Tori
Amos Fade To Red (Music Videos/DTS)
Picture: C+
Sound: B Extras: B+ Film: B
"Over the years, whether it be through stills or
moving picture, I have always enjoyed dancing with the devil from that other
medium. Myself and my audio buddies at
Martian Studios, with the help of new technologies in the audio world, have
been able to bring you these visual pieces of art as they have never been heard
or seen before." - Tori Amos
Tori Amos established herself as a musical force to be
reckoned with in the early 1990’s. Her
music was distinct, powered by raw emotion, quirky personal lyrics, and a style
of playing piano that brought classical sensibilities to Pop Rock. She inspired
a legion of hardcore fans. Part of this
was due to a series of inspired videos that managed to not only capture her
energy and personality but to get fairly regular airplay as well. Fade To Red collects twenty-one of
these on two discs. The thoroughly remastered content is as follows:
Disc 1:
1. Past The Mission
2. Crucify
3. Jackie's Strength
4. A Sorta Fairytale
5. Winter
6. Spark
7. Sleeps With Butterflies
8. Cornflake Girl (US)
9. Hey Jupiter
10. Silent All These Years
Disc 2:
1. Caught a Lite Sneeze
2. 1000 Oceans
3. God
4. Bliss
5. China
6. Raspberry Swirl
7. Talula
8. Sweet The Sting
9. Pretty Good Year
Plus Bonus tracks:
* Professional Widow (Remixed)
* Cornflake Girl (UK Version)
The DVD chronicles Amos’s visual and musical
progression. There is detailed
commentary for each song provided by Tori, giving insight and historical
perspective into the creative process and the music industry. As an added feature there is a short
documentary on the making of A Sorta Fairytale (which costars
Adrian Brody) to go with the bonus tracks and Amos doing audio commentary
tracks on each and every clip.
As for the performance of the DVD itself where the Videos
are concerned, the picture quality is pretty good for the most part, but most
of the clips are 1.33 X 1 and are only so sharp and clear. However, they are about as good as they
could look in the DVD format. The sound
is even better, remixed from the music masters in PCM 2.0 Stereo and especially
impressive DTS 5.1 sound. This is a
trend with such collections from major such artists and one we can only hope
continues. And give or take vinyl, this
makes this set the highest fidelity playback you can get of her work to date.
- Wayne Wise
Wayne Wise is a native of Southwestern Pennsylvania
currently residing in Pittsburgh. He
has earned a Masters degree in clinical psychology and undergraduate degrees in
psychology and history. He has worked
as a freelance journalist for over ten years.
In 1993, he co-created a comic book called Grey Legacy. In 2002 his first novel, King of Summer,
was published. You can go to www.wayne-wise.com and learn more.
