Oasis: Lord Don't Slow Me Down (2007) Review

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(More customer reviews)In Spring, 2005, Oasis released its 6th studio album "Don't Believe the Truth", and immediately went on the road for what seemed to be a never-ending tour around the world in support of the album. The tour eventually wound up a full year later. This DVD is the chronicle of that tour.
"Lord Don't Slow Me Down" is split up in 2 DCDs. On DVD 1 (105 min.) it brings a documentary of what it's like to be on the road for such a long tour, and if there is one word that I can think of, it's "slug", as in: it's a slug to be touring. The documentary shows the band going from the hotel or the tour bus to yet another airport and another concert venue. The guys play cards a lot, do endless media interviews and other promotions, and generally do a lot of waiting around. Fun is different, it seems to me. The best part here is the 10-15 min. Q&A bonus at the end with Noel, where he takes questions from the audience (not sure where or who), answering questions like what he thinks his most Beatles-esque song is (that would be "All Around the World", according to Noel).
On DVD2 (90 min.), it brings the full show of Oasis' home-coming show in Manchester in July 2005. It sounds great, but the set is heavy on tracks from the mediocre "Don't Believe the Truth" and even worse, the setlist is simply too predictable. With as rich a back-catalogue as Oasis has, surely the band could've uncovered some better songs to play? I saw Oasis twice on this tour, and the setlist was virtually identical. As to the bonus materials, there are 12 clips from fans who were at the show and used their cell phone or digicam to prove it. Not surprisingly, these clips are virtually unwatchable due to the poor sound and/or video quality. In all, "Lord Don't Slow Me Down" is pretty much a letdown for me. If you want to watch Oasis at its best live, I would much rather recommend 1996's "There and Then" concert video, which is miles better than this.

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James - Getting Away with It... Live Review

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(More customer reviews)Like so many bands before them, JAMES were just to damn good for the average, American record-buyer. Musically and lyrically, they are, without a doubt, one of the finest bands of the 90's (though they emerged in the 80's, they really hit their stride in the early 90's).
This concert, in their hometown of Manchester, was taped on the last night of their final tour with lead-singer, Tim Booth. What you will see here is a tremendously talented group of musicians performing highlights from an extremely impressive catalog of songs.
Everyone knows "Laid," but it is some of the other gems here that really are worth checking out. In fact, if tracks like "Say Something," "Sometimes," "Vervaceous," "Out to Get You," "She's a Star," and "Getting Away with It," (too name just six!) fail to shock, amaze and move you all at once, then something is just not right with you (either that or you hit the mute button by accident!).
The bonus features are pretty impressive too! In addition to the videos for "Laid," "Say Something," and "She's a Star," we are treated to an entertaining and informative Behind-the-Music-esque documentary on the band.
As I mentioned, this concert was the emotional farewell to lead singer Tim Booth who left to pursue other interests. His smooth, passionate voice and charismatic stage personality will be sorely missed. As for what happens to the rest of the band, only time will tell. One hopes that a group of musicians this talented can continue on. And in the event they don't, at least we have this DVD to serve as a reminder of just how amazing they were.

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The Morning After The Night Before Review

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(More customer reviews)Whenever I have everything by an artist, and they release a new album, I go back to the beginning and listen to all of their albums in sequential order before formulating a review for their new work. In the case of James, I first heard them when "Laid" was released back in 1993. Since that time I have bought everything they have done, plus gone back and bought all their earlier material. I even bought both Tim Booth albums. After listening to everything and then looking over the few reviews here, I realize James fans are weirdos.
These two eps, "The Morning After" and "The Night Before" are not very different for James. It sounds like James, no better or worse than most of what they have released during their entire career. I don't get these people saying that after "Laid" the band went somewhere else musically. Hardly. Most of their changes actually came before "Laid". After that, the just continued to refine their formula, most of the time succeeding.
I did what "The Night Before" told me to do in the lyric booklet to download the free track "Mother's A Clown", then I spent the last two weeks listening to these eps. I found that reversing the order (i.e. listening to "The Night Before" first, followed by "The Morning After" last, improved my listening experience). Still, there are 16 tracks here, and four could have easily been left off. Those four being "Got The Shakes", "Fear", "Mother's A Clown" and "Shine". Two more tracks that could have been overlooked might be "Dr. Hellier" and "Make For This City", thus making a solid 10 track album.
The best tracks are "Ten Below", "Hero", "Porcupine", "Tell Her I Said So" and "Kaleidoscope".
The sound of both eps is similar to what they have been doing on "Hey Ma" and "Laid" and even "Pleased To Meet You". The band does not so much reinvent the wheel here as they hold steady. I do not believe they have pushed the limits since 1999's "Millionaires" album, merely held steady. They're a great band, highly underrated, experimental, but somehow never achieved greatness and popularity like U2 has.
In essence, the band could have trimmed the fat and released a more solid 10 or 12 track album here instead of two 8 track eps. Here's how "The Morning After The Night Before" compares to their previous work:
1986 Stutter: Two And A Half Stars
1988 Strip-Mine: Two And A Half Stars
1990/1991 Gold Mother/James: Three And A Half Stars
1992 Seven: Five Stars
1993 Laid: Five Stars
1994 Wah Wah: Two And A Half Stars
1996 Booth And The Bad Angel: Three And A Half Stars
1997 Whiplash: Four Stars
1999 Millioniares: Five Stars
2001 Pleased To Meet You: Four Stars
2004 Bone: Four Stars
2008 Hey Ma: Three And A Half Stars
2010 The Morning After The Night Before: Three And A Half Stars

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JAMES have released 10 studio albums, sold more than 12 million albums worldwide, and have had twenty U.K. Top 40 singles. The U.K.-based band are best known in the U.S. for their Brian Eno-produced 1993 album Laid, which resulted in the huge modern rock hit singles "Laid" which went to #3 and "Say Something" (#19) resulting in a top spot on the Billboard 100 Chart and a gold album. Now, JAMES are set to release a two-CD set, The Morning After The Night Before, on September 14 via UMe and embark on an 18-date U.S. tour, their first since the release of 2008's Hey Ma. The tour is set to kick off on September 20 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, and wraps in Los Angeles, CA, on October 13 at the Music Box Theater. The Night Before takes James' knack for uplifting songs about insecurity, disaffection and mental illness to a new level, and The Morning After has an intuitive, low-key "campfire" feel featuring some of the saddest, darkest lyrics Tim Booth has ever come up with. James are: Tim Booth (singer), Jim Glennie (bass), Larry Gott (guitars), Saul Davies (guitar, violin), Mark Hunter (keyboards), David Baynton-Power (drums) and Andy Diagram (trumpet).

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