Heart – Night At Sky Church (2010/Sony Legacy Blu-ray) + Rewind: Depeche Mode – 30 Years At The Edge (Chrome Dreams/MVD DVD Set) + Whatever Happened To Pink Floyd?

Heart – Night At Sky Church (2010/Sony Legacy Blu-ray) + Rewind: Depeche Mode – 30 Years At The Edge (Chrome Dreams/MVD DVD Set) + Whatever Happened To Pink Floyd? – The Strange Case Of Waters & Gilmour (Chrome Dreams/MVD DVD)

Picture: B-/C+/C+ Sound: B/C+/C+ Extras: C Main Programs: B-/B/B

This time, we look at three bands with long term success in Rock music and then some…

Heart – Night At Sky Church (2010) is the third High Definition release for Ann & Nancy Wilson and it is as good as the preceding Blu-rays, as these links will show:

Alive In Seattle

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7200/Chicago+and+Earth,+Wind+&+Fire+%

Dreamboat Annie Live 2007

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7990/Heart+%E2%80%93+Dreamboat+Anni

I have has mixed feelings about the band. I liked their early work in the 1970s, then though their commercial success in the 1980s kept them going, I thought the songs ranged from Pop to silly (All I Want To Do Is Make Love To You). However, it turns out that with each concert, they have been slowly getting their edge back. This is the best of them to date. Songs include:

1) Barracuda

2) Never
3) Straight On
4) Love Alive
5) Mistral Wind
6) WTF
7) Hey You
8) Red Velvet Car
9) These Dreams (with Allison Krause singing lead)
10) Safronia’s Mark (with Allison Krause and Ben Mink)
11) Your Long Journey (with Allison Krause and Ben Mink)
12) What About Love
13) Alone
14) Crazy On You
15) Sand
16) Magic Man

Even without Krause and Mink, this is simply a really good show and Ann is still belting out the hits and then some with new phrasing and approaches that keeps the songs fresh and fun. This is a real Rock band and their chemistry simply works better here than on the other shows. Krause does a great job on These Dreams and I definitely recommend Night At Sky Church for those who like the band and this kind of music.

The 1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image does not have the motion blur that many HD-shot concerts and events have had, but there is more than a few soft shots throughout, yet color is good and I was really able to enjoy this. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 48/24 5.1 mix is even stronger with a fine soundfield delivering the music and not in just an ambient fill-the-surround-speakers way. This is nicely recorded and presented and is also offered in PCM 2.0 48/24 Stereo and Dolby Digital 640 kbps 5.1 mixes that are not as dynamic, but as good as can be expected. The only extras are the bonus tracks Back To Avalon and Kick It Out.

And now for some music documentaries…

It has been a while since we covered anything from Depeche Mode, but the ever-underrated band is the subject of a pairing of two older programs in the new Rewind: Depeche Mode – 30 Years At The Edge DVD Set. We previously looked at two titles from the band, including:

One Night In Paris

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/90/Depeche+Mode:+One+Night+In+Paris

Violator DVD/CD Set/U.S. Edition

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3949/Depeche+Mode+%E2%80%93+Violato

This set is composed of the outstanding documentary The Dark Progression and an older fan-aimed piece called School Days that both offer origins and histories of the band, but Progression is the more complex, smarter and more far reaching of the two including in its richness of video clips, film clips, licensed music and a superior knowledge of music history and how the band’s arrival coincided with some events that worked to their favor. Both are fun to watch, but Progression is the one to begin with, though Days has some clips the other does not, so big fans and completists will be happy.

While Days is at the tail end of their first wave of success, Progression shows how they continued to make vital, interesting music and not allow themselves to become a nostalgia band. It also made me feel they had some more classic sin them, so we’ll see how that works out.

Both are in 1.33 X 1 presentations, but Progression has more letterboxed footage and some extras (bios of contributors, an extra video clip) and both also sport Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound, but Progression is sonically superior and this also includes audio to videos from Gary Numan, New Order and Kraftwerk.

And finally there is Pink Floyd, the subject of another excellent program called Whatever Happened To Pink Floyd? – The Strange Case Of Waters & Gilmour that comes from the same people who made the must-see Syd Barrett – Under Review, which we covered at this link:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3529/Syd+Barrett+-+Under+Review

For those unfamiliar with the band, try these links as well:

Piper At The Gates Of Dawn CD Set/Syd Barrett Story DVD

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6252/Pink+Floyd+%E2%80%93+The+Piper

Classic Albums: Dark Side Of The Moon

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/470/Classic+Albums+-+Dark+Side+Of+The

This new program fits perfectly after those, picking up as the band follows up Moon with Animals, then runs to the end of their careers as the original band in a final 2005 concert. These final years are not always addressed in any sense, but the program is brutally honest about what happened with The Wall (Roger Waters takes over and it takes a toll on the band, unhappy with the feature film version too), The Final Cut (Waters continues to dominate and makes his most overtly political statements ever going after The Margaret Thatcher Era and how he sees it as backwards as the worst direction for Britain & the world), Momentary Lapse Of Reason (David Gilmour takes over the band and calls in everyone he can to make the album work, resulting in a critically criticized hit that stops the band from becoming a nostalgia act) and The Division Bell (Gilmour comes up with his own most realized album with the band reflecting on the whole band’s journey since Barrett started with them).

Without oversimplifying a fine program, this is even more detailed and is the first program of any kind to finally give closure to the long journey of a band that survived for over four decades in one form or another that still retained a sense of the original band. Water and Gilmour might still work together and that would make for a very promising collaboration after seeing the closure here.

The 1.33 X 1 presentation has some letterboxed footage and some extras (bios of contributors, an extra video clip) and a solid Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix that tends to be better on DVDs from this great music series than most. It too is highly recommended.

For more on the Floyd member’s solo projects, try these links:

Gilmour’s Remember That Night Blu-ray Set

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6794/David+Gilmour+%E2%80%93+Remem

Gilmour’s Live In Gdansk DVD/CD Set

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/7816/David+Gilmour+%E2%80%93+Live+In

Waters’ Ca Ira Super Audio CD/DVD Video set

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9141/Roger+Waters+%E2%80%93+Ca+Ira

- Nicholas Sheffo