I'm Going To Tell You A Secret: Even An Extra DVD Can't Save This Outing!

The Good: One or two songs/versions
The Bad: Bland video, Uninspired vocal performances, "Live" performance conceits
The Basics: Madonna's tour album is a flat-out disappointment.


I hate reviewing live albums. I loathe reviewing live albums because if the performance on the c.d. is not great and I review the c.d., invariably I'll get someone who pops up to write about how they were at the concert where the album was recorded and it was an amazing live experience. This nightmare scenario replays over and over again in my reviews and I've discovered that Bruce Springsteen fans are especially rabid about that (check out my review of Live From New York City here!) and there seems to be a lack of ability for such fans to disconnect between the performance they remember and the c.d. that was marketed after it. Then again, I get comments when I review some artist's debut where people flame me about how they improve on their subsequent albums. So, sadly, I shall once again begin my review of a live album with the disclaimer that what I am reviewing is Madonna's two disc (one c.d., one DVD) set called I’m Going To Tell You A Secret. This is not a commentary on the concert it was recorded at (save in remarking on the DVD), this is not a commentary on Madonna's overall career or ability to perform a live concert. No, this is just for this two-disc set (I feel so cheap even having to write that).

I’m Going To Tell You A Secret is a fourteen track trainwreck that clocks in at just under sixty-six minutes. The DVD is two hours of watching Madonna move her tour from city to city with limited performance footage in each place. The DVD is billed as a documentary, but it is nothing so cohesive as watching Madonna set up from city to city and there's nothing terribly extraordinary about it. In fact, it becomes so pointless as to include Madonna going to the bathroom and insisting that the camera operator does not want to follow her, which they do. It's very "we're making a documentary" documentary as opposed to something that actually says something or makes a genuine statement. It's not even terribly revealing of Madonna as an artist or human being (though watching her complain to a vocal coach in one of the bonuses over the alterations to her diet her coach insists on is certainly fun). The DVD is not nearly enough to justify purchasing this edition of this album.

As for the live performance, it's been a while since I wished I could simply cheat out the review as "meh, this is not worth your time," but I'm trying to write something truly insightful here. I’m Going To Tell You A Secret is not worth your time, whether or not you like the works of Madonna. Listening to this c.d., the listener often finds themselves lost. So, for example, there is the instrumental bagpipe track "Susan MacLeod" which morphs into Madonna's "Into The Groove" and during the bagpipe arrangement, the listener just wonders what this has to do with Madonna. Madonna is not playing the bagpipes. The bagpipes do not naturally segue into "Into The Groove" - in fact, the bagpipes cut out completely and the synths start up to make the transition that had previously only been the drums accompanying the bagpipes leading into "Into The Groove."

In short, this album has a sense of theatrics that are lost in an audio performance. "American Life" opens with helicopter sounds and the soundtrack of explosions and gunfire and it is utterly pointless. On the DVD the video may see (for Madonna's New York performance) the dance routine and video footage that accompanies these sounds. On the c.d., they are abstract noises, completely devoid of context. In short, it means nothing in the audio performance. It is simply noise. There is no music backing it, there is no statement that is made by it, instead its sound. This represents the worst problems of a live album; simply capturing the reality of the moment. In this case, it captures the reality of a moment that is completely lost without the visuals. It's a waste of minutes on this disc.

Similarly, I’m Going To Tell You A Secret opens with possibly the weirdest Madonna track yet with "The Beast Within." This song - not even credited in the section of the liner notes listing all of the songs performed on the c.d. and DVD - is an indescribably bad track that simply describes having the devil inside. With lyrics like, "He is coming with the clouds / And every eye will see him / Everyone who pierced him and all the tribes of the Earth will [? . . .] on account of him . . ." ("The Beast Within"), this track opens the live album on an unsettling and disappointing note. This is a live album opened by Madonna the Cabalist.

That's not to say the entire album is a wash. Fans of Madonna will find a decent version of "Like A Prayer" and it's always fun to hear "Vogue." Personally, after the pointless explosion sounds, I found "American Life" to be one of the best tracks as it accented Madonna's ability to actually sing.

Sadly, much of the rest of the album makes the counterargument. Madonna's "live" presentations of many of the songs have vocals that are virtually identical to her previously released versions. "Into The Groove," "Die Another Day" and “Music” all have vocal presentations by Madonna that vary very little from her album (or radio single) tracks. Sure, there's an intro to Music that makes it flow out from "Into The Groove" well, but Madonna's vocal performance is underwhelming. In fact, the only real difference is when Madonna lets the audience take the refrain, much like Oasis recording the audience singing "Live Forever" on their live album Familiar To Millions (reviewed here!).

