Frank Sinatra The Reprise Years – Review

This stunning box set was inspired by the 50th Anniversary of when Reprise was formed by Frank Sinatra. It features 35 albums, a Special DVD – ‘A Man And His Music – Trilogy’ (re-mastered and never before released on one disc!). With Xmas on the way, this is definitely the ultimate gift for Sinatra fans! Some of the highlights of this release:

Albums
35(!) classic albums – September Of My Years, Sinatra-Basie, Strangers In The Night, LA Is My Lady, Sinatra & Jobim, My Way, A Man Alone, Watertown as well as definitive collections – Trilogy: Past, Present & Future (2CD) and A Man And His Music (2CD)

Deluxe Box Set
Black linen box with blue velvet flock that contains all standard issues of the studio albums that were released through the ‘Reprise Years’ series. All albums packaged in paper-sleeves.

Special DVD – ‘A Man And His Music – Trilogy’
DVD-9 with a running time of approx. 2 hours and 37 minutes featuring brand new remastered audio. Perfect PCM uncompressed audiophile quality. Never before released on one disc! Contains all of Sinatra’s swingin’ 60’, the “A Man And His Music” TV specials (Part 1, 2 and Ella and Jobim) . Featuring breathtaking performances with Ella Fitzgerald, Nancy Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim. This disc is Region 0 and thus playable on all DVD players worldwide.

I have to say thi sis one of the most impressive artist collection box sets I’ve seen from this publisher to date. The collection is massive with 35 (!) albums, a ton of background info and specials and a nice box to keep everything properly stored and cared for. The audio is pretty much flawless and I was pleased to see they’ve included an uncompressed PCM stream on the DVD9 although I doubt that it will make much of a difference to most listeners. My only minor gripe with this release is the storage format. We’ve seen quite a few large scale releaes of long time favorite artists passing these offices in the past few years and paper sleave thing is just not doing it for me. The copy I received had some flaws in the CD sleaves and I find that unless you truly keep everything neat and tidy inside the box, they tend to damage fairly quickly. I also cannot help but wonder why in this modern day and age we don’t see more simultaneous releases on usb or online media. The Beatles have proven to be quite succesful with this approach and although I understand that many old time fans of Sinatra will likely be clinging to their CD players or vinyl records, I cannot help but wonder why publishers keep underestimating the sheer number of people that exclusively listen to music on ipods or similar media storage. That being said this collection remains a very impressive piece of work. The recent prices I see online (around $300) for this release IMHO are a bit steep but time will tell if this collection will grow to be the sought after collectable it so obviously wants to be.

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Absolutely Fabulous: Absolutely Everything Limited Edition DVD Box

Everyone’s favorite fashionistas–Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy (Joanne Lumley)–make a glamorous splash in this definitive collection of their hilarious escapades! Through the years they have had their share of highs and lows while never being dangerously sober. Now experience the entirety of this award-winning, side-splitting series with this gorgeous, limited-edition collector’s set that you’ll fall head first for!

Nine discs includes seasons 1-5, plus The Last Shout, The New York Special, White Box, and over four hours of DVD extras!

This Limited Edition DVD Box retails for $129.98

Features:

- How to Be Absolutely Fabulous: A behind-the-scenes look at Ab Fab
- Absolutely Fabulous: A Life: Edina looks back on her life
- Modern Mother and Daughter: The sketch that started it all
- Before AbFab: Two French & Saunders sketches
- Pilot episode (Mirror Ball)
- Joanna Lumley on Modeling
- Rare outtakes
- Photo galleries
- Audio commentary by Jennifer Saunders and Jon Plowman

Actors: Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen
Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 9
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video (INGR)
DVD Release Date: May 27, 2008
Run Time: 1186 minutes