Dom Robinson reviews

Distributed by
Pinnacle Records

Cat.no: IX 8818 ARUKD

Cert: E

Running time: 83 minutes

Year: 1999

Pressing: 1999

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 16

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Digital DTS 5.1

Languages: English

Subtitles: None

Fullscreen: 4:3

16:9-enhanced: No

Macrovision: No

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £19.99

Extras : Scene index

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Director :

Lawrence Jordan

Producer :

Joel Stillerman

Sheryl Crow has never really set the singles chart on fire, but her brand of rock music makes for fine entertainment, whether it's the more poppy tracks like Everyday is a Winding Road and A Change Would Do You Good, to the more sombre and thoughtful, Home, Anything But Down and Strong Enough.

There's only a handful of her tracks that I really can't listen to though, namely the one she reportedly no longer likes herself because she's played it to many times: All I Wanna Do, her dreadful cover of Guns N Roses' Sweet Child O' Mine and the Bond theme, Tomorrow Never Dies (k.d. lang's song with the same title over its closing credits was much better and more suited to the Bond style).

Her singles chart history to the end of 1999 is as follows :

Jun 94	No.66	Leaving Las Vegas
Nov 94	No. 4	All I Wanna Do
Feb 95	No.33	Strong Enough
May 95	No.33	Can't Cry Anymore
Jul 95	No.24	Run Baby Run
Nov 95	No.43	What I Can Do For You
Sep 96	No. 9	If It Makes You Happy
Nov 96	No.12	Everyday Is A Winding Road
Mar 97	No.22	Hard To Make A Stand
Jul 97	No. 8	A Change Would Do You Good
Oct 97	No.25	Home
Dec 97	No.12	Tomorrow Never Dies
Sep 98	No. 8	My Favourite Mistake
Dec 98	No.19	There Goes The Neighbourhood
Mar 99	No.19	Anything But Down
Sep 99	No.30	Sweet Child O' Mine

The picture quality is very good with zero artifacts, but it loses a little in the way of sharpness by being converted from NTSC material. It's certainly very watchable but can't be considered perfect. Presented in fullscreen, the average bitrate is an excellent 9Mb/s, frequently peaking over that.

The sound is top-notch with all the loud tracks bursting out of the speakers with flavour, while the softer tunes inspire a more relaxed atmosphere.

What's most impressive is that this disc is one of the first to be released in the UK to not only be released with a DTS 5.1 soundtrack, but to combine both that with the Dolby Digital 5.1 format to appeal to customers on both sides of the market. Of course, with a stereo/ProLogic setup, the DD5.1 sound will downmix fine to play that way.

Extras. :

Chapters :

1. Opening / Maybe That's Something
2. A Change Would Do You Good
3. Anything But Down
4. My Favourite Mistake
5. It Don't Hurt
6. Riverwide
7. If It Makes You Happy
8. Am I Getting Through
9. Everyday is a Winding Road
10. The Difficult Kind
11. All I Wanna Do
12. There Goes The Neighbourhood
13. Strong Enough
14. Mississippi
15. Home
16. End Credits

Menu :

An animated menu with pics of Sheryl and the band moving round the screen with some music in the background, but it's on a very short loop.

Of course, this disc's principal purchasers will be fans of Ms. Crow. They certainly won't be disappointed when it comes to the concert though as the sound is very impressive. I've awarded the gig full marks as there's only one of her songs in there that I'm anything but a fan of; and is it just me or does It Don't Hurt sound familiar in essence to the works of The The, particularly Uncertain Smile ?

It's a shame there's no extras, but for Region 2 DVD, DTS 5.1 sound could be considered as one. I would like to have seen some lyrics in there though.

DVD Trivia: Spot the moment in Anything But Down when Sheryl drops in a part of World Party's Is It Like Today?

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS	0
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.