The peak of this disappointing set of presentations that sound awfully close to their studio versions comes on "I Love New York," the album's final track. One of the weakest links from her album Confessions From A Dance Floor, this track is so close to the original as to be indistinguishable. Indeed, devoid of the usual "live" conceits, like the sound of the audience, this track might as well be the studio version.

This brings me to the other problem with this album as a c.d. (again, not as a live performance, but rather the recording I am listening to right now). This, possibly more than any other live album I have ever heard, album seems to be obsessed with engineering in the sound of the crowd. While the average listener would likely make a fair bet that a Madonna concert is not a quiet place, the album's engineer seems to be most insistent on convincing the listener of that. Every track - save the final one - is cluttered with the cheers and screams of fans. It's dull, predictable and the listener could live without the "proof" that Madonna is performing live if this is the best they can do.

The counterargument, of course, is that Madonna's accompaniment on most of the tracks is a lot richer - or at least different - than the studio versions. This is generally true, but that alone provides the essential purpose of the audience noise; to provide something different for the listener. The pinnacle of this conceit is Madonna's plaintive request to the audience that they listen closely to the lyrics to John Lennon's "Imagine" (right before she sings it) because "We have to make the world a better place" ("Imagine," track 10). This might have captured a moment that occurred, but it plays poorly and it replays worse. The ultimate feeling listening to it is that this is a self-serving sound byte. I mean, during her show Madonna no doubt did more than ask people if they were having a good time, insist that they dance and tell everyone that the world needs to be made into a better place.

I've often argued that the best a live album can do is provide a different version for music that is either rather produced in the studio or less familiar to listeners. In some artist's cases, the live album may serve as the closest to a "Greatest Hits" for those who do not have compilation albums. Madonna would seem to be an ideal candidate for this, but this disc proves that her entertainment attempts seek instead to recreate the studio experience as opposed to reinterpret it. As a result, we are not treated to, for example, a soft jazz version of "Vogue." No, it sounds almost identical to the radio hit. None of the songs have genuine reinterpretations and as Madonna has greatest hits albums, this compilation is just substandard.

The best track is Madonna's song "Holiday" which seems to be the closest to a reinterpretation of one of her tracks that she manages on this album. The low point is probably "I Love New York," though the opener "The Beast Within" still seems a stiflingly bad choice to open I’m Going To Tell You A Secret with.

For other works by Madonna, please check out my reviews of:
Erotica
Bedtime Stories
“Nothing Really Matters” (single)
Ray Of Light
Music
Confessions On A Dance Floor

3/10

For other music reviews, please check out my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Hold Out For The Videos, The Two-Disc Version Of The Annie Lennox Collection Is Best!

The Good: Great music, Wonderful voice, Creative music videos, Decent instrumentals
The Bad: Some songs only available on DVD as opposed to c.d.
The Basics: Brilliant songs and videos, despite a few noticable omissions, make for a wonderful two-disc Collector's Edition of The Annie Lennox Collection!


I am a sucker for bells and whistles when it comes to movies, compact discs and toys. Given an option between more and less, I'll take more every day of the week. I get suckered in with new director's cuts, reissues with new commentary tracks, and bonus discs with additional songs on c.d.s. So, when I was in New York City with my fiance as part of the best trip of my life, I enjoyed walking around several Barnes & Noble stores. For sure, they have them locally, but I wanted to see what kind of selection the ones in New York City might have! It was there that I found The Annie Lennox Collection and I had a choice to make.

Annie Lennox released a one-disc version of The Annie Lennox Collection (reviewed here!) and a two-disc version of the same, with a bonus DVD. This reminded me of the two-disc version of her album Songs Of Mass Destruction and I was happy to get a bonus DVD in addition to her new album. As well, while supplies last, I was thrilled to discover I would get a limited edition poster for buying the Collector's Edition (like I said, I'm a sucker and I figured, "If I ever meet her in person that would be awesome to get autographed!"). So, I went with the Collector's Edition with the bonus DVD of thirteen of Lennox's music videos.

