Disappointing - Good singer, great songs -- so what went wrong? Some of the cuts are embarrassingly overproduced, and her singing here is just too thin to compete or be of much interest. If you go big band, you d better go big voice too. After a listen, I put on a CD of Lena Horne singing Stormy Weather, just to remind myself how it s supposed to be.
She Is Definitly My Girl! - I agree with all the raves, she is the best, this CD is a triumph, to be able to dare to do what she really wanted to do in the midst of her most successful commercial stage of her career deserves nothing but praise. One of the best recordings EVER!!!
IF NOT FOR THE BIG BAND CHARTS... - SOME OF WHICH WERE PENNED BY THE HIGHLY UNDER-RATED PATRICK WILLIAMS, AND PERFORMED TO PERFECTION BY A GREAT ALL-STAR PACK OF MUSICIANS (WHOIGNORED THE LACKLUSTER SINGER THEY WERE BEING PAID--WELL, I HOPE--TOACCOMPANY), I WOULD CERTAINLY NOT HAVE HELD ON TO THIS ALBUM PAST THEUNCOMFORTABLE FIRST HALF-CHORUS OF THE FIRST SONG. The Great American Songbook is clearly not a genre of musicto mess with unless the singer has the chops to do it justice. Clearly,Ms. O Connor--despite all of her other successes--does NOT. But, hey! if Phil Ramone wanted to produce something that wouldbring in some crossover-audience bucks, and didn t care how materialisticit made him look... why should anyone care? By the way, the one star was for the skilled arranger(s), theconductor(Torrie Zito), and the players. I WOULD have given themfive big ones, but didn t want it to look like it was for the mis-placed and underwhelming skills of Ms. O Connor.
V-Warrior cabaret - why the hell not? - Just lookit that CD cover photo - it s practically Diane Arbus, you just KNOW there s something going on UNDERNEATH.And there is, some of the time.O Conner s big band blowout does wear itself out - the better tunes are frontloaded - but when she s on, she s pretty white hot.Why Don t You Do Right? has the right sass - fat saxes, floozy vocals, thumping drums, cool cat jive. Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered sports outrageous, sleazy lyrics but, with the most sensitive arrangement on the disc, the combination is emotionally giving, putting out (to borrow a term from the era), perhaps. Love Letters and Secret Love are nice enough - somewhat short of immortality, alas. Success Has Made A Failure Of Our Home rectifies that, though, with a rippingly apocalyptic vocal this side of Who s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?At her best - and worse, too - Sinead O Conner always delivers the goods toddering right on the brink of disaster and inspiration. That s why she s a real artist.
A thing of beauty - This is a unique, masterful album. Her renditions are completely spot on. I find her versions sometimes even more heartfelt and beautiful than those by Ella Fitzgerald, Sinatra and their likes. Her singing is both fragile, intimate and at times even humorous. The blend of her unique phrasing and the lush arrangements by Phil Ramone is intriguing and thrilling - a feast for the ears. I find that this is her best vocal effort so far. On the strength of this album alone she should be viewed as one of the very best female vocalists of the 20th century.