Steppin' — Christy Baron

This is a review I wrote for SA-CD.net and published there on the 9th of April 2003. SA-CD.net has since become hraudio.net and the old review pages went with it, so this is reproduced from the Internet Archive’s capture. It ran as a user review.

The review is reproduced as it stood. Only the site’s own furniture around it — the star graphics, the “was this review helpful?” footer — has been dropped, and the ratings it carried are restated as numbers below.

Chesky · SACD227 · hybrid disc · stereo and multichannel

Performance 3/5 · Sonics 3/5

This is Christy Barron’s second album on Chesky Records, and the only one available on Super Audio CD. This is a Hybrid Multichannel disc. On this album, Christy sings jazz and R&B arrangements of various pop tunes, including “Mercy Street” by Peter Gabriel, “This Must Be Love” by Phil Collins, plus ‘standards’ such as “She’s Not There” and “The Shadow Of Your Smile.”

First of all, the multi-channel track. Like most Chesky SACDs, the extreme high frequencies are somewhat rolled off and comes across as somewhat unnatural. The centre channel is silent and the rear speakers are only lightly used for ambience and soundstage extension. The subwoofer seemed to be only lightly used. For some reason, I found Christy’s vocals to be somewhat “echo-y” and reverberant, and her voice is much more natural on the stereo SACD and CD tracks.

I found the stereo SACD and CD tracks very similar and hard to distinguish from one another based on casual listening.

I remember listening to a friend’s copy of this very briefly and was enthralled by it. Now that I own a copy, I’m not sure I like it that much although it is quite pleasant to listen to.