Yello – Point

Oh, what a Show! Die Töne blubbern, tsirpen und zwitschern aus jedem Winkel, zischen durch den Raum, vollkommen losgelöst von den Boxen, als wären die Gesetze der Physik aufgehoben, in einer unglaublichen Klarheit und Transparenz. Der Bass dröhnt ein paar mal so bedrohlich, dass man Angst um das Geschirr der Nachbarn bekommt. Referenzklasse, unbedingt empfehlenswert.

This album is the reason for getting an Atmos setup! The album was created with Atmos in mind and its first public performance was in this format. The sound is incredibly immersive, and this is one of their strongest albums since the early 90s IMHO. If you’re a Yello fan, you definitely need this version.

While I can't speak for the quality of the surround sound mix (yet), I find this format to be particularly disappointing for this album. Point was released kind of early on in what seems to be the current trend of releasing albums to blu-ray. Is that any reason to give it slack? Maybe I should look at how it compares to other BD releases from the era. From my perspective, however, it missed out heavily by not including all the promotional videos made for the tracks, when I guarantee they'd have easily fit within the space offered on a blu-ray disc.

Air just showed this year (2024) that you can fit an album (Moon Safari), its surround sound and stereo mixes, music videos, and 1hr documentary on one freaking disc, while this album gives you just two options and a static screen! Sure, it has the bonus tracks, but that only bumps the runtime to 50 minutes... The other thing is that for this sole disc, it costs a little over $50 before shipping to the US from the original distributor! The aforementioned package by Air comes not only with its blu-ray, but the original album and bonus tracks on 2 CDs! Yet, it is sold for a fraction of the price: $31!! An insanely agreeable price for such a package.

I love Yello and this album, which is - unfortunately - why I invested the money into it. I mean, I'll still get my money's worth of it, especially if I ever invest into a surround setup in the future, but... I doubt I'll be getting the actual Collector's Box any time soon (because there was no way I could afford the shipping to the US for that back when it was first announced. Prices aren't much better today). This should have been a good fallback for not purchasing that box. Sure, I wouldn't get the live festival performance, or a picture disc vinyl, or signatures from the boys, but I could've had at least a product that feels a bit more fitting for its format and price by including some videos. They probably could've included the live festival performance with this release, even in its DVD form, and the $50 price tag would've felt a bit more worth it. Ugh, buyers remorse etc, etc.

TL;DR - Good album, but save your money and get the normal CD/LP unless you REALLY want those bonus tracks. They are good bonus tracks though.