/lead vocals), Roger Ball (keyboards/saxophone), Robbie McIntosh (drums/percussion), Onnie McIntyre (guitar/vocals), and Malcolm "Molly" Duncan (saxophone).

Though they'd made their first album for MCA, the Scottish band's love of southern soul made Atlantic an ideal home. The AWB fused Atlantic soul, Stax horns, James Brown funk, Motown pop, Philly smoothness, and a loose jazz vibe into a big, joyful noise. The bandmates filtered all of those elements through their own sensibilities as Europeans intoxicated by the sound of American music. Arif Mardin (Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin) took an interest in the band, recognizing not only the virtuosic musicianship within the ranks but the numerous talented songwriters and the two different, equally strong voices: Gorrie's supple tenor and Stuart's malleable falsetto.  Both are heard on the opening "You Got It," rendered in quad with bass and horns in the rear channels bringing the funk the front-channel guitars, drums, and vocals.

AWB just might make you get up and dance as the music envelops you on "Got the Love" - horns in the rear right, background vocals in the rear right - or "Pick Up the Pieces," where, naturally, the saxophones and McIntosh's driving drums are up front.  Those drums get a workout, too, on the sleek, Stuart-led "Person to Person."

The album's lone cover is of The Isley Brothers' "Work to Do" (also issued as the flipside of the "Pick Up the Pieces" single).  Curiously, the lead vocals have been placed behind the listener, though there's much to admire in the crisp instrumentation placed in the front channels including Onnie McIntyre's impressive solo.  AWB takes it down a notch for the gleaming, relaxed pair of "Nothing You Can Do" and "Just Wanna Love You Tonight," both of which gain an airy quality in their four-channel soundscapes - particularly the latter with its larger brass section and the mellotron of Ken Bichel.  Stuart's pulsating "I Just Can't Give You Up" and Gorrie's bluesy "There's Always Someone Waiting" round out this floor-filling album and exciting quad presentation in solid style.

Gil Evans' 1973 live album Svengali may be the least well-known of the four albums in this Quadio batch, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily the least of interest.  The renowned arranger's career-best work with Miles Davis at Columbia Records (Miles Ahead, Porgy and Bess, Sketches of Spain, Quiet Nights) assured him a place in the history books, but he also amassed a significant discography as a bandleader, with highlights including 1957 debut Gil Evans and 10 (Prestige), 1960 masterpiece Out of the Cool (Impulse!), and 1964 classic The Individualism of Gil Evans (Verve).  He even found time to arrange sessions for vocalist Astrud Gilberto, also for Verve, resulting in her dreamy Look for the Rainbow album.  Like his onetime collaborator Davis, though, Evans began to develop an interest in jazz-rock and free jazz, veering away from his larger orchestral arranging style.  He was one of the first so-called "serious" musicians to take Jimi Hendrix seriously as a songwriter, resulting in a 1974 tribute album for RCA Victor.  Before that, though, he released Svengali (an anagram for, yes, Gil Evans!) on the Atlantic label.

Though he had veered away from the orchestral, Evans' big band arrangements were as fresh and innovative as ever, blending acoustic and electronic instrumentation as well as composed and improvised passages.  As a leader, he made sure to leave room for soloists to shine on each and every one of the six (mostly lengthy) tracks.  The surround mix isn't an overly aggressive one, but the discrete use of all four channels allows for the individual contributions of Evans' band members to stand out a bit more.  Primarily recorded live at Trinity Church in New York City with Evans leading from the piano and electric piano, he welcomed such soloists as guitarist Ted Dunbar, bassist Herb Bushler; brass multi-instrumentalist Howard Johnson; saxophonists David Sanborn, Billy Harper, and Trevor Koehler; and trumpeters Richard Williams and "Hannibal" Marvin Peterson.

George Russell's "Blues in Orbit" lives up to its name as percussive, instrumental stabs surround the listener from all four channels - a beat here, a bleat there, a squeal from the right, a clip-clop from the left.  Evans' band giddily romps through various jazz idioms from bop to swing and everything in between, and the quad mix places the listener dead center in the musical mélange.  Sanborn and Harper impressively solo on alto and tenor, with Bushler on the bass.  It's the most dizzyingly immersive track on the album.

Evans revisited a couple of his Davis standards on Svengali, including an exceptionally brief run through "Eleven" with Richard Williams on trumpet.  (The Davis/Evans composition was originally released as "Petits Machins (Little Stuff)" on Davis' 1968 album Filles de Kilimanjaro; a full-length version of "Eleven" surfaced on CD-era reissues of Svengali.)  George and Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward's Porgy and Bess standard "Summertime" features Ted Dunbar on guitar, lending an altogether different feel of the blues standard than the classic Davis rendition.

Svengali comes to a close with Evans' own "Zee Zee," recorded not at Trinity Church but at Philharmonic Hall.  With "Hannibal" Peterson on trumpet, the slow, hypnotic cut concludes one of Evans' strongest albums of the 1970s and another four titles in Rhino's ongoing Quadio series.  Long may it run!

All four titles may be ordered directly from Rhino's Quadio storefront!