Cat.no: BJORK 502DVD

Cert: E

Running time: 64 minutes

Year: 1999

Pressing: 1999

Region(s): 0, 2 (UK PAL)

Chapters: 15

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dolby Surround)

Languages: English

Lyrics: None

Aspect ratio varies from song to song

16:9-enhanced: No

Macrovision: No

Disc Format: DVD 5

Price: £16.99

Extras : Animated scene index

---

Directors:

Michel Gondry (Human Behaviour, Army Of Me, Isobel, Hyperballad, Joga, Bachelorette)
Sophie Muller (Venus as a Boy, Possibly Maybe)
Danny Cannon (Play Dead)
Stephane Sednaoui (Big Time Sensuality (Fluke Re-Mix))
Jean-Baptiste Mondino (Violently Happy)
Spike Jonze (It's Oh So Quiet)
John Kricfalusi (I Miss You)
Paul White (Hunter)

---

Her first album, Debut, spawned the hits Human Behaviour (No.36, June 93), her Top 40 solo debut, Venus as a Boy (No.29, Sep 93), which was later used in Luc Besson's 1994 French hitman thriller Leon, Play Dead (No.12, Oct 93), recorded and mixed by David Arnold for Danny Cannon's British thriller The Young Americans starring Harvey Keitel and Keith Allen, the song for which didn't appear on the first issue of Debut just the re-issue, Big Time Sensuality (No.17, Dec 93), a re-mix of which is used here and Violently Happy (No.13, Mar 94).

The second album, Post, was an even bigger success kicking off with the equally bizarre Army of Me (No.10, May 95) and when you watch this video it makes you wonder what goes on in her mind on a regular basis, Isobel (No.23, Aug 95), placing Bjork in ballad-country and a cover version of It's Oh So Quiet giving Bjork her biggest hit to date (No.4, Nov 95) with a very colourful video accompanying the song.

The following year saw the release of the ambient Hyperballad (No.8, Feb 96) and a 12"-only release for Possibly Maybe (No.13, Nov 96), a very slow song which seemed a little sparse on first hearings but soon grew on me and was released as part of a remix album, Telegram, later the same month.

Last year she released Homogenic which went into the album charts at No.4 but the singles taken from it strayed outside the mainstream and didn't get much airplay. I Miss You (No.36, Mar 97) features a cartoon Bjork and some clever use of animation and was followed by the brilliant ballad Joga (Sep 97), of which I don't have a chart position but it failed to make the Top 40. Bachelorette (No.21, Dec 97) is a haunting song which lingers in the mind. Hunter (1998) is the final track on the compilation which didn't make the Top 40 either, despite having an interesting video directed by Paul White with CGI effects placed on top of Bjork's bald head making her look like one of the bears in the Coca Cola advert.

The picture quality is mostly perfect with only a few artifacts appearing on dark blue backgrounds at times during Human Behaviour, Play Dead and It's Oh So Quiet. Most of the videos play in 4:3 although Play Dead, It's Oh So Quiet, Possibly Maybe and Hunter were shot at a wider ratio between 15:9 and 16:9 depending on the track.

The average bitrate is a very good 6.15Mb/s, regularly peaking over 7Mb/s but occasionally dropping briefly for the few seconds when each track begins as the title is displayed and the bitrate need not be high at that time to provide a good picture. The disc is not 16:9-enhanced for widescreen televisions as most of the songs are in 4:3. It would have been nice to see the widescreen videos presented in anamorphic format, but they still fare very well. Most of the rest can easily be zoomed into 14:9 or 16:9 on a widescreen TV with little or no detrimental effect.

The sound quality is superb with every song bristling crisp and clear in stereo and/or surround sound. No more to say on this part other than it's faultless.

Extras :

Chapters :

There are 15 chapters, one for each song plus the end credits and the full track listing is as follows :

1. Human Behaviour
2. Venus as a Boy
3. Play Dead
4. Big Time Sensuality (Fluke Re-Mix)
5. Violently Happy
6. Army of Me
7. Isobel
8. It's Oh So Quiet
9. Hyperballad
10. Possibly Maybe
11. I Miss You
12. Joga
13. Bachelorette
14. Hunter
15. End credits

Languages & Lyrics :

All of the songs are sung in English but there are no lyrics which would have been a useful addition as there's many a time when I can't understand what Bjork is on about, even when the vocals are clear.

Menu :

The animated menu contains clips of her promo videos and is easily navigated by the use of some strange symbols which can only be described as ducks.

On inserting the disc, you see the copyright info, a One Little Indian Records logo, the Volumen logo and finally the menu, from which you can select individual tracks or the whole lot from start to finish.

Overall, music videos can tend to get overlooked when it comes to making them available on DVD compared to the number of films available and there's few more artists than Bjork making such visually-stunning images which are worthy of your attention. I'm unsure if a video has been released of the same compilation but it won't have anywhere near the clarity of picture definition of this DVD release.

If I had any complaints it would be that the compilation doesn't include Alexander McQueen's video for Alarm Call (No.33, Dec 98) but then that gives us something to look forward to when Volumen 2 will surely arrive in a few years time. Also there are no extras on the disc when a complete discography, available on the One Little Indian website below, would be most welcome as the artwork on the singles and albums would make a great picture gallery; and the packaging is one of the easily-breakable jewel cases with no 'push here' facility to get the disc out making me think it might break if I wasn't careful.