Review of Sugababes: Overloaded - The Singles Collection

Introduction

Having been used to reviewing discs starring muscle-bound men, it was a nice surprise to be offered up something more delectable, in this Sugababes video collection. The problem is, I`m not much of a pop music enthusiast, and the only time that I listen to music radio is when The Other Half (yes, capital letters required) changes the channel from talkSPORT whilst in the car.

So I had a little help in reviewing this title, which compliments the CD release of the same name. I`ll review the technical details, I thought, she can tell me if it is actually any good!

For those of you who`ve only heard of the band in passing - surely there cannot be anyone who hasn`t heard of them at all?! - the band currently comprise Keisha Buchanan (the only constant member of the group since their 1998 debut), Heidi Range (who joined in 2001), and the tongue-twisting Amelle Berrabah (who joined in 2005). Previous members Siobhán Donaghy and Mutya Buena have gone on to have solo careers.

Named the greatest female act of the century by Guinness World Records, the band have to date sold over 2.7m albums, and 1.8m singles in the UK alone. The have also recorded three number one singles.

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen PAL, and is very good for a DVD of this genre. As you would expect of post-1998 source material, it`s all pretty spotless on this dual-layer disc. I`m sure that the videos look fantastic on digital TV, but there`s no question that they`ve never looked better than they do here.

Audio

Interestingly, there are three different audio tracks available for consumption here. The default track is the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. It is very good, with the surround channels used plentifully yet sensibly, mainly providing background vocals and the "underneath" instruments that give flavour to the song. The subwoofer gets an excellent workout from this track, too.

The DTS mix is somewhat different, but is of a similar high standard. It is noticeably louder than the Dolby Digital track, and is much more aggressive. The DD track is relatively subtle - excluding the thumping bass - but here, the whole track threatens to bounce the listener around the room. The surround channels are used equally effectively, and I found several instances in which the DTS outperforms its 5.1 counterpart, such as in the beautifully-vivid background vocals on "Stronger".

The final track available here is a Dolby Digital 2.0 offering, which is very disappointing, especially after listening to the 5.1 mixes. I note that it is encoded in 2.0, which means it suffers from some loss, and likely does not reach even the standards of regular CD. It sounds flat and, in fact, I`m sure that the CD release sounds significantly better.

If you insist, picking out the best audio option is a tough call. If you want to turn your front room into a nightclub, turn up the DTS. If you like things just a shade less heavy, opt for the DD track.

Features

The only extra on this disc would appear to be an excellent one, a karaoke track (DD 2.0) with subtitled lyrics to sing along to. However, the first thing to note is that this is actually a totally separate video track from the other vocals-included videos, with the subtitles burned into the image. The significance of that is, you cannot activate the subtitles on any of the other audio tracks, nor change from karaoke to original audio without going through the menu first.

There is also some confusion in the first track of this karaoke set, "Freak Like Me". It has the vocals in tact, whereas on the remainder of the tracks, the only vocals to be heard are background vocals, as you would expect from a karaoke mix. It seems like someone forgot to remix the first track.

When I first realised that the vocals had been removed for the rest of the tracks, I thought that that would be considered a good thing. However, The Other Half said that she would have preferred to sing along to the original track, with subtitles (which of course can`t be done for the aforementioned reason). Each to their own, I guess, but I would have thought that this defeated the purpose of karaoke.

In any case, it`s a big problem for this disc that the viewer doesn`t have the choice. Surely it took more effort to burn the subtitles into a new video track, thus requiring a dual-layer release, than it would have done to provide optional subtitles, adding the extra track to the original three?

Conclusion

As with virtually all music DVDs, its quality is in the eye of the beholder. As someone not familiar with this music, I found this to be your average pop music fare, with no particular vocal excellence, nor anything that hasn`t been done better by the likes of Kylie Minogue. Mrs Elliott, however, enjoyed both the music and the videos - aside from the sharply-cut video to "In The Middle".

With a good-looking video transfer, and some excellent audio options (to have DD and DTS was a nice surprise), this DVD`s problems are only in its authoring. Indeed, there is another frustrating issue in the "Play All" feature of the DVD, as the skip function has been disabled, meaning that in order to move to the next track, you either have to return to the main menu and select it, or fast-forward. This is simply bad DVD authoring, no excuses.

Overall then, a mixed release, but one that Sugababes fans aren`t going to want to be without. They, no doubt, will be able to ignore the DVD`s glaring annoyances. Others will be rather off-put.