Barbra Streisand - Love is the Answer
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Free Music Notes for Love is the Answer
Free Music Review: Barbra Streisand
Hit: 5 Stars
The cd appeared to be in good shape. It was a gift to someone else.Free Music Review: Fine Standards Album
Hit: 4 Stars
On this Diana Krall produced/assisted set, Barbra Streisand once again shines. Even sweeter may be the fact that the set surprisingly tops the Billboard 200 Albums Chart, beating out stiff competition from continually rising rock band Paramore (Brand New Eyes) as well as Pop-R&B diva Mariah Carey (Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel), albeit numbers were within 12,000 copies of each other. Conservative in scope, spacey, and achieving a certain jazzy ambiance, Love is the Answer, may not be revolutionary by any means, but it is one incredibly solid album. Most noteworthy is the fact that at a 'young' 67 years in age, Barbra Streisand sounds as if she's barely aged, vocally. Her voice is still pure, and subdued as a jazzy-club singer. Through the fifty-nine minute effort (in the standard edition), Barbra sounds astounding. The grand orchestration further makes 'Love is the Answer' as a worthy Grammy contender when it is eligible (2011; it misses the cut-off for the 2010 awards).
The album opens with the beautiful, spacey "Here's To Life", which finds Ms. Streisand accompanied by an extremely well mixed grand piano and lush string orchestrations. The track proves to be a perfect opener. Followed by another sensitive, though beautiful "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning", Mrs. Streisand once again maintains a certain purity, almost ethereal quality about her vocals; there is a natural innocence one can hear and feel as they imagine Streisand hearkening back to music's 'glory' days. As the tempo picks up, one can imagine they are in a jazz club sitting with their lover and feeling the 'romance' in which Streisand so magnificently extracts from these classic pop and jazz songs.
"Gentle Rain" doesn't deviate from the laid-back, pure style of "Here's to Life" or "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning", providing yet another lovely and restrained performance in which space contributes to the overall potency. "If You Go Away (Ne Me Quitte Pas)" begins with a simple acoustic guitar, giving the track a different flavor, sans acoustic grand piano. Slightly over a minute into the performance, upright bass, grand piano, and strings join in and provide a fine background to support Streisand's sensitive, yet passionate vocals.
"Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most" finds Streisand evoking the vocal affections of jazz with 'speech-like vocals', jazz phrasing, and impeccable nuance. While "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most" should sound incredibly dated, a new beauty is born; something is special about this performance. Jazzed-up, modest piano work opens up the sweet, endearing standout "Make Someone Happy". "Where Do You Start?", "Time for Love" are as lush and solid as everything else. "Here's the Rainy Day" begins with a lovely flute solo with accompaniment before Streisand places her signature vocal stamp on the track; additionally a fine piano solo appears performed by Diana Krall.
"Love Dance" begins with sparse guitar, accentuating the timbre of Streisand's vocal, again shaping the track into an 'atmospheric' feel, not unlike Krall's solo album work. Streisand does great justice to one of my favorite songs of all, "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes", a timeless classic. "Some Other Time" and bonus track "You Must Believe in String" don't break the consistency established by Streisand from the get-go.
Well produced by all means (kudos to Diana Krall), exceptional song choice, and great, spot-on vocals by Streisand make Love Is the Answer a fantastic traditional pop album. Don't be surprised if 'Love' is a top Grammy contender in the 2011 ceremony. 4+ stars.
Free Music Review: A good listen, but not as strong as her early work
Hit: 4 Stars
Barbra tries her darnedest to provide consistent and solid performances throughout each song and for the most part, she manages it. There are several rough vocal patches on this CD ('In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning', 'Make Someone Happy' and 'Smoke Gets In Your Eyes' specifically). Basically, her voice is showing its age (and damage?) and cracks at inappropriate times. Frankly, as producer I would have had her re-sing those sections.
Because her voice is showing its age, her louder range is hoarse and her vibrato inconsistent at times. But, that said, it's amazing she can still provide reasonably consistent vocal performances (albeit without any power) considering her performances on recent albums like Guilty Pleasures and Till I Loved You). The main problem I have with this CD is the meandering melodies that sometime don't work for Barbra. In the sixties, Barbra acted her music theatrically and chose material to showcase her voice. On this CD, she simply sings the songs without any theatrics or improvisational adlibs. A perfect example where theatrics and power would have worked is the song 'If You Go Away'. This song is very well written and ripe for vocal theatrics, but she simply doesn't reach for that level as she loved to do earlier in her career with works such as Je M'appelle Barbra and My Name Is Barbra, Two....
