Its exceedingly rare to listen to a whole album and discover that every single track on the album is a gem, but thats what you get with Lizz Wright's 3rd album. I cant even qualify that statement as I have all three of her albums and her previous two albums, Salt and Dreaming Wide Awake were masterpieces in their own right. Its impossible to really pigeonhole Lizz Wright as her music is neither truly R&B, jazz, gospel or blues but rather a heady, intoxicating mix. What you do get is an artist who truly deserves every accolade and recognition due to her (but which sadly she probably will never as her music is not considered mainstream enough for the uneducated masses). The album kicks off with the bluesy, spiritual yearning of "Coming Home", moving into the flamenco tinged contemporary soul of "My Heart" a song about a lover's aching desperation perfectly captured by the urgent, pleading chorus repeated over and over towards the end. With a voice as good as hers, the production cleverly allows her voice to take centrestage and instrumentation is kept bare. Songs like "Hey Mann" and "Song for Mia" illustrate this minimalist approach and draw the listener in due to the inherent intimacy of the settings of the songs.
This is Norah Jones with more substance, Joss Stone with more vocal discipline and a tribute to the heartwrenching, intimate, sultry and seductive music Lizz Wright has created. An amazingly talented vocalist and arguably THE album of the year for me.
Before you write this album off as "Oh no! Yet another classical crossover act!?", watch the video of the lead single off their album "Like the Sun" and then make up your mind. I was trawling the internet in the wee hours night typically as thats when everyone in my house is asleep and I come awake and also when I have the time to research and listen to music. I came across RyanDan (the name of the band incidentally is rather unoriginally the combination of the two brothers names, oh and they are identical twins as well) and upon listening to "Like The Sun" was instantly drawn to look into their music further.
After delving further it became apparent that this was actually not a classical crossover album at all but rather an album of well crafted and well sung songs by two very talented individuals. Apart from "Like The Sun" other highlights include "The Face" with its sparse piano and strings arrangement underscored by a choir in the background and the achingly beautiful and heartfelt "In Us I Believe". Unfortunately, other tracks on the album such as "Wind Beneath My Wings" and "I'll Be There" serve only as filler although their take on "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables deserves a special mention here although I still feel its meant more for a solo voice rather than as a duet. The brothers switch impressively from falsetto to baritone showcasing their classical training throughout the album. Definitely an album worth purchasing if you can find it in Malaysia!
Directed by: Sylvia Wong Featuring: Jacqueline Thong and Xavier Fong Music by: Christopher Tse and Kevin MacLeod
Ernest and Ernestine fall in love.
Ernest and Ernestine marry in haste.
Ernest and Ernestine live in a basement.
Ernest and Ernestine drive each other crazy!
Ernest and Ernestine fall in love swiftly and marry quickly. They begin their married life in a cramped basement apartment. Each partner, however, possesses little quirks that drive each other crazier by the day! Although genuinely and deeply in love, they allow embers of resentment to ignite into anger which burns brighter and hotter. This fire festers until the two are literally prepared to kill each other!
Venue: City Ballet Blackbox
Date: 7 - 9 August
Time: 8pm
Contributions of minimum RM 5 for entry
Floor Seating
Sigur Rós Með Suð í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust The fifth studio album by Icelandic band Sigur Ros sees them moving away, albeit not too far, from their trademark electric symphonic style. A departure which may not sit too easily with diehard Sigur Ros fans but one which should win them many new ones. Also, in a departure from the norm, the album features the band's first ever song performed in English entitled "All Alright" which brings the album to a close. For those not familiar with this band, their previous albums have all been in Icelandic and Vonlenska ( term which was coined to describe the gibberish sung by the band and springs from the song "Von" a song on their first album of the same name where it was first used). I have every single one of their albums and was entranced when i first discovered them. How would i describe them? Delicate, rousing, passionate, intimate, melancholic, bittersweet, wistful, lush, ethereal, theatrical...If you have never had the opportunity to listen to this wonderful band, you dont know what you are missing!
For a better review of the album, the following review is taken from BBC Music:-
"Whether or not Sigur Ros' fifth album will be the commercial breakthrough some are hoping for is, in many ways, a moot point. It's a thing of beauty and that's all we really need to know. But what else to make of an album that has already been variously deemed an uncharacteristic blast of Icelandic sun and music to die in a blizzard by? Perhaps the clue lies in the title of the first track, Gobbledigook. For those unfamiliar with Icelandic, the lyrics sound, as ever, utterly mysterious, and like the best glossolalia, this music is open to a variety of interpretations.
What you hear in these eleven tracks conjures eclectic feelings; a salmon spawning upstream; a grandmother climbing a mountain; a schoolchild in a dream classroom; sleepy, awake, like a grail knight, weightless, ascending, bursting, relieved, dead, happy. And it will no doubt be different for each listener, perhaps even each listen. The last song is actually sung in English, but by this point that sounds as strange as anything else.
More a development than a departure, the album blends a lighter, more dynamic approach with out-there creative impulses. Produced by Flood and assisted by a string quartet and brass section (as well as, on Ara Batur, the London Sinfionietta and the London Oratory Boys Choir), the album was recorded in its entirety this year: impressive speed, reflected in the joyous, unfettered arrangements and the sheer plasticity of the music.
Possibly, if Sigur Ros had intended to take over the world, they might have translated their album title into its English version: “With a buzz in our ears we play endlessly”. Possibly not. No matter; this music to live - and die - by; as good on the bus or the school run as it would be watching the Northern Lights. Sigur Ros remain in a wonderful universe of their own."
Its exceedingly rare to listen to a whole album and discover that every single track on the album is a gem, but thats what you get with Lizz Wright's 3rd album. I cant even qualify that statement as I have all three of her albums and her previous two albums, Salt and Dreaming Wide Awake were masterpieces in their own right. Its impossible to really pigeonhole Lizz Wright as her music is neither truly R&B, jazz, gospel or blues but rather a heady, intoxicating mix. What you do get is an artist who truly deserves every accolade and recognition due to her (but which sadly she probably will never as her music is not considered mainstream enough for the uneducated masses). The album kicks off with the bluesy, spiritual yearning of "Coming Home", moving into the flamenco tinged contemporary soul of "My Heart" a song about a lover's aching desperation perfectly captured by the urgent, pleading chorus repeated over and over towards the end. With a voice as good as hers, the production cleverly allows her voice to take centrestage and instrumentation is kept bare. Songs like "Hey Mann" and "Song for Mia" illustrate this minimalist approach and draw the listener in due to the inherent intimacy of the settings of the songs.
