Music Reviews

The Velvet Underground: "one of the most unique bands of the 1960s." Syd Barrett: "one of the most unique talents to surface from the 1960s underground music scene." Kate Bush: "one of the most unique artists in British musical history." Queen: "perhaps the most unique band in the history of rock music." Such is the slant of your opening line of narration when you're the affiliated outfits Chrome Dreams and Sexy Intellectual (!) and you're cranking out the critical-bio DVD series Under Review a bit too fast. Still, two of these eight titles (all available here from Music Video Distributors) are excellent: the Velvets and Captain Beefheart, primarily because they include input from band members. Which is why the standard-bearer for this sort of thing remains Eagle Vision's DVD-from-TV series of Classic Albums. The latest entries are typically fascinating: Cream's Disraeli Gears, with clinics by all three players, and Queen's A Night at the Opera, with Brian May and Roger Taylor. But what's this? "The Prophet's Song" filed as an extra? Bismillah, no!

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