Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Not too late... maybe the dinosaurs can adapt?

I got this album today. My local supermarket had priced the DVD/CD version as the normal one and s0 I had to buy it there and then! The good news ends here and because I generally don't do negative posts I hope this is as near as I will get in 2007. I fear, however, that it may not be so.

There is nothing wrong with the audio content of this album, which I believe is exactly the same as that on the regular release (I haven't yet watched the DVD content that also came with this version) but as far as I can tell far it has fewer truly memorable tracks than "Feels Like Home". Maybe people who like "Come Away With Me", which I still like less than 'Feels Like Home', will prefer it to her last album?

She has a great voice, and the album might well grow on me in time, but I seriously wonder if it will win her many new converts. EMI were also playing down its likely success last year and, particularly worryingly is that it was then still pre-release in the US. If they can't appear to be confident in an established artist in their home market what is the point in their existence?

Track 2 Sinkin' Soon has the following lyric:

In a boat that's built of sticks and hay
We drifted from the shore
With a captain who's too proud to say
That he dropped the oar
A tiny hole has sprung a leak
In this cheap pontoon
Now the hull has started growing weak
And we're gonna be sinkin' soon.

It is not a bad album but I can't help thinking that it could have been so much better. I wonder if the lyric above has something to say about the industry?
It is true that she has to worry about offending the strange sensibilities of a major label. That is hardly something an artist should have to worry about but
it seems to me that this album is a result of playing rather too safe. Maybe she would be better off elsewhere?

No comments: