All
Eyez On Me
(2017/Lionsgate Blu-ray w/DVD)/The
Bareroot featuring Carol Hatchett: Music Will Lift You EP
(2017/Avenue J CD)/Divas
Live: The One and Only Aretha Franklin
(2001/MVD Visual DVD w/CD)/Madonna:
Rebel Heart Tour
(2017/Universal Music/Eagle Blu-ray w/CD)/The
Main Ingredient: Euphrates River
(1974/RCA/Sony Music/Vocalion Quadraphonic Hybrid Super Audio
CD/SACD/SACD w/CD layer Import)/The
Vietnam War directed by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick: Original Score
by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
+ The Soundtrack
(hit songs compilation/2017/PBS/Sony Music/Universal Music/separate
CD Sets)
Picture:
B+ & B-/X/C/B/X/X/X Sound: B+ & B-/B/C+ (B-: CD)/B (B-:
CD)/B+, B, B-/B-/B Extras: C+/D/D/C/C/C/C Main Programs:
C+/C+/B-/B-/B-/B-/B
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Main Ingredient
Import Super Audio CD is now only available from our friends at
Vocalion, plus the new Carol
Hatchett
EP is available directly from her website. Both can be ordered from
the link below.
Here's
a nice chunk of all kinds of music for pretty much everyone's
taste....
From
Director Benny Boom, All
Eyez On Me
(2017), is pretty accurate in its portrayal of rapper/actor Tupac
Shakur's life as played by the convincing newcomer Demetrius Shipp
Jr.
However,
the length of the film is a bit daunting and some moments tend to
drag. The style and feel of the film isn't as cinematic as some may
hope, with some moments feeling more like a glorified TV special, but
some moments work and the film manages to work in some of the
musician's actual works, which is a plus.
Shipp
Jr. is joined with a strong supporting cast which includes Dominic L.
Santana, Jamal Woolard, Harold House Moore, The
Walking Dead's
Danai Gurira (as Tupac's Mother) and the highly underrated Lauren
Cohan. The film is written by Jeremy Haft & Eddie Gonzalez and
Steven Bagatourian.
Starting
in his early years as young boy in New York, to his struggles with
his Family, his mother's addictions, and his growing passion for
music. All
Eyez On Me,
centers around legendary musician/actor Tupac Shakur (Shipp Jr.) who
struggles to make his voice known politically as well as through
music and poetry. His life shifts into high gear as his career rises
with wealth and fame whilst his numerous encounters with the law, end
up getting him imprisoned as well. Ending with his final days and
the mystery surrounding his death, All
Eyez On Me
is a previously untold look at the life of a man that many will never
forget and who accomplished so much in his short life.
Also
included is a digital UV copy.
Special
Features:
Deleted
Scenes
"Legends
Never Die: The Making of All Eyes on Me"
featurette
"Becoming
Tupac"
featurette
"All
Eyez on Me Conversations"
featurette
Demetrius
Shipp, Jr. Audition
If
you're a huge fan of Tupac, then this is worth a watch but I don't
see it grabbing up too many awards this season.
The
Bareroot featuring Carol Hatchett: Music Will Lift You EP
(2017) is
the third ER in as many years from the Soul/Dance singer following
Born
To Love
and Live
Wire
(both reviewed elsewhere on this site) and we get the same consistent
energy in songs that work well enough for genre fans as well as those
of good vocal work. Singing seems to be out of fashion with Rap,
almost as if singing was somehow over, but that is goofy thinking at
its worst.
The
songs this time, all of which Miss Hatchett co-wrote are...
Fool
For Your Love [4:59]
Music
Will Lift You [6:04]
Trapped
And Cornered [4:03]
Maxi
[5:35]
Heartbreaker
[3:59]
The
titles are good, but the songs are actually better and this is as
good as the previous EPs, though I might give this one the edge over
them by a slim margin as all the elements seem to integrate better.
If I had to recommend a work of hers, this one would now be it. If
you like this kind of music, you might want to look into this one.
