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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sting Inside, December 4, 2003
"Sting Inside" has incredible music. The duet with Mary J. Blige is enough reason for me to want this DVD, although several of the songs are worthwhile. "The Book Of My Life" has an unusual style and rhythm that I especially enjoyed. The title song, "Inside", is very moving."Sting Inside" has 15 songs and a bonus track, "Every Breath You Take". "The Shape Of My Heart" is a two minute snippet of Dominic and Sting in Malibu. I don't count it as a song, even though I enjoyed it immensely. "Every Breath You Take" is recorded in Malibu during rehearsal and is the full length song. The other 15 songs are shown played in concert at the Mayan Theater in Los Angeles. The video quality of the concert is tremendous, very clear. The video quality of the interviews is a little softer, but still very good. I found the audio quality to be excellent. The default setting is 2.0. You have to go into the setup menu to get Dolby Digital 5.1, which I find a little annoying. There is little direct access to songs through the track numbers. Here is a song listing by track number: Track Number / Songs 1) Send Your Love 2) Inside 3) Dead Man's Rope 4) Shape of My Heart / Never Coming Home 5) Like A Beautiful Smile 6) Forget About The Future / That Sinking Feeling 7) This War 8) Stolen Car (Take Me Dancing) / All Would Envy 9) Sacred Love 10) The Book Of My Life 11) Walking On The Moon 12) Roxanne 13) Whenever I Say Your Name Extras: Every Breath You Take; Commentary In this concert, Sting uses percussion and programmed drums. I don't have strong feelings about that. I think it fits what he's trying to do with the music. I was curious to hear what Sting said about drummers, based on another review. Here it is part of it, taken out of context: "Not having a drummer allows colors to emerge that the sonic range of drums tend (sic) to obliterate. I love drummers, I like loud, rock n'roll music, but in the rehearsal period, that's all you hear. The acid test for whether a song is a good song or not is whether you can break it down into a simple rendition. If it still works like that, it's a good song, as far as I'm concerned. It's a very good transition stage between the recording, the big show with the drummer." For me, "Sting Inside" did not create the feeling of actually being at the concert. There are interviews (sometimes several minutes long) between every track until "Walking on the Moon". The very end of one of my favorite songs, "Inside", was cut off when the DVD went to the next track. These contributed to a choppy feeling at times. I prefer to have the option to just watch the concert. I watch music DVD's over and over again. I will get tired of hearing Sting talk about finding lyrics under a rock. I'm tempted to take away a star because of it, but I'd have to give it back based on the great price. I like the "All This Time" DVD because I felt that I got a glimpse of Sting the person. In "Sting Inside", I think Sting took even more of a risk in letting the world see him as a person. I say "risk", because I see enough of Sting to decide if I like him or not. For some people, this may color whether they like the music. I recommend "Sting Inside" for anyone who wants to see more of what goes on behind the scenes and "inside" Sting, and also for the great music.
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