[.ca] Massive Attack: Eleven Promos

i'd rather not enter a title for this preview.:
awesome. that's what i'm talking about, a DVD for the price of an audio CD. times are a-changin' there are a number of videos themselves that are well worth watching, although some tracks are better than the accompanying video!

My Mind is Upside Down!:
This is a nearly perfect music-DVD. The videos (the good ones) are top notch. They will continue to bring you back for more viewings. There are, however, very dissapointing things on this DVD. The actual DVD menu is absolutely sparse and pretty bad. And the first four or five videos you can forget about - one of which is pretty much soft-core porn (seems bizarre and stupid). Disregarding those minor draw-backs the remaining videos shine! If it were not for the bad things mentioned above this would easily be five stars. Some videos are genious - they are simply works of art created around songs that are works of art unto themselves. This DVD is no question worth the price - i could watch the videos of Angel, Teardrop, Inertia Creeps, or Karmacoma at least ten more times. I can also imagine this as a backdrop for a chill-out time with your friends THOUGHT PROVOKING, INTERESTING, TWISTED, BUT SOMETIMES UTTERLY STUPID. (sorry if i'm being too harsh)

Massive flashbacks...:
In 1991 I was fortunate to be a vocalist for a band and we opened for Massive Attack during their first US tour supporting Blue Lines. They didn't bring Shara Nelson and their stage show wasn't quite worked out yet but they had 3 videos on VHS that they were handing out. The VHS has been long lost so to get this DVD is a flash from the past for me. But some of their later videos (circa 1998) I couldn't quite get into as much. Too much focus on 3-D in the camera. But still it is cool to have this DVD and travel down memory lane.....

Great Videos MONO SOUNDTRACK:
I was pretty disappointed with the DVD's sound. I have not a problem if the band decided to release the videos in mono, but somebody along the way forgot to inform the customers about this decision, and the disc itself has printed "LPCM Stereo" on it. That is the ONLY problem I have with the soundtrack. I don't ask for 5.1 sound, simply because 90% of music DVD's with 5.1 are "faux", in other words, echo and reverb added on the surrounds, which results in horrible sound imaging. Much better off with PCM Stereo and using your amplifier's Dolby Prologic II if you can. Why am I disappointed? Well, I don't recall if the videos were in stereo when I watched them on TV, but if they were, which I highly think the case, then a mono soundtrack doesn't hold true to the original video as it was conceived. Anyway, still a collection of great videos from some amazing directors like Gondry and Sednaoui. Recommended

For the Value - It's Worth it!:
I seem to buy a lot of DVDs with videos on them, and I could not pass up these 11 promo videos from Massive Attack. It's like a GREATEST HITS or SINGLES package, so it should please the casual as well as obsessive fan. Songs go chronilogically in order throughout the disc. There are no extras - just eleven videos in stereo with no bells or whistles. But most of these don't need explaining. The good part is that you have many guest vocalists near the end - Tracy Thorne of EBTG, and Tricky to name two. So it seems to lend itself to parties or bar settings! Video quality is fine, though on widescreen televisions you may see some funky aspect ratios. This is built for squares! It's only in 2.0 stereo, but so were the singles. Wish more bands would release their videos this way!