General

The Way to Paradise - Music Experience in 3-Dimensional Sound Reality [Blu-ray]

THIS 7.1 DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO BLU-RAY DISC DELIVERS AN AMAZING 3-DIMENSIONAL SURROUND SOUND EXPERIENCE THROUGH ANY BLU-RAY PLAYER (PS3) WITH AN HDMI OR OPTICAL (core only 5.1 and 6.1) OUTPUT CONNECTED OR ASSEMBLED WITH DTS-HD MA OR DTS (core only 5.1 and 6.1) CAPABLE RECIEVER THE FULL RANGE 7.1 (6.1;5.1) SURROUND SPEAKER SET-UP IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR FULL PERCEPTION OF 3-DIMENSIONAL SOUNDFIELD AND LOW FREQUENCY CHANNEL (LFE) THAT IS VERY CRITICAL FOR THIS RECORD. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS RECORD WAS ORIGINALLY PRODUCED BY ALEXANDER GOLBERG JERO FOR 7.1 SURROUND SOUND REPRODUCTION TO PROVIDE YOU WITH UNIQUE 3-DIMENSIONAL SURROUND MUSIC EXPERIENCE.

Sarah McLachlan: Mirrorball

This video companion to the Canadian singer-songwriter's triumphant live album confirms in sight what that recording advanced in sound--Sarah McLachlan and her fine, flexible stage band have evolved into a superb live performing unit, breathing added fire and nuance into McLachlan songs that were already stunning in their original studio versions. Always a strong, charismatic singer, McLachlan now conjures a rare balance of delicacy and power, measured here in performances of signature songs that add a new, more muscular edge matching her band's rock firepower. Thus, "Possession" expands beyond its already sensual promise to touch on truly erotic abandon, while "Building a Mystery" focuses its portrait of a narcissistic poseur with a harder edge and a newly amended, R-rated lyric that's entirely appropriate.

Shot on McLachlan's 1998 headlining tour, the concert captures her in a more theatrical and frankly glamorous (if slightly funky) vein than her fabled Lilith Fair shows: in her floor-length blue gown, sparkling blue mascara, and bare feet, she evokes a more demure, Gen-X cousin to Cabaret's Sally Bowles. With 23 featured songs, Mirrorball on video adds 9 tracks not heard on the CD. The audio mixing is generally excellent, especially on the DVD version, which provides some hall ambience but retains a front-array, proscenium placement to instruments. Shot on film, rather than videotape, the concert preserves the stunning, subtle lighting effects of McLachlan's touring production, albeit at slight visual sacrifice in lower-light segments in which the resolution is grainier. --Sam Sutherland

Would We Be... Live?

Eurythmics: Peacetour

As music DVDs go, sweet dreams must surely be made of this. Quite apart from carrying a great performance (although the music production is perhaps too sanitary overall), the label appears to have gone all-out to ensure that pretty much every extra feature that the DVD format supports is represented here in the best possible way. The performance is taken from the final (London Docklands Arena) date of the 1999 tour in support of Amnesty International and Greenpeace and includes all the classics you'd expect. There are some nice multi-angle options on a couple of the songs, a self-congratulatory and patronizing interview-documentary section (but better to have it than not), a discography, a complete lyrics section, and a rather dull gallery of photographs that looks like a way of using up the PR department's leftovers. But the music's great if you're a fan and pretty damn good even if you're not. As a demonstration of how all music DVDs should be produced--i.e., stuffed to the last possible byte with all kinds of material--this release is the business. --Roger Thomas