These days, Youssou N'Dour's Western releases seem to have more in common with florid '70s pop than his signature mbalax sound. This stunningly gifted singer is vastly overqualified for such uncomplicated material, and his rootsy acoustic backup band is repeatedly compromised by glaringly out-of-place programmed drums and synth patches. Most of the tunes were composed by N'Dour, but the set list also includes a chanson by Georges Brassens plus a cloying duet with French pop star Pascal Obispo. Why? Debates about authenticity are useless and demeaning, but N'Dour is clearly underestimating his potential non-African audiences. Meanwhile, longtime listeners still crave the dangerous beauty, visceral thrills, and ornate, jagged time signatures that characterize his Senegalese output. En passant, it is worth noting that Olatunji, Miriam Makeba, and Cesaria Evora all achieved lasting international fame by providing an irresistible alternative to the prevailing status quo, not more of the same in another language. --Christina Roden
Product Description
The traditional acoustic instruments such as the West African folk harp (kora), the Senegalwse lute (xalam) and violin (riti) are featured side-by-side with Senegalese percussion (sabar) and the familiar sound of chattering guitars. With a range of instrumental color more striking than ever, bouncing polyrhythms and soaring vocals that are among the most assured of his career. Nonesuch. 2002.
Nothing's in Vain,Youssou N'Dour,Youssou N'Dour,Nonesuch,Africa,Afro-Pop,Int'l & World Music,Mbalax,Pop,Senegal,South African,World Music,Worldbeat
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Purcell: Theatre Music
Manufacturer: Decca ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B0001Y4JHA Release Date: 2004-10-12 |
Customer Reviews:
Fine reissue of a classic set.......2006-05-24
This set originally appeared as separate LPs in the 70s and 80s, and has been long out of print. That's a pity, since Purcell spent a good deal of his short professional life in the theatre, either writing the incidental music contained on these CDs, or the music for his larger works, the semi-operas (King Arthur, The Fairy Queen, and the like). Almost all of these works are enjoyable gems; certainly, they represent a pinnacle of English 17th century music. Purcell had a genius for spinning musical gold out of the most leaden lyrics (check out his Odes and Welcome Songs on Hyperion if you don't believe me), and he does the same with the song texts in these plays.
Hogwood and the AAM offer clean, listenable performances, and the sound on these old analog discs has been cleaned up and brightened--although they were pretty good, even in the late 70s. As with most Hogwood, emotional extremes are kept to a minimum, so the "otherworldly" nature of late 17th century music, so often emphasised in more recent Baroque performances, doesn't come across here. It would be interesting to see what a group like The King's Consort would do with this music, but this set fills the major gap in the Purcell canon quite nicely.
My only beef with the reissue, as with many reissues, is that the liner notes are rather thin for a 6-cd set--the lyrics to the songs, for example, are especially missed. Still, it's a worthwhile set, and a must for fans of Purcell, English Baroque music, or anyone who just wants to experience a taste of the last days of the Restoration stage.
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Nothing's in Vain
Youssou N'Dour Manufacturer: Nonesuch ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00006JP29 Release Date: 2002-10-22 |
Tracks:
- Ta? bi (Heat, Breeze, Tenderness)
- Moor Ndaje (Mr. Everywhere)
- Li ma weesu (As in a Mirror)
- GennFor Those Displaced)
- La femme est l'avenir de l'amour (Women Are the Future of Love)
- Mb noonu la (Because Love's Like That)
- Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux (There Is No Happy Love)
- Sagal ko (Honor Her)
- C'est l'amour (It's Love)
- Doole (Show Your True Mettle)
- So Many Men
- Yaru (The Makings of Respect)
- Africa, Dream Again
Amazon.com
These days, Youssou N'Dour's Western releases seem to have more in common with florid '70s pop than his signature mbalax sound. This stunningly gifted singer is vastly overqualified for such uncomplicated material, and his rootsy acoustic backup band is repeatedly compromised by glaringly out-of-place programmed drums and synth patches. Most of the tunes were composed by N'Dour, but the set list also includes a chanson by Georges Brassens plus a cloying duet with French pop star Pascal Obispo. Why? Debates about authenticity are useless and demeaning, but N'Dour is clearly underestimating his potential non-African audiences. Meanwhile, longtime listeners still crave the dangerous beauty, visceral thrills, and ornate, jagged time signatures that characterize his Senegalese output. En passant, it is worth noting that Olatunji, Miriam Makeba, and Cesaria Evora all achieved lasting international fame by providing an irresistible alternative to the prevailing status quo, not more of the same in another language. --Christina RodenAlbum Description
The traditional acoustic instruments such as the West African folk harp (kora), the Senegalwse lute (xalam) and violin (riti) are featured side-by-side with Senegalese percussion (sabar) and the familiar sound of chattering guitars. With a range of instrumental color more striking than ever, bouncing polyrhythms and soaring vocals that are among the most assured of his career. Nonesuch. 2002.Album Details
The "Prince of Africa" and Friend of Peter Gabriel Offers 14 Rhythmic Gems with Help from Pascal Obispo and Les Nubians.Customer Reviews:
Francophone culture.......2006-03-21
Celebration for Africa.......2005-10-21
rhymic flair, and inspiring vocals and chorus.
