“Gessle over Europe” the review
Written by tevensso on October 20, 2009 to Editorial, Exclusive, Per Gessle and Releases.
LJUSDAL - 
First there was nothing, then there was "Wings over America." Now there's "Gessle over Europe"! The live CD/DVD combo awaited by many a fan. Was it worth the wait?
Yes. Yes it certainly was!
The CD is amazing, crystal clear sound, heavy bass and with a live feeling that puts you right back into the audience again. If you were there in the first place, that is… Kudos to Christoffer Lundqvist! The packaging is identical to the Roxette re-releases; a high glossy "eco" pack that looks like a small vinyl LP. Speaking of which, the album comes as a double LP with three bonus tracks as well, not reviewed here though.
The tracks on the album come from the best concerts available, and from what I can understand, some concerts were better than others. "Gessle over Europe" isn't mixed together to sound like one homogeneous concert so there are some fade ins and outs. This only affects the crowd noises though.
I won't review the concert again, so if you want to read about that, check that review out here.
In short: This album is a must have. I would recommend it to non-fans even. However, I have to mention some of the better tracks (and this is hard): "Doesn't Make Sense" is out of this world on this album, and so is "It Must Have Been Love" and "Listen to Your Heart." I can go on and on, but I'll limit myself to these three. What I keep wondering is if they've cut the last part out of "Listen to Your Heart" as I want to remember it from the concert that Per sings "you tell her goodbye…" yet another time.
Now, Capitol is marketing this as a CD with a bonus-DVD, while I think the audience may see it the other way around.
Overall the DVD is one of Per's nicer releases, and I'm glad they left off the two promo interviews that otherwise would've stolen another 30 min of precious disc space. There are some technical aspects I will mention later.
Anyway, the picture quality is most of the time very nice, not to say even perfect at times. While at times it's very pixelated with both macro blocking and digital banding. That's what you get when you compress the material too much. The concert is recorded in hi def, and I would've loved a blu-ray of this! This is reviewed on a 46" LCD monitor by the way, and I know for a fact that it will look a lot better on a smaller TV.
The average bitrate per second is 6.41 MB/sec which is fair, but not excellent. The bitrate of the Unplugged DVD was 6.16, while the "HITS" DVD was 3.57 and "All Videos Ever Made" 3.4 (that's very bad)! So you can see it has gotten better over the years.
The concert has been interspersed with an interview with Per sitting by the ocean where he talks about the concerts, fans et cetera. Nice bits and pieces. The DVD is subtitled, a first! Both in English and in German. The German subtitles have a problem though; the letter ß (double s) has for some reason been changed to ü (y). I also see some problems with the English subtitles that could've been avoided. Didn't anyone watch this before the pressing?
Another, more annoying problem is that running the DTS audio track there are a few audio drop-outs, while the Dolby Digital track is spotless. There is also a plain stereo track.
Per's solo videos are included after 12 years. I never liked Jonas Åkerlunds Gessle videos, but here they are, and they look decent. Son of a Plumber's videos are here as well, they are of the same quality as the older ones.
Finally, the 100 tribal videos are actually not all available on YouTube, so that's good. And they've solved the lower resolution of Per's home videos by showing them picture in picture. A fine solution indeed.
Enough moaning, the DVD is "free" and is very worth its price, when you don't knitpick it, but as a reviewer it's my job to knitpick.
For you in countries that may not get the release try ordering via Gessle.com (Bengans) or Hotstuff. They both ship worldwide and they both carry the LP.
Other articles with the same topic
- Roxette live in Kazan: the set list (February 28, 2011)
- Roxette's Charm School World Tour is underway... with extension planned! (February 28, 2011)
- Per makes another mixed tape (February 25, 2011)
- More from Down Under (February 14, 2011)
- Roxette's iTunes sales solidify chart success in Europe (February 14, 2011)
35 comments
Jud (moderator) said on October 20, 2009 18:44:
I also remember the second “you tell her goodbye”.. but I was only in Sthlm1 and Sthlm2.. can’t you see that on the dvd?
