Carly Simon: No Secrets Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		0.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.5

Carly Simon: No Secrets Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 4, 2024

Carly Simon had the perhaps unfortunate timing to have her first album released at virtually the same moment as another female singer songwriter had her album released. That may seem like it could not have made that much difference, at least had that other female singer songwriter not been Carole King and that other album not been Tapestry (note the link points to a live performance; we're still awaiting the original album on audio Blu-ray). Simon in fact kind of seemed to be an also ran of sorts in the wake of not just Carole King, but also other notable women like Joni Mitchell and Laura Nyro, which frankly is no reflection on her very distinctively individual voice (in every sense of that term). In fact, kind of like another favorite of mine, the wonderful Wendy Waldman, Simon was almost a "cult item" for a while, despite having won the Grammy for Best New Artist and having produced some very evocative hits with the likes of "That's the Way I've Always Heard it Should Be" and "Anticipation". That all pretty much changed with this album and especially with its lead off single "You're So Vain" which pretty much instantly shot to the top of the charts and immortalized, well, someone (Warren Beatty? Mick Jagger?). The somewhat provocative cover may have helped sell the album to impressionable young (?) males as well.

The album's track list can be seen in the screenshots of the disc menu I've uploaded to accompany this review.

Carly Simon: No Secrets Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Carly Simon: No Secrets is presented on audio Blu-ray courtesy of Rhino Music, and while there is an AVC encoded 1:78:1 "image", this is another Rhino release that features a static menu. All of the simultaneously released Atmos / Quad offerings from Rhino this time have the same conceit of having the track playing in one color, with another color showing up if you use your arrow buttons to move down through the track list. In this case, the track playing highlights in blue, and if you use your arrow buttons to move through the track, the titles turn black as you move down the list (until one is chosen, at which point it changes to blue), but otherwise there are no "moving parts". (I might just slightly joke that this "black and blue" approach may recall another kind of edgy Simon tune, "After the Storm", which alludes to some perhaps questionable violence in a relationship.) While that part of the disc authoring between the four simultaneous releases is consistent, unfortunately toggling between codecs isn't among this quartet. In that regard, this disc offers the best of the many options Rhino tends to offer on its audio Blu-ray, with easy toggling between codecs using the colored buttons on your remote. Also commendably, the tune (or in some Rhino cases, the entire album) does not start over when changing codecs.

Carly Simon: No Secrets Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

I frankly had a few passing qualms about audio quality that I mentioned in both our Black Sabbath: Live Evil Blu-ray review and our Chicago IX: Chicago's Greatest Hits '69-'74 Blu-ray review, but I'm happy to report this disc is much more in line with the excellent sound of Seal (all four of these discs were released simultaneously by Rhino). All of the codecs on this disc offer fluid fidelity and the surround tracks in particular offer really beautiful spaciousness and excellent immersion. This is a really fun album to toggle codecs through, and there are some interesting if sometimes admittedly minute differences between the 5.1 and Quad mixes in particular. The Atmos track may not be overly "showy" in terms of unbelievable verticality, but there is clear surround activity that is, well, elevated from the already excellent levels found in both the Quad and 5.1 mixes.

Carly Simon: No Secrets Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no on disc supplements. The keepcase features an insert with an inner print, and encloses a four page leaflet that reproduces the original album art and lyrics.

Carly Simon: No Secrets Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This latest batch of Atmos / Quadio releases from Rhino has been a bit more of a mixed bag than in the past in terms of my reactions to both mixes and general audio quality, but I'd certainly rate No Secrets up there with Rhino's simultaneous release of Seal in terms of both immersive capabilities but also just sterling fidelity spread across all of the many codecs offered on this disc. As I mentioned in my review of the Seal disc, however, Rhino would do themselves a huge favor in my opinion by standardizing how they author all of these audio Blu-ray they put out. This is the best of the many different ways Rhino offers its discs, though, with easy toggling between audio codecs via the colored buttons on your remote, and no clunky "starting over" when a new codec is chosen. Highly recommended.