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Dom Robinson reviews
The Video Collection
- Cat.no: 501709
- Cert: E
- Running time: 21 minutes
- Year: 1998
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 6 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Stereo
- Languages: English, Spanish
- Lyrics: English
- Presented in Fullscreen
- 16:9-enhanced: No
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 5
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Profile
There’s nothing quite like a value-packed DVD.And this IS nothing like a value-packed DVD, since it’s just the five music promosfrom the band’s eponymous first album, with a price that works out at a pound-per-minute!
The “profile” on the disc commences by telling us how they have a sound that is refreshinglydifferent… No, they’re just the Roxette to take us into the new millennium, onceit begins next year, leaving Per and whateverhernamewas just blowing in the wind.
If you must indulge, the tracks begin with the poppy I Want You, a Roxette-a-likeif ever there was one, which they had the temerity to release again the following year,the second time in a remix form that sounded no different. This is followed by To the Moonand Back, one of those songs that pretends to be soul-searching but ends up being neitherballad nor rock track which means that no radio station can find a definitive place for it,although many of them found quite a lot of slots to drop it into.
Then comes the Big BalladTM, Truly Madly Deeply, which has nothing to dowith the Alan Rickman film, and is drippy in the extreme, which provided Radio 2 with monthsof fodder. Two more tracks, Break Me Shake Me – which sounds like early Bros – andTears of Pearls – which also does, are ones I have not head before, but will notchange your opinion of them.
Their singles chart history to December 2000 is as follows :
Jun 97No.11I Want YouFeb 98No. 4Truly Madly DeeplyAug 98No. 3To the Moon and BackDec 98No.12I Want You 98Jul 99No.16The Animal SongNov 99No.10I Knew I Loved YouApr 00No.14Crash and BurnJul 00No. 8AffirmationNov 00No.16Hold Me
Well there’s no artifacts on view, but the picture isn’t anything to getexcited about. The average bitrate is an excellent 9.5Mb/s, but then there’snothing else on the disc in terms of video footage whatsoever, so it’s not asif it’s cramped for space.
The sound comes in Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1, the former sounding okayand the latter being just plain weird as it feels like someone’s justpushed most of the soundstage into the rear speakers for no reason whatsoever.Very unnatural.
Extras. :A profile of the band which you could fit on one side of an A4 sheet of paper.Fans will read it once then never look at it again, but then it only tellsyou how the pair met and the ‘overwhelming success’ the band have had,although the jury’s out on whether their time is at an end.
There are 6 chapters on the disc, one each for the songs and another forthe silent end credits. The track listing is as follows :
1. I Want You
2. To the Moon and Back
3. Truly Madly Deeply
4. Break Me Shake Me
5. Tears of Pearls
6. Credits
English lyrics are also included during the songs and the menus are silentand static, bar for a small amount of animation in the lyrics menu.
I’d like to have been in the boardroom when the executives at Sony decided to release a21-minute set of promos on a disc for full price. This is the sort of item that shouldbe retailing for around seven quid and no more.
21 minutes is not what you’d expect after turfing out twenty notes. Even Entertainmentin Video would be ashamed at calling that amount of footage as an extra, let alone themain feature!
Avoid this release like the plague unless you are Truly Madly Deeply insane orhave more money than Jamie Oliver.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALLCheck out theSony Music DVD Web site.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.