Short Cuts

The seemingly ageless Chrissie Hynde storms her way through 26 songs on Pretenders Loose in LA EAGLE VISION , recorded at the Wiltern Theater in February this year. The run-in is particularly impressive as she turns the clock back almost a quarter of a century to the band’s spectacular debut album with a sequence that includes “Tattooed Love Boys”, “Precious”, “Mystery Achievement” and the mighty “Brass In Pocket”. The Human League DVD VIRGIN is a compilation of 19 videos plus a handful of bonus TOTP performances. If the aliens landed tomorrow and demanded a crash course in ’80s-pop style, you’d probably play them “Open Your Heart”. Or perhaps you’d opt for “Is There Something I Should Know?” from Duran Duran?Greatest VIRGIN , which also contains that notorious promo for “Girls On Film” and the extravagant mini-Mad Max-isms of “Wild Boys”. These days, the DVD has become a more ubiquitous way to celebrate an anniversary than a greetings card. Jethro Tull?The 25th Anniversary Collection CHRYSALIS is a 1993 documentary that cleverly cuts back and forth between archive and reunion footage. Toto?Live In Amsterdam EAGLE VISION marks the band’s 25th anniversary with a concert performance shot earlier this year. Their corporate pop-rock was anonymous enough at the time. Today it’s positively offensive. Kiss Symphony SANCTUARY is a double disc set marking the band’s 30th anniversary with a “concert in three acts”, featuring band, string quartet and symphony orchestra. Preposterous isn’t the word. But then this is Kiss. It’s coming up to the 40th anniversary of Sam Cooke’s death, which means there’s limited primary source material available. But Sam Cooke Legend ABCKO is a serious DVD biography scripted by Peter Guralnick and mixes what rare footage there is with interviews with the likes of Aretha Franklin and Bobby Womack. Finally, Giants WARNER VISION , is another Later… With Jools Holland compilation, featuring 30 legendary names, many of them sadly no longer with us, including Joe Strummer, Johnny Cash, Dusty Springfield and Ian Dury. But would someone explain how the fuck Robbie Williams barged his way into such illustrious company?