ABL Deluxe Edition (w/DVD)
читать дальшеI got my copy of the ABL Deluxe Edition today. Thought I'd give a mini-review for those on the fence about buying it.
First off, the art work is completely new. The cover is a hologram with the Phoenix Seal morphing into the Trinity Seal. In the background is the field of faces (with the masks). Not sure if I like the hologram thing or not. Makes my eyes hurt if I don't hold it still. *g*
Kinda a sideline, but does anyone know if that field of faces actually includes Matt? It kinda looks like the guy that was subbing for him in August. Tim, right? Looks like all black hair.
Back to the artwork.... They used all the fans names inside in tiny print under the title Mars Army. I'm in there. *g* Kinda cool. There is a picture of the new shield - like what they used when they performed at the Fuse Awards.
The CD and DVD have an X on them with the glyphs arranged around the X. The CD is white; the DVD is yellow.
The booklet contains pics of the guys - together and separately. Not sure if I've seen that photo session before. They did new "thank you's". Jared's grew even longer. Shannon and Matt made theirs short and sweet. Tomo's looked about the same.(I'll type them in at some point.)
The back lists all the songs. Only "Praying for a Riot" is a hidden track.
The CD seems to be the same, except for the extra track. "The Kill (Rebirth)" is a bit different, but not dramatically.Virgin must have given up on the copy protection thing, because I was able to rip it with no problems. Does the regular ABL still have issues? I haven't tried since I first got it back in 2005. (Looks at my stack of ABL CDs.)
And now for the DVD, the main reason for buying this. The video for "The Kill" was one of the shorter ones. They didn't have the dialog with Shannon, Matt, and Tomo. And they censored Jared saying "fuck" in the car. Kinda surprised we didn't get the long version. What's up with that?
I'll come back to the "Making of" in a minute. But it is new, not something I've seen on the net.
The International Music Feed was mostly stuff I had seen. It was that interview that someone posted outtakes from. In the outtakes everyone was poking Matt and he kept saying "stop touching me". Know which one I mean? Well, the outtakes weren't here, but it was that interview. Then there was an extra "piece" at the end that must have been taped later. Hair styles changed and in that case no Matt. So maybe August.
The live performances of Attack, The Kill, and The Fantasy from "All that Rocks". That was lifted right out of the show. Has the two headed dog in the corner and the credits start at the end of "The Kill".
Then T-Minus Rock from the week of the MTV Video Music Awards. Again, the MTV2 logo in place.
The Red Carpet and the Guys' Acceptance Speech (with Shannon's "thanks Mom") at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Then the $2 Bill stuff at the end is literally the commercials for the tour, including the one they have on http://www.welcometotheuniverse.net/ I'm wondering why they didn't use the stuff from the MTV2 $2 Bill Tour special.Maybe that was put together too late to make the DVD.
Ok, given that this was a DVD of already compiled things, and not tour video and outtakes, it was pretty good. I'm kinda surprised the Fuse Awards or the MtvU Award didn't make it. Might have been timing again. Or, in the case of the Fuse Awards, it might have been the fact that the DVD was mostly slanted towards MTV2 stuff. I imagine MTV2 had a hand in putting this new version out. They showed the MTV2 logo and the Virgin logo before the menu came up.
I would have also liked to see the "Attack" video and the other early Virgin promo stuff for ABL - the dessert video thing and the Target Red Room video. Maybe we'll get a DVD of videos at some point.
Another sideline. How many videos do you think they'll make from ABL? I mean, what is the average number of singles from a given album? Is it only limited to what has the potential for radio play? I'm not sure if I know of an album where they released more than three singles.
But, my god, they could make videos for every song on there. Wouldn't that be awesome? Jared would get all the "chapters" of the story out. Anyone else seeing a feature length effort coming sometime in the future? You know how Jared praises Pink Floyd's "The Wall". (Which I'll find and watch at some point. LOL. Only music group I've ever accepted "homework" from.)
Jared is such a kid in the candy store making videos. All of those hats. (Bart's hats. *g*)
/sideline
Ok, the "Making of" special was worth the price of admission. Actually one 20 second scene where Shannon is looking over at Jared and says (paraphrased) "there is Jared directing ... I'm so proud" was worth it alone. Major "Awwwwwww" scene. They talked with Shannon quite a bit. Jared was too busy with his many hats to hog the camera. *g*
Even though a blind person could tell Jared was in charge, they still threw in some Bart references. And at the end they said if anyone has seen Bart contact 30secondstomars.com. LOL.
I love the scene where Jared is explaining Shannon's scene to him. Apparently the inner door scene was filmed before (and in a different location) than the hall way and the outer door part of the scene. Oh, and at first Jared was saying a different room number than the infamous 6277.
Got to see Matt get his make-up put on. "...gamers wear makeup..." *g* They showed Matt filming his toast, with Jared giving him play-by-play directions. Tomo talked about riding a skate board rather than a big wheel. *g* Shannon talked about how much they worked on the video before hand. Even thinking about the video while on stage during one of the last concerts before the started filming. Jared talked about bringing all these diverse elements together - 1920's party, waltzing, 20th century rock group, the Shining references,.... He was much more eloquent about it. *g*
Графическое оформление альбома:
http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y4...ent=cover05.jpg
thanks Сю.