Category — DVD Review

Shakira has been in the industry for over a decade so you may wonder whether she can add something new to her fourth live DVD. My worries were unfounded as the latest Live From Paris DVD is a combination of the reassuringly familiar with the new and inventive.

Filmed over two nights in Paris last June, it has some great highlights, notably the stunning, theatrical acoustic set comprising a cover of Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters/ Despedida. The Latin pop siren continues to deliver excellent new performances of songs like She Wolf, Loca, and Gordita, in addition to earlier classics such as Hips Don’t Lie, La Tortura and Osos Asi.

Shakira humbly reaches out to her fans throughout the entire night and is completely devout to her audience. Her performances shatter her stereotype as a “hip shaker”. Although the stage set up was simple, Shakira was and continues to be the firework that work the crowd. For anyone who doesn’t already know, compared to the other female performers with whom she’s often bracketed by the media, Shakira has a great voice, a natural dancer’s agility and grace that generally put the competition in the shade.

Her last words on the concert recordings are “a la prochaine” (until the next time), so I’m looking forward to her next tour and DVD.

At first glance, it seems Beyonce is going to sing lots of songs on the Live at Roseland: Elements of 4 DVD. Technically, the Destiny’s Child and her older solo hits are sung as listed in the first half. But here’s the catch – most of them lasted between 20 seconds to a minute, with lots of banter and video footage intertwined in between.

The scene that pulled at my heartstrings was where she was shown hugging a young fan during Irreplaceable where she did not do a single note of it (but that’s not the point). He is one of her biggest fans and appeared to be younger than 13. Things became even more sentimental and touching when Beyonce gently suggested that he sing the song.

The second half features tracks from 4 where in contrast to the first half, songs were performed in full. The familiar Beyonce kicks in full throttle here – her All Girl band is off the chain, Bey’s voice is out of this world and her dancing is straight up outrageous and unreal. Oh, but what’s even more impressive is that she was 5 months pregnant! My favorite performances were Run The World, Rather Die Young, and End of Time. The ballads are amazingly performed with intimacy and the up-tempos feature an amazing set of lights to complete the well-known Beyonce choreography style. The R&B queen is such a dynamic performer and everything she does, she puts more heart and soul in it. She is one of few artists who allows her fans to journey with her through her most memorable experiences and I, as a non-fan, appreciate that.

Can Beyonce do no wrong these days? I truly believe she should give a course on how to do a live show and her first student should be Rihanna. This concert DVD proves her staying power, talent, and vocal ability.

I’ll admit, I’ve been a Britney Spears fan since my secondary school days when I saw her prance around in that school-girl outfit. However, as a performer, she’s slipped and fallen …. HARD.

Britney manages to improve upon her Circus Tour by actually mingling with the audience on the Femme Fatale Tour, which let’s face it, she barely did at all the last time around. The bummer here is that she’s still not putting much effort into the dancing, and the lip-syncing is just getting more and more embarrassing. In a world where Lady GaGa and Adele are both live singers, and selling out shows, the stakes are high, and Britney is missing the mark. To be honest, the fact that the princess of pop lip-syncs doesn’t offend me – because we know that’s the norm. It’s the fact that these supposed live tracks are literally ripped off from the album, and are obviously fake. Most pop stars use a live backing track if they can’t sing live but Britney (obviously) didn’t take the time to even pre-record those live vocals.

That aside, Britney is a great burst of energy on stage and always been fun to watch. When I finally got passed the obvious lip-synching, the final song, Till The World Ends, had me putting my hands in the air, going WOAH OH OH OH OH OH!

If you are a Britney fan, you will love this DVD. If not, then leave negative comments aside and walk away. The Britney that people watch and observe today is no where near the Britney that people fell in love with 10 years ago.

When I first heard of Taylor Swift, my initial reaction was repulsion. I wasn’t a country fan, and her association with the genre never really allowed me to give her a chance. Then, being forced to listen to her on the radio, her catchy tunes actually had feeling, innocence, and truth to them.