There
are no extras.
Divas
Live: The One and Only Aretha Franklin
(2001) is an new release of the concert by The Queen of Soul (from
the VH-1 Network, of course) now here as a DVD/CD set from MVD
Visual. It has her still in great form (When is she not? Very
rarely is she off, and in that, only a little) singing some of her
most legendary hits and other classics including...
I
Can't Turn You Loose
Chain of Fools
Ain't No Way
Natural
Woman
Long Walk
Think
Day Dreaming
Do Right Woman
Nessun
Dorma
Rock Steady
Precious Memories
Respect
and
on the DVD only, Stevie Wonder joins the Queen on Freeway
of Love
I
liked the show, but for broadcast reasons, it is short (I wonder if
the show was longer, especially considering all the talent watching
in the audience, we're missing something here) but it is still a
fine, solid show with some great vocal highlights and more than
deserving of this treatment.
There
are no extras.
Madonna:
Rebel Heart Tour
(2017) has the 1980s music survivor as vibrant and as strong as ever,
still having hits (and every album of her's in recent years has hit
#1!) and holding up very well like music legends of her calibre
usually do. This new Blu-ray/CD set delivers one of her recent
shows, with the Blu-ray offering much more (with more room on the
disc) and includes...
01.
Rebel Heart Tour Intro
02. Iconic
03. Bitch I'm Madonna
04.
Burning Up
05. Holy Water / Vogue
06. Devil Pray
07. Messiah
(Video Interlude)
08. Body Shop
09. True Blue
10. Deeper and
Deeper
11. HeartBreakCity
12. Like A Virgin
13. S.E.X.
(Video Interlude)
14. Living For Love
15. La Isla Bonita
16.
Dress You Up / Into The Groove
17. Rebel Heart
18. Illuminati
(Video Interlude)
19. Music
20. Candy Shop
21. Material
Girl
22. La Vie En Rose
23. Unapologetic Bitch
24.
Holiday
CD
01.
Rebel Heart Tour Intro
02. Iconic
03. Bitch I'm Madonna
04.
Burning Up
05. Holy Water / Vogue
06. Devil Pray
07. Deeper
and Deeper
08. HeartBreakCity
09. Living For Love
10. La
Isla Bonita
11. Rebel Heart
12. Candy Shop
13. Unapologetic
Bitch
14. Holiday
Needless
to day the money is in the show, she is still selling out huge
stadiums and the video in this release takes liberties with the live
aspect by doing 'music video' style editing, cutting into the live
timeline. You would also think she was competing and.or trying to
outdo KISS, which brings up another point. The songs that are
harder-edged stay that way, while the softer Pop work is suddenly
redone an super-plugged (versus unplugged) including La
Isla Bonita
suddenly harder than a sequence from Carmen,
Material
Girl
almost angry and all arrangements with more bass to it than you would
ever expect. Still, it never stops being Madonna and she is wilder
than ever in sex and language, but I guess we saw that coming.
Fans
will mostly be pleased, non fans with be surprised and enemies will
have to admit they underestimated her. Overall, a fine show,
especially in its longer version.
Extras
on the Blu-ray include an excerpt from Tears
of a Clown
and a performance of Like
A Prayer,
while you get an illustrated booklet with tech info in the foldable
DigiPak.
The
Main Ingredient: Euphrates River
(1974) is as successful an album release as the rich Soul vocal trio
ever had. Arriving two years after Everybody
Plays The Fool
was a massive crossover hit and a classic of the era, they continued
to ride the great Soul vocal era (post-1960s, post-classical Motown,
pre-Disco) and joined the cycle that includes the many groups from
Philadelphia and nationwide exercising a new found freedom in music
thanks to the 1960s.
The
Main Ingredient included Tony Silvester, Luther Simmons and Cuba
Gooding (yes, the father of the Oscar-winning actor) who dared to try
to leave their sound on a few modern classics of the day (tracks 3
and 8, where they had at least some success), two more crossover hits
(tracks 2 and 8) and even more success on the Soul charts and Soul
radio. The full album includes...
