Tori Amos ­ Fade To Red (Music Videos/DTS)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B     Extras: B+     Film: B

 

 

"Over the years, whether it be through stills or moving picture, I have always enjoyed dancing with the devil from that other medium.  Myself and my audio buddies at Martian Studios, with the help of new technologies in the audio world, have been able to bring you these visual pieces of art as they have never been heard or seen before."   - Tori Amos

 

 

Tori Amos established herself as a musical force to be reckoned with in the early 1990’s.  Her music was distinct, powered by raw emotion, quirky personal lyrics, and a style of playing piano that brought classical sensibilities to Pop Rock. She inspired a legion of hardcore fans.  Part of this was due to a series of inspired videos that managed to not only capture her energy and personality but to get fairly regular airplay as well.  Fade To Red collects twenty-one of these on two discs. The thoroughly remastered content is as follows:

 

 

Disc 1:

 

1. Past The Mission

2. Crucify

3. Jackie's Strength

4. A Sorta Fairytale

5. Winter

6. Spark

7. Sleeps With Butterflies

8. Cornflake Girl (US)

9. Hey Jupiter

10. Silent All These Years

 

 

Disc 2:

 

1. Caught a Lite Sneeze

2. 1000 Oceans

3. God

4. Bliss

5. China

6. Raspberry Swirl

7. Talula

8. Sweet The Sting

9. Pretty Good Year

 

Plus Bonus tracks:

 

* Professional Widow (Remixed)

* Cornflake Girl (UK Version)

 

 

The DVD chronicles Amos’s visual and musical progression.  There is detailed commentary for each song provided by Tori, giving insight and historical perspective into the creative process and the music industry.  As an added feature there is a short documentary on the making of A Sorta Fairytale (which costars Adrian Brody) to go with the bonus tracks and Amos doing audio commentary tracks on each and every clip.

 

As for the performance of the DVD itself where the Videos are concerned, the picture quality is pretty good for the most part, but most of the clips are 1.33 X 1 and are only so sharp and clear.  However, they are about as good as they could look in the DVD format.  The sound is even better, remixed from the music masters in PCM 2.0 Stereo and especially impressive DTS 5.1 sound.  This is a trend with such collections from major such artists and one we can only hope continues.  And give or take vinyl, this makes this set the highest fidelity playback you can get of her work to date.

 

 

-   Wayne Wise

 

 

Wayne Wise is a native of Southwestern Pennsylvania currently residing in Pittsburgh.  He has earned a Masters degree in clinical psychology and undergraduate degrees in psychology and history.  He has worked as a freelance journalist for over ten years.  In 1993, he co-created a comic book called Grey Legacy.  In 2002 his first novel, King of Summer, was published.  You can go to www.wayne-wise.com and learn more.