The other issue that's present is that Barbra sings every song with very little vocal power. Much of it seems even weaker than a speaking voice. I understand the reasoning for choosing this singing style. First, her voice cracks and becomes hoarse with power behind it (there are a few songs where she tries and it's noticeable). Second, her vibrato is inconsistent at higher/louder vocal power levels.
I'm more of a fan of her earlier stronger power vocals than the lower volume (weaker) singing style presented here. But, just simply due to her vocal aging issues (and possibly damage as well), I understand why she is unable to provide that level of power today.
As far as her choice of songs on this CD, none of them are as strong as songs she sang during her first 9 albums during the 60s. Of course, her voice was then young and full of power. Here, the orchestral arrangements are soothing, consistent in volume and adult contemporary, but not anything near as strong or dynamic as Peter Matz orchestrations early in her career. Granted, I haven't heard the deluxe alternative mix, so I may find those arrangements more appealing. The one choice I think that either Barbra or Diana made was to have her sing in a slightly higher register than she normally would. This makes her voice appear younger sounding and clean. When she hits the lower and deeper notes, it sounds less like the Barbra we used to know and, at least for me, is not appealing.
Overall, the songs are mostly well sung considering her obvious vocal limitations, but I think this material would have been a lot stronger if her voice had held up better. I would give this album 3.5 stars, but Amazon doesn't allow half stars. So, I'm giving it 4 stars.
Free Music Review: Question of stars
Hit: 4 Stars
I surprise myself by giving any Barbra Streisand production any less than the maxiumum stars because I am a fan of many years, but I actually gave this slightly more stars than I thought I should because I don't think it's "great Barbra". Who IS great on this CD are Jeff Hamilton (drums), Tamir Hendelmen (piano), Diana Krall (piano), and the other accompanying musicians. What is also great is the selection of songs, all pleasurable classics. Barbra still sings and "performs" better than most other singers so she is still extraordinary and she can still hit the high notes and the soft notes. However, this CD, more than others I have heard in more recent years, does show the changes in that incomparable voice. That is not a criticism - voice changes are inevitable with age and use - but it should be said that her voice is a little "fuzzy" around the tune and sometimes the pitch is a little elusive; she seems to be getting more into that almost more spoken than sung voice that most veteran singers end up using. Still, she can belt it at times and croon it and whisper it, so - as said - she's still better than others, but this is Streisand changing and to my ears, which love her voice and her interpretation, it feels like a loss. While listening, I kept thinking: she should retire - and feeling guilty and sad for thinking it! I do greatly appreciate her choice of accompanying musicians though because they are outstanding. I saw the Jeff Hamilton Trio live in Charleston, Illinois recently - Jeff Hamilton, Tamir Hendelman and Christof Louty (I hope I am even close to their names and spellings - forgive if not - just look them up) and they were magnificent. All but the bass player were on this Streisand CD - and they are great. So this review will probably be considered heresy (it is even to me a little bit) but just as Suzanne Farrell eventually had to hang up her toe shoes, so too may Barbra be approaching a time when her voice won't do what she wants it to do - and we can all be grateful for the existence of it on recordings. Or maybe she can just change to a more bluesy, deeper, breathier voice and style where "fuzzy" will be ok.Free Music Review: Happy Days Are Here Again
Hit: 4 Stars
I first encountered the Streisand voice in the early sixties and have been enraptured ever since. Her career soared and she made her mark in movies, on stage, in concert, in clubs, on TV and certainly on recordings.
And now comes a splendid CD from a woman who is sixty somethingish! The naysayers can say what they want--but how many sixty somethingish vocalists can still sing!!
Barbra Streisand still captures the great sounds and makes every lyric her very own. Combined with the talents of the marvelous Diana Krall and other top notch musicians, Miss Streisand has picked some fabulous songs and does justice to every one of them.
Highlights for me include Here's To Life, Some Other Time, You Must Believe In Spring and Make Someone Happy. But each track is really worth a listen.
This CD is much better than a few of her last recordings. The lady still has it! She brings a certain classy take to everything she does. And for me this one is a winner!