1.
Euphrates (Seals; Crofts)
2. Have You Ever Tried It (Ashford;
Simpson)
3. Summer Breeze (Seals; Crofts)
4. California My Way
(Hutch)
5. Happiness is Just around the Bend (Auger)
6. Looks
Like Rain (Fronte)
7. Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing (Wonder)
8.
Just Don't Want to Be Lonely (Barrett; Freeman; Eli)
This
sounds as good as it ever will, especially in its original 4-track
Quad mixes (see more about the sonics below) and now stands as one of
the best sonic examples of how Soul sounded at this time. Though not
everything they try works, at least they were ambitious and would go
for broke here. Within a few years, Disco took over, but not before
they made a mark and permanent legacy in one of the great moments of
American Music ever. This is a solid album that deserves the
audiophile treatment it gets here and will play on any CD player.
Fans and the curious should go out of their way for it (see the link
below) and you'll here excellence ion these recordings you simply
could not enjoy before.
A
booklet with an essay by David Zimmerman is the only extra.
Finally
we have not one, but two CD soundtrack releases connected to the new
PBS documentary mini-series co-directed by someone I think is a
little overrated for taking history as far too linear: Ken Burns.
However, this is not a review of what might be one of his greatest
works yet (co-directed as it is) but the music for The
Vietnam War directed by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick: Original Score
by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross
+ The
Soundtrack
(hit songs compilation/2017) in yet another attempt to communicate
what happened then, how it is being dangerously ignored now (trying
to make Vietnam Syndrome' go away always leads to disaster) and there
is still something to say, show and reveal despite several
mini-series (like Vietnam:
A History),
brilliant books and feature film (The
Deer Hunter,
Apocalypse
Now,
Full
Metal Jacket)
on the subject. PBS teamed up with what is now 2 of the three major
record labels, Sony Music and Universal Music, to offer the following
CD sets....
THE
VIETNAM WAR - ORIGINAL SCORE BY TRENT REZNOR & ATTICUS ROSS
CD
1
LESS
LIKELY
FOUR
ENCLOSED WALLS
THE
FOREVER RAIN
REMNANTS
OTHER
WAYS TO GET TO THE SAME PLACE
TORN
POLAROID
BEFORE
DAWN
WHAT
COMES BACK
JUSTIFIED
RESPONSE
COUNTING
TICKS
CD
2
A
WORLD AWAY
THE
RIGHT THINGS
PASSING
THE POINT
STRANGERS
IN LOCKSTEP
BEFORE
AND AFTER FAITH
THE
SAME DREAM
HAUNTED
THE
VIETNAM WAR - THE SOUNDTRACK
CD
1
A
HARD RAIN'S A-GONNA FALL - Bob Dylan
HELLO
VIETNAM - Johnnie Wright
IT'S
MY LIFE - The Animals
EVE
OF DESTRUCTION - Barry McGuire
TURN!
