Barbra Streisand - Love is the Answer (Deluxe Edition)
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Free Music Notes for Love is the Answer (Deluxe Edition)
Free Music Review: She Changed Lives Then, She'll Change Lives Now
Hit: 5 Stars
There's not much I can add to the resounding cheers that have greeted this album here on Amazon.com. So let me just reiterate that this is not only the most important Streisand recording in many, many years, but also one of the finest of her entire career. I was hoping that the collaboration with Diana Krall would reap a rich musical harvest, and that's what we get on Disc 1. With its lush orchestrations and heartfelt vocals, it's a superb traditional pop album by anyone's standards. Listening to it, though, I couldn't help wondering if I hadn't been duped by this idea of a "Deluxe Edition." I couldn't image that Disc 2 could be any better than the first, or anything but a repetitive scaled-down bore. Man, was I wrong. Disc 2 is an absolute revelation. The starkness of the arrangements (all excellent) bring out an intimacy in Ms. Streisand's performances that we haven't heard since the early days of her collaborations with Peter Matz. The insights and emotion she brings to the vocals on Disc 2 are simply extraordinary; as good as Disc 1 is, Disc 2 is transcendent. That Ms. Krall's smokin' jazz piano playing is front and center on Disc 2 is an added bonus.
To be honest, there's a roughness around the edges of Ms. Streisand's voice now, a ragged quality that's never been there before, particularly when she pushes. But the vulnerability she's showing us by allowing us to hear her at her most raw is what makes this album so significant. It's been a long, long time since Streisand has really opened up to her audience and allowed us to see into her soul. All the confessional, psychological mumbo jumbo of the live concerts only further obscured what she was pretending to show us. That this collection allows us to connect with Streisand the way we did almost 50 years ago is a very welcome gift. My sincere and humble thanks to Ms. Streisand and Ms. Krall for giving it to us.
Free Music Review: DISC 2! DISC 2! DISC2!
Hit: 5 Stars
Taken as a whole, this album is stunning. But the revelation is DISC 2! I have been loving Barbra Streisand for ages. I remember when my mother first introduced me to the sound of her voice as a little girl. I was enthralled with the sheer beauty of it. There is such an unnerving assuredness to her vocals that you just can't be denied. She will always be one of the most superlative stylists when it comes to lyrical interpretation. She is just so marvelous at it that you just forget about how gifted she is with phrasing and just fall and wrap yourself in the lushness of her voice.
Disc 2 allows that pure lushness in her tone to shine. It doesn't have the swell of the orchestra, it is more paired down and her voice as we all know has aged marvelously. As she has aged, and we have as well, you're not only startled by its clarity but also by its richness of tone. When she sings the opening lines of "Here's to Life: No complaints and no regrets/I Still Believe in Chasing dreams and placing bets," you just know its experience she's drawing from.
The album works so well because as a loyal fan, or a newcomer, there is a pacing that builds up a relationship with the listener. A natural intimacy is achieved with DISC 2. Songs such as "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning," and "Make Someone Happy," have an immediacy that can't go unacknowledged. Especially with "Make Someone Happy," the woman can still belt that is well known, but here she reigns it in, giving just enough to draw you in closer and closer but not fudging you on the context of the lyric; a lovely rendition.
A beautiful album from a beautiful, gifted legend.
Free Music Review: At Long Last, Barbra Finally Grows Up
Hit: 5 Stars
It's hard to believe I'm saying this, but I love this album---both CDs. The notion of doing duplicate CDs, one with orchestra and one with quartet, is new (at least to me) and, in my view, brilliant. Each works in its own way.
I loved the early, pre-Hollywood Barbra. She was fresh, vibrant and exciting. She took the world by whirlwind. Then, she went to Hollywood and started to believe all the praise people were heaping on her. She turned from innocent waif with a mighty voice into a conceited, totally full-of-herself, self-important "star." And, her music showed it; her personal appearances showed it. She became insufferable. On many of her songs, she reminded me of a constipated person straining to get rid of it. After a while, I could no longer stand to listen to her music, to watch her on television, or (heaven forbid) to attend her always-over-produced, fit-for-a-queen concerts. She was out of my life and I never regretted it.
Until now.
This new album reflects good taste and understatement from beginning to end. Not an iota of constipation here. Wonderful music. Wonderful choice of songs. Wonderful under-production. A mature piece of work produced by a serious talent who, maybe (just maybe) finally gets it.
Does Barbra still have that same wonderful voice? It's slipped ever so slightly and only in certain places. But, the maturity she brings to this set, coupled with the understated quality vastly outweigh any slip in vocal ability. There is not a bad song in the bunch. Not one.
From a former hater, I can only say: Don't miss it. I wonder whether she can top this. Only time will tell.
Free Music Review: A masterpiece!!! A joy to listen to!
Hit: 5 Stars
"Love Is The Answer" is by far one of the best albums Barbra Streisand has recorded!
I'm truly enthralled by everything Barbra Streisand has done on this album!!!
Her mastery as an "actress who sings" is simply amazing and seems to only get better with age!
She sings with such intimacy and depth that she leaves you with no other choice but to go along with her on this wonderful experience... A visceral experience that only Barbra can provide listeners.
I love BOTH discs - the orchestrations by Johnny Mandel are terrific and so subtle... just right!
The quartet version is amazing too - great to hear the different vocals - so intimate. You get to hear that voice up close...
Her voice is truly timeless - forever rich, sultry, clear, velvety and glowing!!! It's true... what she is, comes once in a lifetime. There is only one Barbra Streisand.
The subtle and playful things she can do with that voice and the phrasing is something quite miraculous. Something I've not encountered before hearing Streisand. While she has always been a masterful interpreter of lyrics - she Really shows off her ability to interpret lyrics on this particular album. Barbra Streisand transforms each note/word she sings into a masterpiece.
ALL these songs are magnificent!!! So hard to choose favourite tracks on this album.
Not hard to see why she is still the highest selling female recording artist of our time!!!
Love and Barbra Streisand IS the Answer!!!
"Love Is The Answer" is such a joy to listen to! A masterpiece!!!
Free Music Review: BARBRA STREISAND "OUT-DOES" BARBRA STREISAND
Hit: 5 Stars
Well, here I go again. OMG! This is the most pleasing and satisfying album of the year and hers in YEARS. How she does it decade after decade is anybody's guess. Talk about knowing what's best for her, she had the smarts to get Diana Krall involved and make an album that is one of the highlights and milestones of her career. From song selections, choice of arrangements, giving us both orchestra and quartet versions, and choices of producers, Barbra has fashioned the album to end all albums. And that VOICE! I hate to repeat what has been said over and over again but "LOVE IS THE ANSWER" is the album, vocally, that I have been waiting for since the 60's albums. That VOICE, it's such a constant, familiar part of my life. Try picking out the best tracks, there are no best tracks, they are all supreme, beautiful and worthy of the Streaisand repertoire. This IS the happiest I have ever heard her sing. It is so obvious in every song that she KNOWS exactly what she is singing about. She proves that she is an actress who sings, making everyone of these fabulous songs into a three act play with a beginning, middle and end. The world is a much happier and better place with Barbra singing to us. When every other singer is gone and forgotten, Barbra will stand the test of time and go down in history as the singer all others are to be measured up to. I'd hate to be any of them. God smiled down on Barbra the day she was born, lucky for us he is still smiling.