The
Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years
(2016/Apple Corps/Universal Music Blu-ray set)/The
Human League: A Very British Synthesizer Group
(2016 compilation/Universal Music CD Set)/Jennifer
Lopez: Dance Again
(2016/Weinstein Company/Anchor Bay DVD)/Morphine:
Journey Of Dreams
(2016/MVD Visual DVD)/New
Orleans: Music In Exile
(2013/MVD Visual Blu-ray)/We
Are Twisted F***ing Sister
(2016/Music Box Films Blu-ray)
Picture:
B/X/C+/C+/B-/B- Sound: B/B/C+/C+/B-/B- Extras: B/D/D/C+/C/C+
Main Programs: B/B/C+/B/B-/B-
Here's
a strong set of new music releases for your consideration...
Ron
Howard's The
Beatles: Eight Days A Week - The Touring Years
(2016) might seem like a documentary that would be repetitive with so
much already said and done on the band and though I cannot say it is
the 'story' I did not know, I can say it shows a few rare sides and
clips with some fresh perspective on how touring helped them
eventually hurt them, then its end caused them to be more creatively
prolific than they already had been, which says something. Like the
Anthology
years ago and the recent 1+
Blu-ray set (reviewed elsewhere on this site), new and nicely
restored footage helps give us new insight on the phenomenon the band
was, is and always will be.
Universal
Music/Apple have issued this fine new Blu-ray set that offers the
theatrically released program (but not the restored Shea Stadium
concert in its entirety, so you know), plus a great disc of extras
that give all another privileged visit/revisit to Beatlemania and how
groundbreaking and shocking it all really was. They were remarkably
far from the only music innovators at the time, but dominantly and
inspirationally so to the point that there's always more great
stories and great music to experience. Running 106 minutes, I wished
it were a bit longer, but this is fine as it stands, making it one of
the year's best music documentaries. Though some were not sure
Howard could pull it off, he did.
Extras
include a thick, high quality 64-page booklet with an introduction
from director Howard, essay by music journalist/author Jon Savage and
quality reproductions of rare photos from The Beatles' private
archive, then Blu-ray 2 (running 100+ minutes) adds the featurettes
Words
& Music
(24 minutes) where John, George (in archive footage and audio), Paul
& Ringo (also including new interviews) are joined by the likes
of Peter Asher, Elvis Costello, Howard Goodall & Simon Schama on
their landmark body of work, Early
Clues To A New Direction
(18 minutes) brings the same group of persons back and adds the likes
of Paul Greengrass, Stephen Stark, Malcolm Gladwell, Sigourney
Weaver, Richard Curtis & Whoopi Goldberg on their humor and way
with women, we five rarely seen performances of She
Loves You,
Twist
and Shout,
Can't
Buy Me Love,
You
Can't Do That
and Help!
from their early (1963 - 5) performing years, the 7-part A Deeper
Dive (43 minutes) that includes great interviews with Ronnie Specter,
other major industry players and the surprise story of some of the
band's earliest female U.S. fans and finally, the alternative opening
to the documentary (3 minutes) that was cut for being possibly too
primitive, though it has some nice aspects to it.
For
more on our ever-growing coverage of The Beatles together, solo and
otherwise, please start with this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/new/viewer.cgi?search=beatles
The
Human League: A Very British Synthesizer Group
is a new 2016 CD compilation set from Universal Music of the highly
successful and landmark British New Wave
group who helped make synthesizer-based music mainstream, though they
controversially were asked to start adding more common instruments to
their later music. It changed their music at least a bit, if not
ruined it as this new set shows, but we were likely denied a few
all-synth gems that would be as ahead of their time as many of the
tracks in this set are. Instead of just short, single versions of
their music, this new set has a very interesting mix of various kinds
of singles, mixes and cuts that give a better showcase of one of the
great bands of the 1980s and include...
CD
One
Being
Boiled
: A-Side Single
The
Dignity of Labour [Part 3]
: Dignity of Labour 12-inch single
Empire
State Human
: A-Side Single
Only
After Dark
(Single Edit) : Travelogue Free 7-inch
Nightclubbing
: Holiday '80 EP
Boys
and Girls
: A-Side Single
The
Sound of The Crowd
(Instrumental Version)
Hard
Times
: B-Side Single
Love
Action (I Believe In Love)
: A-Side Single
Open
Your Heart
: A-Side Single
Don't
You Want Me
: A-Side Single
Mirror
Man
: A-Side Single
You
Remind Me Of Gold
(Keep
Feeling) Fascination
(Extended Version)
The
Lebanon
(Single Version) : A-Side Single
Louise
(DJ Edit) : A-Side Single
CD
Two
Life
On Your Own
: A-Side Single; First Commercial Release
Human
: Extended Version
I
Need Your Loving
(DJ Edit) : A-Side Single First Commercial Release
Love
Is All That Matters
(DJ Edit) : A-Side Single First Commercial Release
Heart
Like A Wheel
(William Orbit Remix) : A-Side Single
Soundtrack
To A Generation
(Edit) : First Commercial Release
Tell
Me When
(Radio Edit) : First Commercial Release
One
Man In My Heart
: A-Side Single
Filling
Up With Heaven
: A-Side Single
Stay
With Me Tonight
(Single Version) : A-Side Single
All
I Ever Wanted
(Radio Edit) : First Commercial Release
Night
People
(Radio Edit) : A-Side Single First Commercial Release
Never
Let Me Go
(Album Version)
Sky
(Radio Edit) : A-Side Single
There
are no extras, but we recommend you try out this great later concert
by the group at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3804/Human+League+-+Live+At+The+Dome
Jennifer
Lopez: Dance Again
(2016) has concert footage directed by Ted Kenney that mixes the
latest tour of the now-veteran singer/dancer with behind the scenes
footage as Lopez leaves a hit TV talent show to finally tour for the
first time in years, but she has recently been divorced, lost her
major record label deal years ago and has two great children to
raise. We meet her family, friends, business associates and the big
names in the short 84 minutes that is not bad, but sometimes feels
forced or fake.