TURN! TURN! (TO EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON) - The Byrds
MASTERS
OF WAR - The Staple Singers
MUSTANG
SALLY - Wilson Pickett
SMOKESTACK
LIGHTNIN' - Howlin' Wolf
BACKLASH
BLUES - Nina Simone
THE
SOUND OF SILENCE - Simon & Garfunkel
ONE
TOO MANY MORNINGS - Bob Dylan
AIN'T
TOO PROUD TO BEG - The Temptations
ARE
YOU EXPERIENCED? - The Jimi Hendrix Experience
I'M
A MAN - The Spencer Davis Group
GREEN
ONIONS - Booker T and The MG's
STRANGE
BREW - Cream
WAIST
DEEP IN THE BIG MUDDY (Live) - Pete Seeger
A
WHITER SHADE OF PALE - Procol Harum
THE
LORD IS IN THIS PLACE - Fairport Convention
FOR
WHAT IT'S WORTH - Buffalo Springfield
CD
2
DON'T
THINK TWICE, IT'S ALL RIGHT - Bob Dylan
PIECE
OF MY HEART - Big Brother & The Holding Company
MAGIC
CARPET RIDE - Steppenwolf
THE
LETTER - The Box Tops
BAD
MOON RISING - Creedence Clearwater Revival
SOUL
SACRIFICE - Santana
TELL
THE TRUTH - Otis Redding
OKIE
FROM MUSKOGEE - Merle Haggard
THE
THRILL IS GONE - B.B. King
PSYCHEDELIC
SHACK - The Temptations
OHIO
- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
GET
TOGETHER - The Youngbloods
GIMME
SHELTER - The Rolling Stones
TAIL
DRAGGER - Link Wray
AMERICA
THE BEAUTIFUL - Ray Charles
WHAT'S
GOING ON - Marvin Gaye
BRIDGE
OVER TROUBLED WATER - Simon & Garfunkel
LET
IT BE - The Beatles
The
new instrumental music is not bad, a little familiar having heard the
duo's feature film work, but never too contemporary or ever retro.
It's not bad, but expect some overlap from the duo's previous work.
Still, it is ambitious and often pays off. The hits set is an
excellent compilation that offers many of the truly key hit songs of
the time, the songs that were in touch with the times and events
going on. Many are brilliant classic without a connection to
anything (tracks 3, 14 and 18 from CD 1, tracks 6, 12, 13, 16, 17 and
18 from CD 2), but their connection to the twists and turns of the
time speak volumes beyond works in context to what happened and why
we should never forget. Yes, some of these hits sound better on
vinyl (or where applicable, Super Audio CD), but this is a handy
collection. The Blu-ray offers lossless DTS-MA sound, but not the
music separate like these CD sets do.
Both
comes with illustrated booklets, but only the hits version adds an
essay.
Presented
in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and
a great sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, the Eyez
Blu-ray presentation is on point. Colors throughout are pretty rich,
as are the skin tones that help highlight the film's bi-coastal
locations. Night time scenes have little noise or grain, which can't
be said for included standard definition DVD version, which presents
the film in an anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio and a lossy Dolby
Digital 5.1 track, which shows the film in a compressed form.
The
1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Madonna
looks really good for the older interlaced format with stable images,
fine color range and manages less flaws than the dozens of similar
1080i and dark concert shoots we've seen in the last few decades.
The 1.33
X 1 image on Aretha
has good color range, but we also get video flaws like a little video
noise, video banding, cross color and motion blur that partly comes
from flaws added to the remastering. Otherwise, this is fine.
The
rest of the titles have no video, but adding to the Eyez
audio coverage above, the latest Bareroot
EP sounds as sonically solid as the previous two, fine in the PCM
16/44.1 2.0 Stereo presentation as good as any of the Compact Discs
here with good warmth for the format and a little richer than the hit
songs Vietnam
CD where the hits sound a little on the lite side. The new
instrumental Vietnam
score sounds better overall, but is still a little bass-weak, though
I wonder if that's part of the approach so Mr. Reznor is avoiding too
much of a connection to his NIN work.
The
Aretha
CD sounds better than the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (no 5.1
option?!?) on the DVD version, while the Madonna
CD is not as good as the strong, hard, rich, full DTS-HD MA (Master
Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on the Blu-ray and the Ingredient
CD tracks are on an even level with those other CDs, but its ultra
high definition Direct Stream Digital (DSD) 2.0 Stereo and especially
the DSD 4.0 Quad surround tracks are much better to the point that
they just edge out Madonna
as my sonic preference here (Eyez
notwithstanding).
You
can order the Carol
Hatchett
EP on CD, et al, at this link...
http://thebarerootmusic.com/
and
you can order The
Main Ingredient
4.0 Quad SACD w/CD layer album exclusively and directly from Vocalion
Records at this link...
https://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=CDSML8524
-
James Lockhart (Eyez)
& Nicholas
Sheffo
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/