I don’t understand these quality issues. But you may blame it to my job :D I work as data quality manager and there is nothing that irritates me more than mistakes which could have been avoided, in this case if somebody would have spent about 20 minutes checking the interviews. Sure it can happen, but not in something which is sold around the world.
But we are used to it already... it’s like it wouldn’t be the same without errors ;)
And of course, thanks for the great review :)
___________________________
Marie Fredriksson Online
Be strong, speak true
Tider12_ said on October 20, 2009 18:56:
not documentaries???? noooo!! i want them in great quality with subtitles!!! But, I think this is a great realeased!!! I’ve pre-ordered today, cd/dvd+vinyl, yeahhh!!
tevensso (moderator) said on October 21, 2009 08:58:
LTYH is definitely cut. It’s 3.13 on the CD and 3.45 on the DVD.
Bananylopalabomba said on October 21, 2009 09:55:
Tevensso, thank you very very much for review!
Maybe now... dvd image for those who ordered CD+DVD. I ordered ;) Just can‘t wait !!!! (((
pwbbounce (moderator) said on October 21, 2009 12:29:
Surprisngly enough, you can head over to www.play.com and download the entire CD for £7.55, or 67p per track from 26th October!! The tracklisting is the exact same as the CD itself. No sign of the DVD there though.
The same on www.hmv.com, but the full album is £7.99 there
CoyRoy said on October 21, 2009 23:54:
Can’t wait for my copy of this cd/dvd combo to arrive. I can’t wait to hear Opportunity Nox and She Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. I love those songs!!
@Tev: Can’t you please ask Per for the correct lyrics of “Myth”??? Pretty please.
There are just some parts where I don’t know what the hell Marie is singing.
nessaja said on October 22, 2009 08:00:
Thanks for the great review, can’t wait!
Wanted to ask if there is some kind of booklet too..
alexandru. said on October 22, 2009 16:20:
Hello out there. I have a big problem with booklet form Have a nice day album. The order of the lyrics is wrong. For example the savation lyrics start at one page and continues after after 3 pages. In between there is another song.
CoyRoy said on October 22, 2009 19:22:
thanx Tev!!!
Oh no... now I have to go see if my HAND booklet has the same problem... I didn’t really look at the other booklets - I LOVE the pics in LS!!
by the way - Bengans sent me a mail to day - My “Gessle Over Europe” cd/dvd is on it’s way!!
rossyrox said on October 23, 2009 14:40:
Wow I can’t believe I’ve missed this - anyone know where is cheapest to order the CD/DVD + LP from to ship to the UK?
fortuna1895 said on October 23, 2009 14:46:
Does anyone know, why the LP bonus tracks are not included in the itunes-release?
This would be the easiest way to complete the record legally instead of buying the LP, for which many people doesn’t have a opportunity to play them.
CoyRoy said on October 24, 2009 09:17:
@Alexandru - tried to send you a message on Facebook - something wrong with your profile... Lol...
Yea...my HAND booklet has the same problem as yours. The middle-page has been stapled wrongly.
imazombieinthem... said on October 24, 2009 11:35:
For Aussies, I purchased via Bengans the CD/DVD & LP delivered for AU$66. Not bad at all.
alexandru. said on October 24, 2009 12:20:
@CoyRoy I dont know what;s the problem with the Facebook.
Yup, a friend of mine, who bought the HAND from the same store has the same problem with the booklet.
Does anybody else have the same problem?
rossyrox said on October 24, 2009 14:55:
just under 45 euros for the cd/dvd/lp to the UK, bengans was the cheapest I could find.
Strangely it was cheaper through gessle.com than their website direct.