A contractually-obligated album that now makes Lennox a free-agent again, The Annie Lennox Collection is a compilation of singles from the four albums Lennox has released while at Sony as well as the song "Love Song For A Vampire," off the soundtrack to Bram Stoker's Dracula. There are two new cover songs and the listener who loves the works of Annie Lennox (as I do, but might not appear to from some of my reviews) gets the feeling Lennox provided the contractually-obligated minimum for this Collection, at least for the music disc. I have, honestly, been waiting for a "best of" compilation from Lennox for years and now that it is here, I find myself disappointed by what is here and missing the great songs Lennox did that are missing from this version. There is a two-disc version in the UK and the Collector's version in the U.S. that comes has the cool DVD, but the first disc is identical to the one-disc version of the album.

With fourteen songs clocking in at only 62:03, The Annie Lennox Collection is an adequate collection of Lennox's solo works and radio-played cover songs. Considering that her albums Diva and Medusa bought her a solo career and that mainstream radio had largely abandoned Lennox and her works by the time Bare was released, one suspects that if Lennox were to release her most popular singles, it would only be a four song compilation ("Walking On Broken Glass," "Why," "No More 'I Love You's,'" and "Why"), so at least Lennox gave listeners more than just that on this Collection. Instead, there are twelve songs her album listeners will enjoy as well as two new covers that they will come to love.

Largely, The Annie Lennox Collection is the musical vision of singer-songwriter Annie Lennox. Ten of the songs are written by Lennox and the covers "No More 'I Love You's" and "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" came from her cover album Medusa. The new songs "Pattern Of My Life" and "Shining Light" are both covers, but Lennox does a great job of interpreting them with her voice and sense of desire in her vocals. Lennox provides the lead vocals on all of the songs and plays keyboards on some of the songs. Lennox is only given a production credit on the two new covers, which suggests the reason she is happily fleeing Sony/Arista might well have to do with her inability to control the sound she is producing.

That said, Collection is worthwhile for those who have heard Lennox's radio hits, but not her full albums or recognized her works elsewhere. Because I am not likely to let this go until I can vent it, it is worth saying that Annie Lennox has a number of good or great works that do not appear on this compilation. Where is her Oscar winning song "Into The West?!" (the Brits get it on their two-disc version!). But even those lucky UK residents are left scratching themselves wondering how this album could leave off Lennox's cover of "Waiting In Vain" or her amazing cover of "Castles Burning," which was featured in a pivotal scene in American Beauty!

But the irksome aspect of Collection is that it does not include any of Lennox's best unsung (metaphorically, obviously) works. Where is "The Saddest Song I've Got" from Bare? How could Lennox leave off "Through The Glass Darkly" from Songs Of Mass Destruction? And yes, it jerked me around to see "Waiting In Vain" on the bonus DVD for the Collector's edition, but not be able to hear it on the music disc.

Well, first she did not claim this was her "Best Of." Rather cleverly, Lennox released this as The Annie Lennox Collection and one hopes if she ever finds herself in such unpalatable circumstances as she felt she found herself in at Sony (who can blame her, I never heard a song from her last two albums on the radio, ever!) she ought to at least call it "The Annie Lennox Contractually-Obligated Collection Of Songs I Put Out While Here, But You Likely Never Heard After The First Few." Sure, it's wordy, but it's more accurate and it does not leave listeners with the thought that they might be able to open up some space on their shelves whatwith an album that trims the fat off the older albums and combines all the best into one perfect Annie Lennox listening experience.

Collection is not that album. Instead, it is a compilation of Lennox's keyboard and percussion-driven pop-rock songs like "Walking On Broken Glass," "Sing" and "Pavement Cracks." Her new covers sound similar to earlier works on the album, though "Shining Light" has the brash enthusiasm that instantly calls to mind Lennox's tenure in the Eurythmics. Ultimately, the collection is made up of songs that are - with a few exceptions - epic sounding pop-rock songs. "Walking On Broken Glass" has a memorable keyboard riff and "Dark Road" has a melody that is softer but unforgettable once one has heard it but once.

What binds the songs together is Lennox's amazing voice. She goes high into the soprano range with "Why" and "Pavement Cracks," but carry the lower notes on songs like "Dark Road" and "Sing." Her cover of "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" illustrates perfectly how she is able to go through her entire range while holding the notes longer than most other musical artists ever could.

