Olivia Newton-John One Woman’s Live Journey
(DVD-Audio)
Music: B- Dolby
(2.0 only): B- DTS: B MLP (5.1 only): B Extras: D
First she was a Country star from Down Under, then Olivia
Newton-John was suddenly Miss Hot Sex.
What Happened? Well, besides her
turn in the 1978 film version of Grease, she started pushing
virgin/whore complex before anyone ever heard of Madonna. From 1971 (yes, that far back) to 1977, she
was Country Music’s new big star. When
traditional Country fans of the time were weary of her, the sudden defection
from the genre by her confirmed what they expected.
She then peppered that with Disco glitz as Disco was
dying. Eventually, it was one
reinvention too many and after her Physical cycle died out and she made
a few more bad films, her years on top ended after a fifteen-years run. Since then, no music has been able to bring
her back, and distractions from a series of unfortunate incidents in her life
have not helped. Now, she is trying to
respark her career and One Woman’s Live Journey (2001) is one of the
first attempts.
This DVD-Audio version is a step up from the often-awful
CDs that have been issued of her older studio recordings, but Newton-John has
had a sort of curse on her live releases.
Some would argue that she only was a hit because of ace producers, but
that case is not as easy to argue with her earliest hits. A Physical tour concert released to
home video is now a camp classic for those who have suffered through it.
The advantage of an audio-only concert is it stops her
form the silly mugging that made her early Music Videos so… distinctive. Twenty years after her first hit, she still has the voice, which
is remarkable after surviving so many awful things we will not go into
here. However, the enthusiasm, energy
and spontaneity that made her a hit in the first place is not totally
here. Add the awful background singing,
badly picked duet substitute, plus instrumental arrangements that are made
worse by an even odder 5.1 mix, and you have her live curse continuing.
The song set seems to want to focus on mostly softer
songs, but they never click. Xanadu
and Magic reminded me of how bad the ELO – Zoom DVD was in badly
revisiting heavily arranged vocal hits without the right vocals, Don’t Stop
Believin’ reminded me of how depressed Steve Perry (formerly of Journey)
looked on a recent VH-1 program about his departure form his former band, Suddenly
made me wish the Cliff Richards Super Marionette from the feature film Thunderbirds
Are Go! (1967) would show up and straighten things out, the covers of the Grease
duets made me realize that John Travolta could technically be thought of as
a song stylist, Let’s Get Physical seemed totally out of place in the
set, and the covers of all the innocent songs (even Dolly Parton’s Jolene)
seemed just a bit too rushed.
When a performer is bringing back a few dozen songs for
fans, that artist always has an obligation to do it right, but this concert is
just plain awkward. Non-fans (and those
who dislike her beyond that term) could care less; the fans do and deserve
vibrant performances. This is not that
concert, though diehard fans will still want to hear it.
Until Universal Music begins reissuing her studio albums
in DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD, this is the best she will sound by default in
a digital format. Too bad the High
Definition MLP tracks and DTS tracks have 5.1 mixes that differ little. It just does not sound as great as it
should, even with the screwy mixing itself.
Some much worse Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is also included for
compatibility with lesser playback situations.
There are no extras either.
With a title like One Woman’s Live Journey, you
would think there would be more here than this, but the music is all you
get. Unless you are desperate to hear
Newton-John beyond her hit records, you can skip this one. Let’s see what she does if she gets back
into a studio.
- Nicholas Sheffo
