Vanessa Daou - Zipless
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Free Music Notes for Zipless
Free Music Review: Sultry Seduction
Hit: 5 Stars
This is an amazing album, like the long lingering kiss of your first true love. Be warned, it is full of raw sexuality, but so drenched in sensuality you will become lost in it.Free Music Review: Surreal, haunting
Hit: 5 Stars
I would listen to this cd if only for the song "Sunday Afternoon," which is such a classic that it still has the power to give chills. This music is so dreamy and surreal, and smooth as glass, it almost sounds as if Daou is singing underwater, somewhat reminiscent of the quality of Smoke City's "Underwater Love" song . . . there is a haunting, undulating quality to this music that doesn't die.Free Music Review: Worth a listen.
Hit: 4 Stars
Where to start? I first thought this would be a good cd for yoga, background music, general relaxation. It is all that and more! The jazzy beat with poetry has an updated beat nick feeling. The words are powerful and well chosen. The Daous have put together a timeless piece... even years after this CD was released and decades after Jong's books were all the rage. As a side-bar...What did happen to the sexual revolution? Free Music Review: The Naked on "Zipless"
Hit: 4 Stars
Vanessa Daou's voice on "Zipless" is sultry as an August day in Miami. The siren's sensuous and lazy vocals coupled with throbbing ambient music subtly overpower the senses. Listening to this potent mixture is addictive; the album begs to be replayed endlessly, which is delightful at first but then can quickly turn to something akin to Sisyphus' punishment of rolling that darn rock up a hill.
Lush electronica is played by husband Peter Daou, who also produced and arranged the album. The opening track of "The Long Tunnel of Wanting You" allures you into an orb of luxurious pleasures from the get go. "This is the long tunnel of wanting you./ Its walls are lined with remembered kisses/ wet and red as the inside of your mouth,/ full & juicy as your probing tongue." The poetic lyrics (taken from Erica Jong's 1991 poetry book, Becoming Light) merge perfectly with music and vocals that beckon reclining in the bedroom.
However, "Zipless" is more than a manifestation of cupid's wet dream. The album becomes darker in theme as it tackles topics like heartache, physical abuse, infidelity, and suicide. In "Dear Anne Sexton," "Live or die,/ you said insistently. You chose the second/ & the first chose me." In "Sunday Afternoons" Daou appears to take us back to the safe shores of a successful love relationship, "your arms ached for me,/ and your arms would close me in." But then she quietly drops the biting line of "though they smelled of other women."
Yes, love is often a messy thing and this album does not purport to clearly understand the heart, but has presented the vagaries of the heart's journey in an enticing manner. "Zipless" may make you want to give up this whole business of love as the protagonist thinks she can in "Becoming A Nun." "I think I can live without it--/ love with its pumping blood,/ sex with its messy hungers,/ men with their peacock strut."
However, the album does wane and lose its potency on the last two tracks. "Smoke" a poem about the effects of getting stoned is spoken by Jong. "Autumn Reprise" is an evocative instrumental that has Daou gently vocalizing as if unable to warm up enough to let the words completely out. These two oddballs are enjoyable, but "Smoke" is out of place, more at home on a spoken word recording while "Autumn Reprise" could have been deleted to make the album tighter and stronger thematically. Nonetheless, "Zipless" will awaken the coldest of hearts and much more.
Bohdan Kot
Free Music Review: Whispered sensuality
Hit: 5 Stars
Saying Vanessa Daou is like any other artist is an injustice to this work. The poetry of Erica Jong and the breathy vocals of Vanessa Daou is a sensually elaborate combination. The poetry is reminiscent of a Scorpio, yet Erica is an Aries, which the Aries aspect still comes across very strongly. I use "breathy" to describe Vanessa's vocals; they are not powerfully sung from the diaphragm, but almost whispered in your ear. The vocals come through clearly though, thanks to good production. The instrumentation is not what I typically go for but it compliments the vocals and lyrics well and has helped me to appreciate the style.
Within 2 hours of receiving this CD I started tracking down more of Vanessa's work, I have acquired "Make you love" and "Slow to burn." My Favorite is Zipless, then Make you love, then Slow to burn.
All together well written, sung, and produced. I give this album a very strong 5 stars.