MTV’s long irrelevance as purveyor of the music video has put the onus on DVD as the medium’s primary delivery method.
On-demand cable TV, TiVo and high-quality Web options proliferate, but there’s nothing like popping in a DVD of your favorite concert or video, sitting back and absorbing the crystalline audio and picture.
Here’s a sample of our favorite music DVD stocking stuffers for 2007:
“The McCartney Years,” Paul McCartney, $34.99, Rhino
This exhaustive three-disc set is a steal for the price, even if Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles work is wildly uneven. The discs contain 40 music videos, more than two hours of live footage, and odds ‘n’ sods documentaries that shed light on this performer’s at times painfully earnest Wings and solo phase.
Still, watching McCartney fool with original “Sgt. Pepper’s” equipment while producer Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck) looks on in the studio is a fascinating, generation-spanning exercise. Remastered with a widescreen, 5.1 Surround Sound format.
“Barry Manilow: The First Television Specials,” $39.99, Stilleto/Rhino
The sound and picture quality on this five-disc set is the real news here, since the content will instantly polarize most people. Love him or not, Manilow wrote the songs that made millions sing, and his variety-show approach to TV specials (colorful, loaded with pre-taped pieces and guest stars like Ray Charles and John Denver) did nothing if not entertain.
His 1977 special is charming in its aw-shucks presentation, although the shows get more conceptually bloated and garish as they progress (1988’s “Big Fun on Swing Street” is particularly horrendous).
“Pearl Jam: Imagine in Cornice,” $19.99, Rhino
There’s something incredibly striking about seeing a band — in person or on DVD — out of its element. It’s why the Cure seems so special on video in Paris, or the Rolling Stones in New York. And this concert film, directed by photographer Danny Clinch, finds Pearl Jam amid a 2006 Italian tour stopping in Bologna, Verona, Milan, Torino and Pistoia. Obviously fueled by his discomfort with the war in Iraq, frontman Eddie Vedder is inspired in this collection that spans his group’s career, including early hits “Even Flow,” “Better Man” and “Alive.”
“Lost Highway: The Concert,” Bon Jovi, $24.95, A&E
It’s only been out for two weeks, but already this DVD concert film of Bon Jovi’s latest record — track by track, in sequential order, even — has fan sites abuzz. Yes, it’s a little bit country — especially for these ’80s rockers who gave love a bad name all the way from New Jersey. But their Denver date at the Pepsi Center isn’t until March 31, so this is an ideal preparatory stocking stuffer for that Bon Jovi fan on your list.
“Phish Live in Brooklyn,” $29.99, Rhino
Few bands, save for Phish forefathers the Grateful Dead, have been as exhaustively documented live as this one, but this two-disc set makes a compelling case. The dynamic camera work features dozens of angles and deft cutting by director/editor Eli Tishberg (Pearl Jam, Bon Jovi). Audio for the June 17, 2004, Coney Island show could be better, as the Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound mix lacks natural reverb. But the extras (sound check, additional songs) make it a solid buy.