Unfortunately, I did not manage to catch the country princess’ performance when she kicked off the Speak Now World Tour in Singapore, so this is a great subsitute of sorts.

All I can say is WOW! What a fantastic production, and I do mean production. This was more like watching a Broadway production than just going to see a concert. If you’ve ever seen Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless, you’ll know that T-Swizzle is an extremely hard-working, talented, caring person, and the same is shown in this DVD. The video is put together as if it is all one concert. It is very hard to tell that the songs were recorded from different venues. While her vocals are not always great live, I still find this live album to be really good. In most songs, especially her covers, she sounds great live. Her best ones are her covers – Drops of Jupiter was excellent and my favorite one. Aside from her covers, Last Kiss is probably the best vocally. The worst vocally is probably Enchanted, although that’s one of her best studio recordings.

I recommend this release to anyone who isn’t caught up on searching “perfect live vocal” and just wants to sit back and wave their hands back and forth, shrieking like a little girl.

I’ve seen Lady Gaga performed twice in Singapore (both times during The Fame era) and figured The Monster Ball Tour DVD was the next best thing.

Lady Gaga is a great talent. She’s passionate and plays her own instruments. Her schtick is that you can be whoever you want to be. That was shoved down our throats through the entire concert as she released screaming sermon’s to the audience. I enjoy the eccentric singer’s music and her passion but sometimes she gets too “preachy” for her causes. I wanted to see her perform NOT listen to a sermon.

The odd fashion choices and other dichotomous behavior aside, this collection shows Lady Gaga musically pouring her heart out in the songs with compelling artistic effect. This woman can really perform both upbeat dancey numbers that she is known for and also excels at the piano. Born This Way was particularly impressive and I heart So Happy I Could Die. Many of the ‘between song’ segments feature black & white behind-the-scene costume change footage and some were obviously staged (Lady Gaga breaking down in tears “knowingly” in front of the camera and proceeds to tell her make up artist/ hair stylist how she can’t believe she’s playing at Madison Square Garden in New York City) which I’d have put at the end of the chapter rather than the beginning so you can more easily skip them. Paparazzi was the only personal minor disappointment as I absolutely love the sensuality of the mirror mask thing she used to do but at least the flaming bra is still part of her dress list, now paired with flaming knickers too!

I wasn’t expecting the magic of the live show to come across on TV but it actually did! Mother Monster is incredibly talented and will have a long career in any kind of music she chooses whether it be pop or jazz.

I didn’t want to post this video. I want you guys to buy the DVD. On second thoughts, I feel I need to prove my point. So here it is – one of the electrifying performances on the DVD. The fans were super AWESOME too.

oh oh ohoh oh oh oooah
oh oh ohoh oh oh oooah
oh oh ohoh oh oh oooah
oh oh ohoh oh oh oooah

I am not a fan. I am a victim.

Guess what? To conclude the mourning period (and actually to stop thinking of it already), I figured rocking at home with them is the next best thing – The Killers: Live from the Royal Albert Hall DVD.

This will actually be the 2nd time I’m watching the DVD. That’s a feat considering I usually don’t recycle my DVDs. I just don’t get why do people need to watch the same concert more than once on DVDs? Isn’t it the same? I would rather put the album on repeat mode on my iPod.

That said, the Las Vegas band is totally ROCKTACULAR in this concert! The slick concert has such a tight production that there isn’t a take-a-toilet-break moment during the entire 22-song setlist. This is one of the few DVD concerts where I actually get goosebumps whenever I watch it on TV. I must say Brandon Flowers is one of the most charismatic lead singers to come around in a long time; he’s a true Rock Star.

The Killers: Live from the Royal Albert Hall concert is, in one word, EPIC.

Edit on 31 Jan:

I have been getting lots of tweets and DMs regarding the DVD since this last post…. HELL YEAH! You guys can bet on it that it will be a good buy! Your favourite song will change every time you watch this masterpiece. And to top it all, the DVD comes with a bonus live CD as well. Awesome performances! Great value!