As well, Lennox writes amazing and articulate poetics. Despite my arguing for the presence of certain cover songs on The Annie Lennox Collection, what one wants to celebrate of Lennox is her own writing. Lennox captures longing and heartbreak often enough. She does it quite wonderfully on "Pavement Cracks," one of her lesser-known songs on the album. There, she sings out quietly "The city streets are wet again with rain / But I'm walking just the same / Skies turn to the usual grey / When you turn to face the day / Oh and love don't show up in the pavement cracks / All my watercolours fade to black / I'm going nowhere and I'm ten steps back / All my dreams have fallen flat" ("Pavement Cracks"). Lennox is a true poet and her lines read as well - sometimes better - than her music makes them sound.

The unfortunate aspect of Lennox's work not getting airtime on radios is that her social activism on songs like "Sing" goes largely unnoticed by mainstream America. Moreover, there is something impressive about Lennox marshaling the talent of such diverse female vocalists as Bonnie Raitt, Gladys Knight, Madonna, and Fergie for a single song! The anthem works, though, as Lennox and her performers exhort "Sing my sister . . . sing! / Let your voice be heard / What won't kill you will make you strong / Sing my sister . . . sing" ("Sing")!

And outside the social conscious, Lennox is beautifully poetic on her other songs like "Cold" and "Why," which are far more personal and may be easily related to by anyone who has ever gotten a broken heart. "Why" might well be one of the most beautiful songs in the English language in both its vocal presentation (Lennox is slow and sadly soprano throughout the whole song, with minimal instrumental accompaniment). Here she articulately asks "How many times do I have to try to tell you / That I'm sorry for the things I've done / But when I start to try to tell you / That's when you have to tell me / Hey...This kind of trouble's only just begun . . . That's why it hurts so bad to hear the words / That keep on falling from your mouth . . ." ("Why"). Lennox captures a truly universal emotion and sings it with heartwrenching precision to make a perfect song that shines even among her other widely acknowledged great works.

The bonus DVD is a collection of music videos and it is impressive that an artist who might have had so many creative differences with her studio was able to produce such beautiful and ambitious music videos. Hugh Laurie and John Malkovich appear in "Walking On Broken Glass" and the video for "No More 'I Love You's'" is brilliant and creepy as a cabaret act gets its audience involved. And some of Lennox's underseen videos from newer albums, like the somber "Dark Road" has a whole "superheroes failed in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks" feel to it. Lennox is visually creative and audacious in her videos and they are so much more than her singing to camera. Shelling out for the extra disc yields a wonderful visual treat for fans.

The best track is "Why," the weak point is the less memorable "Precious."

For other works by Annie Lennox, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Diva
Little Bird (single)
Medusa
Bare
Songs Of Mass Destruction

8/10

For other music reviews, please visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Feast On This, Alanis Morissette Fans! Feast On Scraps Is NOT A Great Concert DVD!

The Good: A few good songs, well presented.
The Bad: Audio fallouts, Prioritization of instrumentals over vocals, Not at all visually exciting
The Basics: In a surprisingly poor video endeavor, Alanis Morissette talks about her work and philosophy in between lousy concert footage taken from one of her tours and mashed (poorly) together.


Does anyone remember the old commercials for Memorex? You'd know the ones, if you saw them: "Is it live or Memorex?" The question was asked because the recording quality was supposedly so good that distinguishing between a live performance and the tape recording was supposed to be impossible. Of course, now it is hard for many of us to imagine that analog tapes ever achieved such quality, but it was a catchy slogan. On DVD, the Alanis Morissette DVD Feast On Scraps is clearly not live, it is a series of recordings, many of which are poor and erratic.

Feast On Scraps is a DVD and CD combo and given that the eight-track compact disc is occasionally found (legitimately or illegitimately) separate and can be downloaded as the album Feast On Scraps. For those sticklers on such things: my rating does not change at all based upon the presence of the eight additional songs. This set becomes no more redeemed by the eight new songs than it is on its own. That said . . .

"Ouch." Sometimes, a one-word summary can truly capture the essence of a thing and for the video presentation of Feast On Scraps, that one word would be "ouch." Just "ouch." Recorded during the recording sessions and concert tour supporting the album Under Rug Swept, Feast On Scraps is, mostly, just that, scraps. It ought to be noted that "Under Rug Swept" might well be my favorite Alanis Morissette album and so, if anything, I came to Feast On Scraps biased toward the DVD.

