by Oliver on December 19, 2023 in Live Album
Roseland NYC Live was always a perfect concert film – but the corresponding CD release left room for improvement in some respects. For the 25th birthday of the legendary classic Portishead So now, in addition to a revitalizing remaster, a few retroactive fine-tunings have finally been made to the appearance of the record.
As is well known, the titular concert recording, which was released on CD on November 2nd, 1998, did not include all the songs from the trip-hop pioneers’ performance recorded on July 24th of the previous year (unlike the DVD): Sour Times is dated April 1, 1998 Warfield Theater in San Francisco and Roads was released on July 3, 1998 Quart Festival taken in Kristiansand, Norway.
These two variants were designed for Roseland NYC Live 25 now through the right Roselandes versions replaced.
Sour Times With its downright brisk pace and springy, light airiness, the staging in terms of dynamics and aesthetics is quite strikingly different from the previously used interpretation, which booms out of the roadhouse in a heavily distressed noir slow motion. The difference is less drastic Roads only at first glance, but the original submitted here is simply more fleeting and not quite as iconic as the previously used insert from Scandinavia: the clapping audience in particular creates a completely different physicality through its presence, while Beth Gibbons’ vocal performance there in a real The shocking emotionality simply creates more goosebumps.
What else needs to be criticized: Unfortunately, the rearranged order of the tracks still messes up the setlist and is missing Seven Months and Elysium furthermore. Also still to be found: Fade outs between the songs – they are simply frustrating and don’t do the atmosphere any good.
But in the end, all these minor and major cosmetic flaws don’t change anything: it’s almost perfect Roseland NYC Live falls short of being flawless as one of the best live albums of all time. And maybe there will be an all-round package for the 50th anniversary.
similar posts
Print article