Review of Brit Awards 2001: The DVD Of The Year

Introduction

Every year the British music industry gets together to shower awards on the bestselling (not necessarily best) artists of the year. In addition to the awards ceremony itself (which has never been more entertaining than when Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood made idiots of themselves), we are always subjected to the merchandising opportunities. The magazines, CDs and videos. This year, for the first time, a DVD has been released to complement the other material.

While I am cynical about the awards and, for that matter, the current music scene (getting old, I guess), I buy the Brits video collections religiously. There`s usually some good stuff and I like the thought of having neat snapshots of the state of pop for each year.

This year I bought the DVD instead of the video. On with the show.

Video

As you might expect, the video quality is variable. All are framed at 4:3 and, for some videos, the quality is very good. Examples are the Lene Marlin and Kylie Minogue. For others, like the Kelis video, the image is soft and grainy. The David Gray video is, of course, intentionally grainy.

Overall a mixed bag and overall better than you could expect from the companion VHS.

As for the imagery itself, you don`t expect to see the cutting edge of the music video art of a Brits compilation but some of this is actually pretty good.

The Moloko video (The Time Is Now) uses slow motion to good effect. The Kelis (Caught Out There) is suitably edgy and Ronan Keating (Life Is A Rollercoaster) is almost endearingly naff.

The highlights have to be the David Gray video for Babylon which captures the mood of the song perfectly and, erm, well the Kylie video (Spinning Around). Yes, I`m sorry. I know she`s naff but the video still holds a certain fascination.

Moving swiftly along.

Audio

Unlike the video, the audio quality is consistent throught the DVD. Consistently bad.

The PCM stereo mix is soft and muddy. There is little detail in either top or botom end and the result is a soggy mess.

This is very disappointing for a music video. I cannot imagine that the VHS version is any worse.

This is galling because there are some great songs on the disc. David Gray`s Babylon has to be the song of 2000. Coldplay`s Yellow isn`t far behind. U2 is back on form with Beautiful Day. And Lene Marlin`s Sitting Down Here is rather sweet.

Sure, there`s the usual girl/boyband crap and Sade`s By Your Side was a massive disappointment (Whiter Shade of Pale rip-off) but this is DVD. Just hit the Next Track button. Big advantage over VHS.

Features

The case has the gall to list some features. Take my word for it, there aren`t any worth your time. The Artist Notes are the same dull tripe that is printed on the inlay.

Conclusion

From a content point of view, you get exactly what you expect; 25 videos of varying quality. Video quality is variable and sound quality is poor.

If you want a video souvenir of 2000 pop, this is as good as any.