Live in Paris (CD - 2007)

Personnel: Lionel Richie (vocals, keyboards); Ben Mauro (guitar, background vocals); Dino Soldo (saxophone, keyboards, background vocals); Derek Allen (bass guitar, background vocals); Oscar Seaton (drums); Chuckii Booker.

This deluxe CD and DVD set features pop legend Lionel Richie performing at Bercy Arena in Paris, delivering a charismatic set of his number one smashes. From calypso-tinged groove ("All Night Long") to infectious pop ("Dancing on the Ceiling"), heart-tugging ballads ("Endless Love") to straight-up funk ("Brick House"), Richie pulls out the stops in this spectacular performance. The DVD gives fans a front-row seat for the concert, and also includes three music videos from Richie's albums from the 2000s.

Live in Paris is a DVD/CD package (also available as a separate DVD) that captures a May 2007 concert Lionel Richie gave at Bercy Arena in Paris. Given that this is an arena concert, it shouldn't come as a great surprise that this is a big, splashy production, designed for the eyes as much as it is for the ears, and for that reason the DVD is a bit preferable to the CD -- particularly because the DVD has the full show and the CD contains a ten-song sampling of the show, relying heavily on recent songs (although it must be said that the concert's set list in general does lean on these new tunes as well). As a CD, this isn't an especially kinetic live performance -- and his stage patter turns irritating on disc, especially his incessant repetition of "either you're gonna dance on the floor" on the intro to "Dancing on the Ceiling" -- but it's pleasant enough and will be a nice souvenir for those fans who care about a latter-day live performance from Lionel, although they'll like be more satisfied by the DVD of this show. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine minimize