Unfortunately, the DVD is just a mess. The performance footage includes eighteen songs and three "Purgatorying" interludes of musings. Interspersed through concert footage is Morissette talking to camera or candid recordings near Morissette. As a result, there are amusing moments, like when Morissette in her limo pulls up next to a car, with its windows rolled down, listening to an Alanis Morissette song on the radio, looking over, seeing Morissette and freaking out. That's cute, it's almost kismet.

But largely, the interstitials (the little bits between Morissette actually performing) are duds. The first three and a half minutes of the DVD are all collections of moments pre-concerts as Morissette and her band get dressed, stretch, wrap legs, etc. I get that one needs a lead in but three and a half minutes of stretching, walking through hallways, etc. just to see Alanis Morissette and her mates on stage is just ridiculous. And right before "Thank You," Morissette talks about her guitarist David Levita. I am glad she thinks he is a remarkably great guitarist who takes risks and is real creative, but on DVD, a permanent medium, this wears thin. We get it, she gushes over David Levita. How many times does she honestly think that fans and well-wishers will sit through the individual commentaries on each of her bandmates as opposed to skipping ahead to the next song? It would have worked if this had either been done as a separate feature, all of the thanks for each bandmate had been done together, or this was a documentary. It is not.

Instead, this is a loose amalgamation of songs and thoughts and Morissette getting dressed. And the fact that Morissette has to goad the cameraperson early on into actually asking her questions, just kills the idea that this might actually be a cohesive project for anyone wishing it was a documentary on the tour surrounding Under Rug Swept. But for those just looking to kick back and have an Alanis Morissette concert experience, you, too, are in for an unfortunate surprise with Feast On Scraps. Instead of being one concert or even the best of the concert performances, Feast On Scraps seems to be a random collection of performances throughout the tour.

Take, for example, the presentation of "21 Things I Want In A Lover." This is, honestly, not one of my favorite songs (made more so by the fact that on a later album, Morissette did a similar listing song that sounded virtually identical) but when it began on the video, I actually got excited about it because it had been so long since I had heard it. On Feast On Scraps, "21 Things I Want In A Lover" is presented not only from various camera angles, but from various performances. One moment, Morissette is looking out at a sun-filled meadow packed with fans, the next, Morissette is performing on a darkened stage and in another cut, she is suddenly performing in a stadium with strobe lights and fog all about her. This sounds like it might actually be cool, like it might have a music video quality to it. It does not and it is certainly not cool.

Instead, the viewer is subjected to seemingly random changes of camera angle, performance and - worst of all - sound quality with no sense, sensibility or quality control surrounding it. So, for example, the audio track, like the video track, is presented using recordings that are from the point of recording. What does this mean? It means that when the image on screen suddenly goes to a camcorder-style shot of Morissette's back, the audio recording is being recorded from the same vantage point. Yes, Morissette cuts from singing to camera through a sound system in one frame to a recording of her singing, facing away from an inferior camera twenty feet away. It sounds like it was recorded off the radio, then copied off for friends and this is about a fifth generation copy of that.

Such audio fallouts are spread throughout Feast On Scraps. Because various performances are mashed together with little respect to the performance or the audio quality, Morissette will be in the middle of a song, the recording will shift to a different performance/angle/audio track and it will be impossible to hear her. So, yes, unless one is sitting with one's remote and constantly adjusting the volume up and down, there is no way to truly enjoy this DVD. It is so erratic that it becomes more of a chore than a treat.

As well, the mixing for some of the biggest numbers, like the opening "Baba" and "You Oughta Know" later in the disc, is absolutely terrible. Have you ever been to a concert where it is clear the engineers who are mixing the sound have absolutely no idea what they are doing? You know, like you go to a rock concert and even after the vocals begin, the proportions are so off that the instrumentals dominate? Or the mixing board personnel ups the volume on an instrument that completely changes the sound of the song so it is unrecognizable even after the vocals begin? Feast On Scraps has that type of engineering in almost all of the prime footage from the main - "official" - concert track. So when Morissette comes out and begins singing, the guitars, bass and percussion so overwhelm her vocals that it is impossible to decipher what she is singing. It almost is enough to make one wish for a weird fallout moment where the footage is just poorly recorded as opposed to inappropriately mixed.

