8 | / 10 |
Users | 3.8 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
7 July 2004 & 17 July 1996 at Auditorium Stravinski, Montreux, Switzerland
Starring: Phil Collins (I)Music | 100% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080i
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
None
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
It may be strange to remember it after all of the hit singles, the ubiquitous music videos, the Grammys, the Oscars and all the other acclaim that has come to Phil Collins through the years, but once he was best known as “that guy who replaced Peter Gabriel in Genesis”. Collins had already racked up considerable performing credits before his days with Genesis, including (believe it or not) a stint as The Artful Dodger in Oliver! (the same role that first brought fame to future Monkee Davy Jones). Collins’ nascent acting career was sidelined by his increasing interest in music, and after a short stint with Flaming Youth, a band that never really captured the brass ring of chart success, Collins answered a low key ad for a drummer and soon found himself hired as part of a new band called Genesis. Collins was often shunted to the background in the early days, relegated to singing backup, though his drumming chops were formidable enough that he was able to parlay them as barter when Brian Eno utilized Collins’ percussion on an album, sans pay, in trade for Eno producing Genesis. When Peter Gabriel decided to leave Genesis to pursue a solo career, many wags opined that it spelled certain doom for the band, and the fact is the band seemed intent on looking elsewhere for a new lead singer, reportedly auditioning hundreds of people before realizing, like Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, that there was no place like figurative “home”, finally settling on Collins. That “settling” turned out to be a major coup, unexpected though it was, and Genesis was suddenly catapulted into worldwide success, especially on American shores, that it had never before experienced. Collins, like Gabriel before him, wanted to pursue a solo career, though unlike Gabriel, he did that in tandem with his Genesis duties. As a result, Collins has attained a rare feat shared only by Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson of having sold more than 100 million albums as both a solo artist and member of a band.
Phil Collins Live at Montreux is presented courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. This is generally a nicely sharp looking high definition presentation, though as seems to be the case with so many of these live concert productions, blue lighting presents problems of banding and posterizing. The bulk of this outing is all about Phil, and the many close-ups catch everything from a Band-Aid on one of his fingers to the perspiration slowly dripping down his face as the night wears on. Removing any lighting issues which sometimes cast strange hues on the proceedings, colors are nicely saturated and accurate appearing.
As is usual for these Eagle Rock live concert releases, three audio options are offered, lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 mixes, and a standard lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. While fidelity is outstanding on the two lossless tracks, there are couple of anomalies that keep them from achieving a higher score. First off, the bass is mixed inordinately high, becoming overwhelming quite a bit of the time. More troublingly, Collins sings with a wireless microphone, and either the signal was not very good or for some reason the mixing engineer decided to mix him so far down that whenever he moves his mouth away from the very tip of the microphone, volume drops off alarmingly and he simply can't be heard. If you can get past these two issues, there's a wealth of excellent sonic activity here, with especially bright and vivid sounding percussion and some great backup vocals. Dynamic range is excellent and despite the mixing and/or technical issues, the music is reproduced with brilliant clarity for the most part.
Phil Collins Big Band Live at Montreux in 1996 (SD; 1:33:39) features more jazz oriented (mostly) instrumental versions of Phil's tunes as well as jazz standards (see the main body of the review above for their set list). That's none other than Mr. Quincy Jones conducting.
Phil Collins Live at Montreux puts the lie to those who claim that Collins' music is paper thin. While it's true that Collins may not push the structural envelope as firmly as his lead vocalist predecessor in Genesis, Peter Gabriel, regularly does, Collins also has an innate ability to craft instantly memorable tunes that often feature gorgeous changes and more often than not rather thoughtful lyrics. This Blu-ray also offers copious evidence of Collins' versatility, first in his guise as a pop-rock superstar with the 2004 concert and perhaps more interestingly as a proto-jazz drummer with a big band conducted by Quincy Jones doing some unusual arrangements of Collins' material along with jazz standards. What's immediately apparent in both of these concerts is how affable Collins seems to be in "real life". He has an ease and simplicity about his performing style which is refreshing in this era of over-hyped music icons, and it's notable that both of these concerts are inarguably about the music, not the glitz. Though there are some niggling issues with both the video and audio on this release, overall there's so much great music here that this release comes Highly recommended.
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