The DVD-Audio 30th anniversary reissue of
Harvest offers a new remastering of the album, which can be played back in DVD-Video Compatible Dolby Digital Surround, digital stereo, or DTS 5.1 Surround Sound. Any of them is a significant improvement over the previously available CD or LP edition, although the Dolby 5.1 setting has a particularly vivid and powerful presence -- the acoustic and electric guitar, drums, and bass all stand out in high relief, as though you're sitting there with the band in the studio, with the action on the instruments right in your face; in fact, even apartment dwellers with modest speakers will have to be careful with the volume on the Dolby 5.1 playback, because the bass alone on the acoustic cuts could be a real lease-breaker, because no one except the people who made this album ever heard it this way. Strangely enough, the orchestral accompaniments are less imposing, perhaps because they were heavily mixed down before they were used for the tracks on which they appear, though even they have considerable richness. The music is supported by several visual features that are nice to have but not essential: The songs each play to a different still photograph related to the album or of its recording on your screen, and there are also period interviews with
Neil Young (whose discussion is about as clear as mud) and co-producer
Elliot Mazer, complete lyrics (which are superfluous, as they simply re-create the print on the lyric-sheet insert), and complete onscreen credits, all of these features accessible through a simple onscreen menu. The real value, however, is the music, and that speaks for itself about as loudly and clearly as if one were present for the first playback of the finished master of each song. ~ Bruce Eder