And then there is the pointless footage. For all of my gripes against vocal fallout, poor mixing and visually boring scraps, at least the are original. As the DVD trundled on, I kept going because the penultimate track is one of my favorite songs (of all time!) and one that surprises me Morissette never released as a single (Hey, Alanis, why not release it now?!): "That Particular Time." Haunting and sad, this is possibly the best she has ever written and performed and I have listened to the song at least a hundred times since the first time I heard it last year. On Feast On Scraps, we are not given a live performance of the song. Instead, we are given a collection of shots of her writing the song, going over the production and instrumentation of it and singing it for the studio recording. No, it's not new, it's just visual.

And it is not like an Alanis Morissette concert is an extreme visual act, making one wonder why Morissette bothered with this endeavor. Instead of seeing more of Morissette (even at weird angles we can't hear her at) we are subjected to a number of banal visuals. For example, in "Hand In My Pocket," the camera pans to an audience member. As the song begins, he perks up, begins singing along and raises his arms as if he is having a religious experience. If he is, that's nice for him. Any spiritual experience I might be having by seeing Morissette in concert is being gutted by having to watch this guy have his instead of Morissette herself.

In other words, it is hard to get at all excited about this disc and even the excitement one might have for it is seriously undermined by the execution of the compilation. For those who need such things, the tracklisting is: "Baba," "Right Through You," "21 Things I Want In A Lover," "Hand In Pocket," "Unprodigal Daughter," "Flinch," "All I Really Want," "Precious Illusions," "Sympathetic Character," "So Unsexy," "Head Over Feet," "You Oughta Know," "Hands Clean," "Uninvited," "Ironic," "You Learn," "That Particular Time," and 'Thank You." Most are performed live and almost none of them are intact as a single performance with a consistent, decent audio track. And visually, this is a huge disappointment.

For other Alanis Morissette works, check out my reviews of:
Jagged Little Pill
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie
Under Rug Swept

3/10

For other music reviews, be sure to visit my Music Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Swag For Fans, Not Great For Casual Viewers, Live At Bearsville Theater Flops.

The Good: Great music by Dar Williams, Some moments of stories
The Bad: Visually unexciting, Musically an uninspired selection, Cost for value
The Basics: Dar Williams makes a pretty lazy DVD release with virtually the same concert she made a live album out of before. Disappointing, especially for fans.


Right off the bat, I am a BIG fan of singer-songwriter Dar Williams. I love her music, she is one of only four musical artists I will buy ANYTHING by when they release something new without having heard any part of it. I have such faith in Dar Williams that I will purchase her works blind and I've never felt like I have been cheated in doing that . . . until now.

Back in April, I went to a concert - it turns out the day before Dar Williams celebrated her birthday - and when I made it over to Lake Placid, I discovered that I had left the item I was hoping to get Williams to autograph at home. Dar Williams is famous for meeting with fans after her shows and signing things. So, I picked up her Live At Bearsville Theater from the table of swag they had for sale. Williams did not sign (I'm beginning to think it's me as this was her second concert I went to and I've yet to meet her!) and I left Live At Bearsville Theater on my shelf until last night when I finally got around to watching it.

The short of it is that I'm disappointed. Moreover, I feel I've got a pretty decent right to be disappointed (at the concert, of course, it was not a cheap internet price!); as a fan when one of the artist whose work I love produces something new, I want to get something new. Live At Bearsville Theater is a concert DVD. Over the course of 75 minutes, Dar Williams presents a concert at Woodstock where she spends thirty-five minutes as a lone woman and her guitar playing songs that made her famous like "When I Was A Boy," "The Ocean," "February" and "Iowa." Then, she provides a voice-over about the difference in performances between being a solo artist and having accompaniment at which time, she is joined by three men who provide back up for her on "As Cool As I Am," "Are You Out There," "The Easy Way" and "After All," among others.

One suspects that Dar Williams was having a little fun with being backed by three men and using "As Cool As I Am" as the first song they did together. There's something ironic and cute and outright funny about having Dar Williams with an all-male backup singing "I will not be afraid of women" ("As Cool As I Am") repeatedly. Williams has a sense of humor and one doubts that such things were lost on her.

The concert, it is worth noting, is good. Live At Bearsville Theater presents Dar Williams in a good light, moving between her singing on stage and reactions from audience members (though sometimes the transitions happen at very awkward moments). Williams has an amazing singing voice and those who do not know the works of Dar Williams would get a fair appreciation of her range and repertoire on this DVD, whatwith the presence of some of her most beloved songs like "The Babysitter's Here," "The Christians And The Pagans," "If I Wrote You" and "Mercy Of The Fallen." Williams also does a cover of the Greatful Dead's "Ripple" and it fits her wonderfully.

