John Legend - "Live at the House of Blues" (Blu-Ray)
Video = 3 of 5
Audio = 2.75 of 5
Legend's music takes a fresh spin on today's R&B by blending singing, rapping, piano playing, and drum beating with the soul of classic Motown. Legend is the star of "House of Blues", but there are guest appearances by both Kanye West and Snoop Dogg, who are modern-day superstars in the hip-hop world; and the rest of the musicians on stage are all excellent, too. The performances are great, and this disc on Blu-Ray had lots of potential. But, unfortunately, I've come away from it slightly disappointed.
For instance, whilst the widescreen video of the concert has very nice camera movement, it also can be a little on the soft side, at least for high-definition. And, musically, despite attempts to freshen things up, such as when the band works a lick from Outkast's "So Fresh, So Clean" into the song "Alright", the overall feel of this "live" performance seems far too slick and overproduced. I wish the sound were a little on the raw side, instead.
Moreover, the ambient surround mix (48 kHz LPCM), while definitely fuller-sounding than the stereo mix, is still far from stellar. Thom Cadley places lead vocals and instrumentation into the front left/right channels. He also duplicates lead vocals by dumping them into the center channel, which tends to anchor Legend's voice very slightly toward the middle of the mix. The rear left/right channels contain crowd noise and, in an almost secondary fashion, they also contain reverberated music and vocals. It all looks good on paper, seeing as how an ambient mix is most appropriate for a live performance. But somehow this surround mix just doesn't feel as immersive as I'd have hoped.
Finally, let's pick on the bonus material. The MTV-styled music video for "So High" disappoints on two different levels: First of all, the video portion is only standard definition; and what's worse? The image is both letterboxed and pillarboxed; so black bars exist on all sides---top, bottom, left, and right. And, secondly, the other disappointment revolves around the fact that the bonus music video was only offered in stereo. Not that I was surprised, but it's just that Thom Cadley has done some respectable surround mixing of studio recordings in the past and I'm sure that he could've made an excellent discrete 5.1 surround mix from the multitracks, if given the chance.
In fairness to this release, I believe it was one of the first concert performances available on the Blu-Ray format. So, perhaps, if it were to be released today it would've been better. As it is, this disc is merely "alright". |
