I had a chance to pick up another handful of the Classic Albums titles on DVD recently, on the cheap. As usual, they are a mixed bag, but most of them are pretty good. If you’re not familiar with this series, the program takes a classic album, interviews as many original participants as possible, and often dissects the album in front of the mixing console to highlight the parts that are buried in the mix.

In this batch I got the following: Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours”, Nirvana’s “Nevermind”, Stevie Wonder’s “Songs In The Key Of Life”, Queen’s “A Night At The Opera”, and Jimi Hendrix’s “Electric Ladyland”. Of all the titles, only the Hendrix is disappointing–it is a disjointed look at the album, much like the entry for The Who’s “Who’s Next”. Otherwise, the others provide a good listening and viewing experience. On Stevie Wonder’s installment, there is a reunion jam featuring original musicians from the album, including the colorful Michael Sembello. And as simplistic as Nirvana’s album may sound, there is a lot more going on in the mix than what is apparent–Butch Vig does a great job of explaining the different mixing and recording techniques that made the album “click”. The “Rumours” DVD is a good companion to the DVD-Audio version–on the DVD-A, there is a third “making of” program on the disc that features all five members giving spoken word explanations of the making of the music; the Classic Albums DVD brings back the producer and engineer to provide even more insight. I have only marginal interest in Queen, but their representation here is quite good as well…even if Freddie Mercury is no longer with us.

I would not hesitate to recommend this series to anyone interested in these albums, or the making of pop/rock albums in general. Most of the DVDs are very well done.