Forget about Get Away and The Great Outdoors, travel to Morocco with American rock group Collective Soul instead of Lachie Daddo or Ernie Dingo. While still offering the same sights, in this travel program you get acoustic performances for free! Now how can you go past that folks, buy one get one free!

Well enough sales hype because this disc doesn’t really need it. Collective Soul are one of America’s most popular alternative rock groups from the 90’s and are simply a delight to listen to on CD. But then, the acoustic performances take their music to another totally different level. The group acoustically perform 12 of their songs on location in and around Morocco. Songs include the touching ‘The World I Know,’ the concluding ‘After All’ and the hit ‘Gel.’ The only thing that is lacking from their play list is a larger number of songs from their latest release Dosage.

The play list is as follows: Heavy, Why Pt. 2, Vent, The World I Know, Gel, December, Heaven’s Already Here, Over Tokyo, She Said, Perfect Day, Shine and After All.

The scenery caught on camera is amazing to see, and the vibe from being with Collective Soul is really prominent and strong. This isn’t like a ‘that is them and this is us’ documentary, Collective Soul relax, talk to the camera, and make it a much more intimate show, and including the audience. Collective Soul are an ideal group to take away to Morocco because they had never ridden camels or known about the religion, but after seeing it all, they are able to understand, accept and marvel at the countryside around them.

The video on this disc is presented in the widescreen aspect of 1.85:1, but is not 16x9 enhanced. There is nothing really wrong with this video transfer. The colours are bright and realistic with the golden orange-yellows and the bright blue skies. All of the colours are so bright, realistic and really beautiful to watch. The blacks are solid throughout and shadow detail is also good.

The entire transfer is incredibly clean with no grain, film artefacts or MPEG artefacts whatsoever. Everything about this transfer is amazing, but the only thing lacking is 16x9 enhancement. It makes it hard to write a lengthy review when there is little to say!

There are two audio tracks: Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 2.0. While both tracks offer the same soundtrack, the 5.1 track wins just because of the enveloping sound and the fact that the 2.0 track sounds flat and very trebly.

But one thing that is really interesting to note is the fact that the audio doesn’t sound live. It sounds like the footage was filmed and then dubbed over during post-production. But then during other songs it is obvious that it is live. It is really puzzling to watch. As a final word on this, this reviewer would say that it is all live because in the latter half of the feature you can see small built in microphones on each guitar. So therefore with some handy post-production editing, the audio was made into this perplexing transfer.

The surrounds are used to mainly carry ambient noises, and barely any music at all. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The subwoofer was used slightly, but effectively to add depth to the 5.1 track.

This is the first music disc that this reviewer has seen that comes with a decent load of extras.
Interviews with Ed and Ross, and Shane, Will and Dean run for roughly 40 minutes. They are quite intimate, just like the feature, and were shot on location in Morocco. They are presented in a 1.85:1 aspect and are not 16x9 enhanced. They have Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.
Just The Music which features all of the songs performed in the feature made into their own chapters away from the rest of the program. They all start with a loud intro from the surround channels which sweeps to the front. The video footage is the same as the feature, and is presented in an aspect of 1.85:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.
Featurettes: There are two featurettes, ‘Behind The Scenes’ which runs for 6 minutes and ‘Rockin’ In Morocco’ which runs for 3:30. They are both in the aspect of 1.85:1 and are not 16x9 enhanced with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. The first is just what it says, a behind the scenes look at the making of the main feature, and the second is another behind the scenes look that should have been spliced together with the first one.
Promo Spots that were shot on location run for 1:30, and are in the aspect of 1.85:1 and are not 16x9 enhanced. They have Dolby Digital 2.0 audio. These feature the different members of Collective Soul saying to watch the show when it comes on TV again and again for American Cable TV Ads.
On Location is a 16 minute clip from the bazaar in Marrakech which is presented in the aspect of 1.85:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced. It follows the group around with their guide and shows them the sights of the market.
Band Biography is a set of 5 pages that tells the band’s history.

The menus are easy to navigate through, and are still with no background music.

Overall, this is a very nice disc with a near faultless video transfer, a great 5.1 audio track, a swag load of extras and an informative, humourous and entertaining feature. Fans must grab this disc, and if you’re not a fan, you will be after seeing this.