The
good news is that she still can sing, looks great, has retained her
huge fan base, can still dance and still has the energy to pull this
tour off. The bad news is that she seems a bit more depressed than I
think she or anyone connected to this production realize and seems
profoundly stuck and barely surviving in some sense. Is she just in
a holding pattern before the next big thing or is this a semi-swan
song before she becomes a legacy act? We'll see, but this is worth a
look at a major star revealing just enough to see her at this point
in time.
There
are no extras.
Mark
Shuman's Morphine:
Journey Of Dreams
(2016) is a surprisingly strong, rich 93-minutes-long documentary on
the great 1990s alt. Rock/Punk band with a different sound and feel
than most at the time trying to have success without selling out,
building their fan base, landing the most unusual of major record
label deals and the arc of how they rose and fell. One of the
members is no longer with us, so we hear from him in clips, plus his
wife and the rest of the band are interviewed along with Henry
Rollins and Joe Strummer in a great portrait of their history and
legacy that is never boring and knows how to build the story.
But
instead of just being mechanical, it is also a biography of all
involved and additionally adds insight into the music industry on all
levels at the time we can always hear more about. I was really
pleased it was not a formulaic presentation, but very palpable and
for real, so anyone who is a fan or the least bit interested should
go out of their way for this one.
Extras
include 40 minutes of more interviews, plus a stills section.
Robert
Mugge's New
Orleans: Music In Exile
(2013) is a recent concert documentary with some interview footage of
how the Jazz scene in the great city destroyed by Hurricane Katrina
(with an assist by the U.S. Government not assisting enough) runs a
long, solid 113 minutes and as usual for Mugge, hits the nail on the
head. Of course, more building has happened since then, but this is
about building the soul, building ideas of what to say and the psyche
of the music scene. Dr. John and Kermit Ruffins are among the many
who perform and talk, but the city is also profiled in its own way.
If
you are interested in this music or the city, this disc is one for
you.
Extras
include six bonus music performances, seven extended music
performances, David Spizale: ''A New Orleans Rescue'' and Jon Cleary
''A History Of New Orleans Piano''.
And
finally we have Andrew Horn's We
Are Twisted F***ing Sister
(2016), looking at one of the more enduring 'hair bands' of Rock
Music's 1980s period, one that many feel killed the genre and.or its
dominance on the music scene, along with the Classic Rock trend and
the end of Grunge. Running 134 minutes (!), this is actually a
really detailed look at how the band slowly came together, the
troubles they had on the way and how they finally found success as
MTV was on the rise. All the band members are interviewed, including
outspoken lead singer Dee Snyder, who never holds anything back.
Again
we learn more inside industry goings on and get rare film, video and
music clips throughout. Even if people (the press, more 'serious'
Rock fans and critics) did not take them seriously, they did and
always respected their fans, never selling them out to their great
credit. Even if you don't like their music or style, this I well
done and if you give it a try, you might be surprised.
Extras
include five hours of extra interview and film/video clips, plus an
feature length audio commentary track by Director Horn. For more on
the band live that we've covered over the years, try out starting
with this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/11309/Twisted+Sister:+From+The+Bars+To+The+Stars
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on Beatles
just surpasses the 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image
transfers on Exile
(mostly with new footage) and Twisted
(with plenty of old analog video footage) as the best picture
performer on the list, though in the case of all the clips, they can
show the age of the materials used, but Director Howard and Apple
Corps had the funding for extensive restoration and it shows. All
new footage in all three cases are HD shot and where applicable,
analog
videotape flaws include video noise, video banding, telecine flicker,
tape scratching, PAL and/or NTSC cross color, faded color and tape
damage. Some film clips can look rougher than others and not just by
the way they were shot, but this is to be expected from such
documentary productions.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on Lopez
and anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Morphine
tie for last place (no video for the Human
League
release, sadly) looking good, but with some soft or rough moments.
Lopez
has faux black & white HD video that never rings true for many
spots, while Morphine
has the compilation issued already noted for the Blu-rays.
As
for sound, the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Beatles
is well mixed and presented, even with its share of older and
monophonic sound, but it is able to outdo the same type mix that
Twisted
offers, which itself ties with the PCM 2.0 Stereo on Exile
for second place.
In
between, more consistent throughout is the PCM 16/44.1 2.0 Stereo on
the League
CD set, as clean and clear as I have ever heard them in the format,
though vinyl LP might opt for the 3-LP version of this release.
Otherwise, the high digital watermark of the band is the long
out-of-print, 2-channel stereo DSD Super Audio CD version of their
Dare
album from Europe, if you're lucky enough to have one and can play
it. The
Beatles
music at its best at most isolated on either Blu-ray matches or
surpasses the League
CDs here, though.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Lopez
(bouncing from concerts to talking) and Morphine
(more talk than music, also offered in a weaker, lossy Dolby Digital
2.0 Stereo) are about even, have slight audio issues at times and tie
for last place sonically.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
