Tracy Chapman - New Beginning
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Free Music Notes for New Beginning
Free Music Review: New Beginning
Hit: 5 Stars
This is my first Tracey Chapman CD. I must say that it is beautiful. My son loved it so much..I should have bought two. It really has no age..young and old will love it. Free Music Review: Just a Review
Hit: 4 Stars
I wouldn't call myself a Tracy Chapman fan, but I like a song or two of hers. I got this for my girlfriend who really likes Tracy and as a result I've listened to this album. While I wouldn't buy it for myself it is a good CD and the one that got Tracy noticed with her hit "Gimme One Reason." If you are a fan of Tracy or like her style of music then you should check this album out.Free Music Review: great transaction
Hit: 5 Stars
I would do business with this seller again. Excellent product and service.Free Music Review: Only one reason to buy this album
Hit: 2 Stars
"The promise" is an absolutely fantastic song and my only reason for buying this album. Heard it first on Aer-Lingus trans atlantic in-flight entertainment. Simply had to have this song. Lot of money for one song but worth it. I listened to all the other songs to be fair and none made the cut to go on my i-pod. I suppose this is why people download...Free Music Review: Too much politics, too little of the personal
Hit: 3 Stars
Artists are certainly free to share their political beliefs in their songs, but the ugly truth is that it usually comes off "preachy" and irritates their fans who don't already agree with them. UNLESS...they do it via "story songs" that quietly make their point subtly rather than bludgeoning the listener with it.
Chapman railed against materialism with the song "Mountains o' Things" on her 1st disc and it worked. She was sharing about changes she was making PERSONALLY...and it got you to think about your own life in a way you would not if she had written "Americans buy too much crap". Likewise, if you don't already feel as Chapman does, "Rape of the World" will just strike you as polemical and "Heaven's Here on Earth" as humanist utopianism.
HIGHLIGHTS:
"Cold Feet" is the type of song Chapman should do more of. It subtly discusses the lasting effect poverty has on the psyche without screaming "We should spend more tax money on the poor!!!". The tale traces a boy whose family couldn't afford shoes for him who grows up to work hard to escape the poverty, only to take part in a robbery as he dreamed about "the comfort that would come without cold feet". It ends with his wife a widow and him "six feet underground with cold feet". "At this point in my life" finds Chapman admitting her brokenness and failings, telling her lover that "If I take your hand/I might lead you down the path to ruin". The stark honesty lends it its power. "Tell it Like it Is" is another good example of the personal vs. the political as Chapman urges you to "Say you'll never paint what is rotten with a sugarcoat". Huge hit "Give Me One Reason" is what most people come here looking for and with good reason (no pun intended). The tune is a wonderfully smoky blues from a fed-up Chapman. "Remember the Tinman" finds Tracy singing to the soulless ("Who stole your heart/Who took it away knowing that without it you can't live/Who took away the part so essential to the whole?")
LOWS:
"Rape of the World" lectures us about global warming, clear-cutting, strip mining, and the "cries" of Mother Earth. "Heaven's Here on Earth" tells us if we all just would be better people the world could be perfect...Utopia right here. Pardon me if I'm too cynical to believe in the basic "goodness" of the unredeemed human heart. "I'm Ready" uses metaphors that could compare to the searching found in Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers to Cross" but it just goes on way too long at 7 minutes plus. It could fade at 3:30 and it would be about the right length. As it is, though, it's a track I skip.
BOTTOM LINE:
Tracy needs to step off the soapbox and tell stories. Until then, she doesn't have my ear. There's some good stuff here, but the rants lose it points with me. She did this stuff better on her self-titled debut (ASIN B000002H5I), still the best of her work in my opinion. However, if you're a huge singer-songwriter/folkie fan, you may want this one.
If you're just here because of "Give me One Reason", the rest of this disc doesn't sound anything like it and you're probably better off with the excellent import anthology (ASIN B00005NSPV) or on the 1997 Grammy nominees disc (ASIN B000001EZY).