| ||||||||||||||||||||||
MALL.ShopperFavorites.com
Best Prices
Shopper Favorites Web Search |
DVD : Time Again: Amy Grant Live All Access |
- Great listening, bad viewingAfter having been a fan of Amy Grants since the early 1980's, I enjoy every one of her songs. The acoustics at this hall were outstanding. The background and stage scene were very conducive to what her goal was, an intimate stage setting. But everytime there was a beat to her song, the cameras switched scenes every second and was very distracting. I also wanted to jump on stage and pull her hair back (it covered her right eye the whole time except one song).
Rating:
- Great concert, performances, recording and mix!What a great concert! The band is super tight and are really enjoying doing this. Amy Grant fans will appreciate this for the performance, songs and retrospect, but will also be pleasantly rewarded with crispy-clear digital sound and video that will satisfy the home theater enthusiast: excellent recording and mix, with every musician and instrument individually and clearly detailed in a large sound stage of 5.1 surround. The video editing and fast camera shots are obviously not appreciated by everyone, but I found them interesting. Lots different angles of the whole band and stage which is in keeping with current trends for live concert video editing. Looking into the audience, you can see a broad range of ages which reflects the depth of Amy Grant's career and continuing success.
Rating:
- Great DVD with Excellent Commentary from GrantTo my knowledge, the only prior video of an Amy Grant concert was one from her 1983 Age to Age encore tour. While it once was available on VHS, it has never been released on DVD. Consequently, the Time Again ... Live DVD is appreciated for giving us not only a DVD of a Grant concert, but a Grant concert on video more recent than 1983!
I have already reviewed the Time Again ... Live CD elsewhere on Amazon.com and will not repeat those thoughts here. The DVD is very good; in addition to providing six songs not on the CD (although one song from the CD, "Believe," strangely is missing here), it includes a few chats that Amy gives between songs. Consequently, the DVD on the whole provides a more complete concert experience than the CD.
There are two standouts on the DVD. The first involves Amy's story of encountering a homeless man in California and talking with him for two-and-a-half hours. That experience led her to write "Carry You" ... or so the editing of the video makes you think. But if you listen to Amy Grant's revealing commentary, it actually led her to write "Turn This World Around," off of 1997's Behind the Eyes. (The latter song was left off this video. It makes you wonder what other songs might not have made the cut.) The second highlight is Amy's closing rendition of Jimmy Webb's "If These Walls Could Speak," a moving, less remembered track off of Lead Me On.
The quick cuts and zooms on this video, while deplored by many reviewers, are in keeping with the times and attention spans of Americans who grew up in the video age. It is nice to see the work of several different camera operators getting used from time to time; if you're going to employ them, you might as well use what they've done! The director and editor also know when to switch to one camera, as when Grant performs songs on her sofa. Some artistic decisions were made here that are not bad ones, although I can understand why some people would be irritated by them. And if you listen to Amy's commentary, you'll find that neither the director nor the editor is to blame for this feature, but Amy herself. She felt that because she rarely moves around while performing, the video needed extra motion and additional camera shots to keep it interesting. (She also wanted to see additional facial shots of her band.)
The "special features," including band interviews and a promotional spot with Amy before one of her two Fort Worth concerts, mostly are just serviceable. The one exception is Amy's insightful, sometimes humorous, and generally emotional commentary track. For someone who claims she had never even listened to a DVD commentary track before doing this commentary, she does a great job. She tells some truly interesting stories about the creation of some of the songs and about life in general. Most of these stories, I believe, have not been related in print. But most of all, her warm, engaging personality comes through strongly.
Of course, the real reason to get this DVD is the concert, which apparently is a mixture of performances from the two Fort Worth shows. It is somewhat disappointing that we got a selection of songs from those two evenings instead of a complete concert. Still, unless you listen to the commentary track, you'll probably never suspect that, unless the relatively short (1 hr. 45 min.) running time makes you wonder (as it did me.) The DVD is worth the money if you want to see a very good Amy Grant concert, and if you're enough of a fan to appreciate her excellent commentary.
Rating:
- sub-parLooks to me like "Cathy E" is the only reviewer here who looked at this objectively. The editing on this is a total disaster! It *almost*, as Cathy E said, resembles a hard rock concert, except that, in this case, it even lacks the visual rhythm that most hard rock concerts would have. Digital zooms and pans are used, apparently just because someone was enjoying the new editing toy.
The sound is nowhere near what DVD is capable of either. And, as compared to the times I've heard Amy live, this performance borders on lifeless. Unless you're a diehard Amy completist, I really think you should try to find a rental to look at before you decide if you want to buy.
Rating:
- Terrific Album / Disappointing EdiitingAll the comments are accurate that I've read. This is an outstanding album & performance by Amy Grant. I listen to it over and over. The editing is disappointing. Too many camera angles too often. Would have rather had less transitions between performers. Still, it is not as bad as some rock concert DVD's I've seen (ie All Garth Brooks DVDs) so I'll only say it is disappointing.
MALL.ShopperFavorites.com
|