But the problem with Live At Bearsville Theater - other than failing to capture the energy of crowd or the concert, including at one point Williams making a joke and the crowd either not laughing or having the laughter edited out - is that it is entirely predictable and average and expected Dar Williams. Up until two months ago, the novelty of the DVD was that it had one of Williams's forthcoming songs, "The Easy Way," but now that Promised Land is out, one need not get this just to get the new song. The only track, then, unique to this album is "Ripple," though some of the songs - to be fair - are not available in live renditions.

But that's where the DVD becomes problematic and begins to slip for me. First, for all of my love of Dar Williams as a musical artist, singer-songwriter and performer, she is a one-woman act and from what I've seen, most of them a remarkably similar. Williams is a crowd pleaser for fans in that she performs the songs that fans seem to love the most while mixing in a few new ones each concert. But between the two concerts, this DVD and her live album Out There Live, Williams is not a great live performer as far as diversity goes. All four shows have been essentially the same.

Largely, it is Out There Live that kills Live At Bearsville Theater. Out There Live is an album that has Dar Williams performing sixteen songs live. Live At Bearsville Theater has Williams performing sixteen songs, of which eleven of them are songs she performed on Out There Live. Of the five new live renditions, "The One Who Knows," "Mercy Of The Fallen" and "The Beauty Of The Rain" were all from The Beauty Of The Rain, which was almost an acoustic album, so despite my love of the songs and hearing them live, there's not an intense difference between the live versions and the album cuts.

But that brings us back to the overall concept of the concert DVD. Dar Williams is not providing a seminal concert experience for her career or for music in general with Live At Bearsville Theater. But for a DVD, Williams is not providing anything visually interesting. Don't get me wrong, Dar Williams is wonderful to look at, but her concert experience is not - for example - a work of unique performance art that changes with each outing like an Alice Cooper concert. Williams is not doing pyrotechnics or a U2-esque visual pomposity behind her or even something big. This is an intimate concert with Dar Williams (largely) providing the same songs she's already performed live for the listener. And she stands there behind her microphone flapping her leg while playing her guitar and . . .

. . . that's it; I'm not going to disparage one of my favorite musical artists. But Live At Bearsville Theater would have made for an average, maybe a little better, c.d. but it's only worthwhile to fans of Dar Williams who will never get to a concert and who do not have Out There Live. It's not a great use of the medium and Williams may have electricity at her performances (she does!) but it is not captured in this DVD.

On DVD, Live At Bearsville Theater includes three bonus features. There are two music videos, "As Cool As I Am" and "What Do You Hear In These Sounds?" They both are basically Dar Williams singing to camera, though "As Cool As I Am" mixes it up by playing out part of the storysong on screen. There is also a short collection of shots of people setting up for Williams's concert, including pictures of her adjusting her microphone height. In other words, these DVD bonus features are not going to light the world on fire for those on the fence about this DVD.

See Dar Williams in concert, pick up Out There Live, but unless you will never do either of those things, there's no good reason to pick up the DVD of Live At Bearsville Theater.

For other works by Dar Williams, please check out my reviews of:
The Honesty Room
Mortal City
Cry Cry Cry (as a member of Cry Cry Cry)
The Green World
The Beauty Of The Rain
Out There Live
Promised Land
Many Great Companions

3/10

For other video reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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How Did He Survive So Long To Get So Cool? Best Of Bowie Video Collection!

The Good: A perfect video, Some great music, Wonderful creativity
The Bad: Missing "Changes?!" Many of the early videos are disappointing
The Basics: With a perfect video and a great deal of musical video stories, Best Of Bowie DVD is a set anyone with appreciation for the music video may appreciate.


The Best Of Bowie DVD was definitely my partner's idea. My partner thinks David Bowie is imaginative and an artist who has aged exceptionally well. Had it not been for the recent acquisition of this DVD, I probably never would have seen most of these videos. In the end, I think that would have been rather unfortunate. Clocking in at over four hours, this two-disc set certainly takes the viewer on a ride.

The Best Of Bowie is a collection of 47 music videos spanning almost thirty years of David Bowie's career. Starting in 1972 with a series of television spots - many of which never aired - and progressing through the early years of music videos to the honing of the video as an art form, this is a pretty comprehensive collection of the music and image of David Bowie. And he definitely has gotten cooler with age.

