Review of Alison Moyet: The Essential Alison Moyet

Introduction

I remember fondly a holiday to the Greek island of Rhodes when I was in my mid teens. Mainly because I bought my very first vinyl albums there. At the time Greece had its own pressing plants, and a tape or LP could be bought for under £2. What`s all this got to do with the best of Alison Moyet I hear you cry...

...Well the first albums I bought were the Ghostbusters OST, don`t laugh it`s great, and Alison Moyets first album. I played them both non stop for six months but it was Alison who gave me the greatest pleasure, Oooo er missus. I had been a big fan of Yazoo and was very interested to see what direction her solo career would take and was delighted by her first chart entries such as Love Resurrection and Weak in the Presence of Beauty. I followed her career all the way to present day. Bought every album that came out and have attended many of her concerts. And now the best of her hits along with their videos have made it to DVD. Could this be an Alison Moyets fans biggest dream...

Video

Adequate is the word I`d use to describe it. To be fair these are music videos, some old some new, and don`t have to be of extremely high quality to be enjoyed. Most of the older vids have an inherent grain while the newer tracks are sharper and much more vivid. There is a tad too much macro blocking on all the videos mainly on areas of solid colours but no colour bleed or bad haloing on the bright whites. It`s presented in a standard 1.33:1 ratio.

Audio

Again the mix varies depending on the age of the track. The older tracks have a little hiss but all are very strident. It`s the newer songs that sound the best with some great DD 5.1 mixing but unfortunately these are not some of Alison`s better work. You can choose standard stereo or DD 5.1 for all the tracks which is still good to see that the producers have made the effort and the new digital surround formats do add a new depth to old classics.

Features

There`s a photo gallery and 2 extra bonus tracks. A commentary would have been nice specially on the two videos featuring French & Saunders.

Conclusion

A nice neet package that sounds good and looks good. It`s worth having for the hilarious Love Letters video that features French & Saunders in their pyjamas and the Whispering Your Name video that has just Dawn French kissing Alison.