Capitol presents

Kylie Fever 2002 (Live In Manchester) (2002)

"I just can't get you out of my head..."- lyric from Can't Get You Out Of My Head

Stars: Kylie Minogue
Other Stars: DJ Ziggy, Pia Driver, Patti Hines, Milena Mancini, Alec Mann, Jason Piper, Adam Pudney, Emma Ribbing, Alicia Herrero, Simon, Andile E Sotiva, Melanie Teall, Rod Buchanan, Andrew Small, Steve Turner, Chris Brown, James Hayto, Lurine Cato, Sherina White
Director: William Baker, Alan MacDonald

MPAA Rating: Not Rated for (nothing objectionable)
Run Time: 01h:48m:02s
Release Date: 2002-11-19
Genre: music

Style Grade	Substance Grade	Image Transfer Grade	Audio Transfer Grade	Extras Grade
A-	C+	A-	B	B-

 

DVD Review

For the uninformed, Kylie Minogue is an Australian pop star/model hybrid who has achieved unprecedented megastar success in her homeland, as well as in Europe. She charted in the States in the late 1980s with a cover of Locomotion (back when she was in her "cute Kylie" phase) that MTV played incessantly, but she hasn't achieved the same level of iconic fervor in this country that she has elsewhere in the world. To the casual observer, her musical packaging will likely have the anonymous consistency of any of the legion of image-conscious pop dance queens, from Madonna to Britney, and any other fabricated singers in between.

This DVD release from Capitol captures her 2002 Kylie Fever tour during a stop in Manchester, England, and it is one of those excessively expansive high-tech stage shows that are a numbing explosion of kinetic lights and visuals, wrapped around Minogue's alleged greatest hits. The show itself is themed, and is divided into seven sections (Silvanemesis, Droogie Nights, The Crying Game, Street Style, Sex In Venice, Cybertronica, Voodoo Inferno) and each is meant to showcase a different "character" of Minogue's career, which range from her being a Metropolis-esque robot queen to dominatrix to A Clockwork Orange dancer to sexy nightie clad vixen to innocent pop siren. Understandably, there are plenty of costume changes to correspond to each segment, and she is seemingly always rising out of the floor somewhere bathed in fog.

To me it seemed that Minogue moved through all of her songs with the same helping of detached emotion, though the crowd didn't seem to mind much. The show and its visuals are truly impressive and sometimes overbearing, and from her emergence from within a robotic shell during the opening Come Into My World it is clear that she has become simply a marketing fixture, and not a singer.

I remember her from her Locomotion days, and in the subsequent years I've been vaguely aware of her overseas star power, but I had never heard any of her music. I would occasionally see a scantily-clad photo of her from some Australian concert tour, and I would think to myself "Wow, Kylie Minogue is still around?" Oddly, Minogue seems to want to distance herself from her perky Locomotion days, because on this tour she disassembles that hit into a sexy, bump-and-grind number that is layered in visuals that look like a cross between a Victoria's Secret commercial and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

I'm not a fan of her music, but the tightly scripted and choreographed live show on this disc is certainly never dull (though remarkably emotionless) or hard on the eyes, and the silly futuristic excess seems to fit with her carefully developed and marketed personas.

Set list:
Come Into My World
Shocked
Love At First Sight
Fever
Spinning Around
The Crying Game (Ballads Section)
GBI
Confide In Me
Cowboy Style
Kids
On A Night Like This
Locomotion
In Your Eyes (Latin Section)
Limbo
Light Years/I Feel Love
Lucky
Burning Up
Better The Devil You Know
Can't Get Blue Monday Out Of My Head


Rating for Style: A-
Rating for Substance: C+

 

Image Transfer

	One
Aspect Ratio	1.85:1 - Widescreen
Original Aspect Ratio	yes
Anamorphic	yes

Image Transfer Review: This 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen print of Minogue's Manchester concert looks fantastic, and I have to think it probably looks better than even if you saw the tour live. Image detail is razor sharp, and the bright colors of the various costumes really look stunning, as do Minogue's often exposed fleshtones. Grain is a virtual no-show, with contrast and black levels being dead on, too. Though I'm not a fan of her music, I have to confess that this disc looks simply excellent, and in terms of concerts on DVD, this is one of the best looking ones I've seen.

Gorgeous.

Image Transfer Grade: A-
 

Audio Transfer

	Language	Remote Access
DS 2.0	English	yes
Dolby Digital 5.1	English	yes

Audio Transfer Review: Unfortunately the audio portion of this disc is not nearly as eye-popping as the image transfer, but it is still a good one. Presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround, this is a fairly aggressively mixed concert, and it incorporates directionality and the rear channels often, and for more than just simple crowd noise. Lyrics are easy to decipher (especially for someone like me who hadn't heard 95% of her material before), and there is noticeable instrument separation during most of the songs.

A 2.0 surround track, which makes significantly less use of the rear channels, is also provided.

Audio Transfer Grade: B 

Disc Extras

Animated menu with music
Scene Access with 19 cues and remote access
Music/Song Access with 19 cues and remote access
1 Documentaries
Weblink/DVD-ROM Material
Packaging: Amaray
Picture Disc
1 Disc
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: dual

Extra Extras:

1. Digital Programme
2. Projections

Extras Review: A documentary (34m:05s) on Minogue's career and the development of her Kylie Fever tour is the primary extra here. As a non-fan, I found this piece to be not as self-serving as I had expected, and the segments on the creation of the elaborate stage set and its construction is mildly informative. There are video clips from some of her songs, backstage footage, interviews and a gratuitous bit with Minogue in a wet T-shirt. Sure, this is a puff piece, but its not awful. If you're a fan, you will probably really like this. If you're not, the odds of you watching it are slim, right?

Also included is a Digital Programme, which is a fancy name for your basic photo gallery. Projections collects the video screen backgrounds used in the live show for a few of the songs (Cowboy Style, Light Years/I Feel Love, Burning Up), so if you want to do your own version of her concert you're set. Wrapping up the extras is a DVD-ROM link that can connect you to a special Kylie website, which (surprise!) includes an online shop.

Extras Grade: B-
 

Final Comments

Kylie Minogue is from the "if can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bull****" school of highly marketable pop success, and this slick product proves that. A beautiful image transfer and a tight 5.1 mix present her anonymous sexy pop stylings in all its larger-than-life glory here.

Recommended if you're a Kylie fan. And you know who you are.

Rich Rosell 2003-01-15