The problem with the video collection is essentially bound to the first disc. Most all of the videos before 1979 are simply collections of Bowie singing to a camera. The first five videos, especially, show a complete neglect for the video medium. Basically, they are simply a chance to see the man who sings the songs the listener might enjoy. The 1972 sessions from the BBC are devoid of any insight into the music and instead have a chance to see Bowie wearing a ridiculous green outfit and singing.

But beyond the early videos, which are more like impromptu concerts, the presentations are decent. The video for "Young American," which is essentially Bowie and back-up singing to several cameras, illustrates well Bowie's natural charisma and his knack for presentation. That's track eleven. And by that point, videos are changing. By track 16 ("D.J."), his videos are telling a story and it's nice to see that when he begins this trend, he does not let up.

At the point that the videos begin being intriguing, like the "Gods Must Be Crazy" style story for the video to "Let's Dance," the viewer begins to wonder where "Changes" is. Perhaps David Bowie's most distinctive and enduring single is noticeably missing from the video collection. I find it hard to believe, given the quality of such videos as "Five Years" and "Drive-In Saturday" that something could not be whipped up. It's disappointing that something otherwise so definitive would be missing this essential piece.

David Bowie's music is a wonderful collection of rock, which changes into pop in the '80s, which evolves into angsty almost Industrial music in the early '90s and finishes as Bowie's reinvention of pop-rock as an art. His music and outfits change with the time going from outrageously flashy in the 70s and 80s to more reserved and downright middle age sexy in the 90s. This collection is an excellent way to see his wardrobe and persona evolve.

And it is on the second disc that Bowie's potential is reached. I'm not talking so much about his "Labyrinth" inspired duo ("Underground" and "Time Will Crawl"), where they apparently could only get the consent of one muppet to appear. No, I refer to the stories Bowie tells using his videos and music. The perfect example is "They Say Jump" where Bowie tells a story of virtual reality and the torment in and out of it of a businessman. His videos here are clever, use the music perfectly and tell stories. They become the best of what music videos may be.

Indeed, David Bowie has a perfect video and it is astonishing that it does not appear in the top three of more music video reviewers' lists. It is called "Miracle Goodnight." The song is an ethereal, difficult to describe piece about the feeling at the end of a perfect night when it is time to say good-by to one's lover. The video is an amazing conglomeration of artistic dancers, strippers, a flamboyant playboy who does not touch the nearly naked women writhing all about him, gods and men. It's a clever series of images that both compliment and defy the song, whose main refrain is "nobody's dancing." It has incredible energy and it does perfectly what a music video ought to do: create a piece of art distinctive from the music that expresses the essence of the song. The first time I saw the video, it enticed me, made me laugh and compelled me to watch it three more times immediately. It has a powerful effect and is dramatically distinctive.

And it's not like blew it out creatively; after that he has the downright creepy "The Heart's Filthy Lesson" and the strange "Strangers When We Meet" from his Industrial phase. It's strange to see videos that are more reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails than David Bowie, but he is actually pioneering this style, if one checks the dates. And he manages to return to clever popularity for a more wide audience even further along with the clever commentary on gun violence "I'm Afraid of Americans" (which features Trent Reznor of NIN). In the penultimate video, he acknowledges his age in a wonderful way with a video entitled "Thursday's Child."

"Thursday's Child" is the perfect example of Bowie's evolution. He plays a man singing to himself in the mirror when his somewhat estranged wife comes to wash up beside him. He sees the younger versions of themselves in the mirror and the interaction he has between his past and present is an intriguing one. There are so many ways to interpret the video and his older self embracing his wife's younger self seems to suggest he can accept his own aging, but not hers.

The magic of Bowie's later videos is that they may be interpreted many ways and they weave together meaningful and intriguing stories that make the viewer want to see them and watch them again. So, unlike most music videos, the bulk of videos presented here are not ones that the viewer will get tired of easily. That kind of diversity is always welcome. And if there is one thing Bowie excels at throughout this video time capsule, it is being a diverse personality.

A perfect video earns this collection an entire point.

For other David Bowie reviews, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
The Man Who Sold The World
Hunkey Dory
The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars
Aladdin Sane
Pinups
Diamond Dogs
Christiane F. Soundtrack
Let's Dance
Labyrinth
Labyrinth Soundtrack
Never Let Me Down
Eart hl i ng
Best Of Bowie (1 Disc version)
The Best Of Bowie (2 Disc version)
Heathen

7.5/10

For other video reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2003 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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