Tider12_ said on October 26, 2009 10:50:
begans has send me a confirmation email saying me that my order has sent me today. But on the mail is only the cd, not the LP!! Is it normal???
ettexor said on October 26, 2009 19:06:
saturday i have order my copy, but for this cd/dvd Per don’t have release a single promotional?
rossyrox said on October 26, 2009 21:47:
I’ve not had anything about shipping, I doubt I’ll ever get it given the current UK postal situation!
Bananylopalabomba said on November 1, 2009 12:37:
Hey, and where are the SOAP documentary and EPK on DVD ? Can‘t find ‘em!
bradhdyd said on November 5, 2009 00:23:
The documentaries were taken off at the last minute :( But still an awesome CD/DVD (especially when you turn it up loud!!)
Sounds a bit weird at first without Marie, but you get used to it (sort of). But I got a nice surprise when several of the tribal videos featured her!!!! Shulda included her in the vid of the concert tho :(
I find it strange that Per had all those troubles with the German Censors. All I could see was that the fork in the nose in DYWBMB was censored. But Kix Cha Cha clearly showed female nipples and the woman being ’pushed’ under the train. Not to mention the ’colourful’ language in the tribal videos...first time I’ve ever heard Per swear :P
I ordered from Bangans, got an email the morning it was released (Oct 23) saying it was already sent! and received it here in Australia 11 days later (including weekends) for 214 Krona (just over $30 Australian) - very impressed!
(I’ve just listened to it again and I finally realised that when Per sings the songs intended for Marie, it sounds just like the demos - cool live demos ;) )
ettexor said on November 5, 2009 16:29:
my cd/dvd arrive yesterday!!
the concert from cirkus in stockolm is really great!
the big D. said on November 6, 2009 06:04:
I’m glad as well. Sounds very nice. Thinking back to the Munich Concert, I was very impressed by SDLHA and DMS then, but now after having listened to the cd 4 times, my favourites are the slower ones, especially “It must have been love” and the awesome outro “Queen of rain”. Great!
Well done, Per!
the big D. said on November 6, 2009 06:11:
By the way: Does anybody know why they changed the order of “IMHBL” and “TL”? Seems strange to hear IMHBL before hearing TL on the CD, but seeing it vice versa on the dvd...
CoyRoy said on November 6, 2009 22:45:
I had to listen to the cd a couple of times before I really enjoyed it.
You know... Singing technically good has a lot to do with the attitude of a specific song. Now, when I close my eyes and I listen to Per singing “It Must Have Been Love / Wish I Could Fly and Listen To Your Heart”, I start wondering why he did it.
I know it’s HIS songs and he wrote it, but doesn’t it mean something to him??
In my opinion it just shows that Per might be a good songwriter, but it certainly doesn’t mean he has to sing it. I mean...those 3 songs (even Sleeping In My Car) sounds pointless and “dead” if he sings it. There’s no emotion in his voice.
It just gave me MORE respect for Marie!!
rossyrox said on November 13, 2009 22:06:
Finally I have my CD/DVD and LP today. Has anyoen digitised Pary Pleaser and Church of your Heart from the LP yet (to save me the effort) ?
Please note that this is not a request for illegal songs, I’ll gladly post a photograph of me holding my LP!
rossyrox said on November 21, 2009 15:44:
I’ve digitised PP and COYH from the DVD, send me a photo of your LP if you want a copy...
DaRoxKitten said on December 1, 2009 13:52:
It certainly IS a must-have, this album. DVD as well! My absolute favourite song during the tour and also on the album is “Late, later on”. Lovely singing of both Per and obviously Helena. Ahhh, thinking back...
gloubibou said on January 4, 2010 10:08:
What is the guitar into to Joyride (Stockholm 2)? Sounds familiar, but I cannot place it.
AURYTE said on October 20, 2009 18:38:
Roll on, Monday!!! Fona or Musik Marked, here I come. I so want to relive this concert in Stockholm. Ahh, memories :)))
PS It’s just a pity that they didn’t film the songs that Per and Marie sang together...
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