Celebrations and peace for Africa.
N'Dour returned to his roots for inspiration........2004-09-02
Solid.......2004-03-31
The album has a great adult contemporary pop songs. It definitely has the very Peter Gabriel-world feel meets modern France-production. It's difficult to describe his records because they combine a whole lot of genres together. Even though it's not in English, it's still very catchy and very accessible to the casual listener.
I love the atmosphere that this record creates; it feels very heartfelt. "Nothing's In Vain" is a good place to expand your musical horizons.
Beautiful, rich sounds........2004-01-21
Unlike most of N'dours other work, this album WILL NOT FRUSTRATE YOU WITH AN OVERPRODUCED POP SOUND. Gone is Peter Gabriel's authenticity-ruining touch. Thank god someone sat Youssou down and told him that he was ruining his beautiful music in the studio. Aside from two songs where Youssou succombs to the misguided advice of producers, he created a beautiful, exotic, but highly listenable album. My favorite album of the last few years and the one I have gotten most excited about in a long time. Buy it.
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Carmen (Sung in English)
Bizet , Bardon , Gavin , Plazas , Magee , and Parry Manufacturer: Chandos ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00007JGRN Release Date: 2003-03-11 |
Tracks:
- Prelude
- In The Plaza
- Just Look At That Delicious Morsel
- Here Come Our New Soldier Boys
- Jose! There Was A Girl Here Looking For You Just Now
- Off With You Old Soldier Boys
- Corporal! Sir!
- We Have Heard The Bell Summon Us To Meet Here
- Ah, Just Look!
- But Why Hasn't She Come, Our Carmencita?
- Love's A Bird Wild As Any Rebel
- Carmen! We Will Follow You High And Low!
- The Cheek Of It!
- Give Me News Of My Mother!
- Your Dear Mother And I Were Leaving Church This Morning
- I See My Mother's Face!
- Wait A Moment - I'm Going To Read The Letter
- Come And Help
- So, Corporal: Tell Me What Happened
- Well, Carmencita: What Do You Have To Say For Yourself?
- Where Are You Taking Me?
- There's An Old Bar In The City
- Careful - It's Lieutenant!
- Entr'acte
- From Far Away Mysterious Sounds
- Bravo, Bravo! More! Keep Dancing!
- Hurrah! Hurrah! The Torero!
- Who's That? It's Escamillo, The Bullfighter From Granada
- Hurrah! Hurrah! The Torero!
- You're Most Kind
- We'll Come With You, Senor Torero
- Toreador, Be Ready!
- At Last! We Got Rid Of Them As Quickly As We Could
- There's A Little Job That We're Starting!
- Being In Love Is Not A Reason
Tracks:
- To Bid You Welcome To Our Bar
- La La La La La La La La...
- Back To Camp!... Go At Once!
- That Flow'r You Threw To Me I Treasured
- No, It's Not Love At All!
- Hello! Carmen!
- Lieutenant Fair, It's True
- The Sky Above The Open Road
- Entr'acte
- Keep Going, Dear Old Friend, Kep Going!
- Right! Let's Stop For A While
- Shuffle! Cut Them!
- In Vain You Would Avoid The Bitter Things They're Saying
- You're Back!
- As For That Man, It Should Be Easy!
- Is This The Place?
- I Say That There's Nothing To Fear
- It's Him! I'm Sure It's Him Over There!
- Escamillo Is My Name, And I Come From Granada
- She Had A Lover Here
- Hola! Hola! Jose!
- You Should Take Care, Carmen
- Alas! Jose, Your Mother Is Ill
- Entr'acte
- A Few Cuartos! A Few Cuartos!
- Here They Come! Here They Come!
- If You Love Me, Carmen
- It's You! It's Me!
- Viva! Viva! What A Corrida!
Customer Reviews:
English is an asset and a drawback.......2004-07-20
Unfortunately, the performance suffers from being sung in English. The singers declaim their parts with such proper British diction that Carmen comes across as a school marm. The spoken dialog is delivered beat for deliberate beat and is dripping with reverb. It makes the plaza, tavern and mountain pass all sound like a sewer pipe.
This is a good first Carmen for someone trying to understand the work. The libretto itself is a good investment for further listening. For an enjoyable performance with an emphasis on character and action, I recommend Regina Resnik on the London Double Decker set.
You Will Love Opera After Hearing Carmen In English.......2004-02-09
The real strength of this version is the dynamic drama. With the advantage of being sung in English, we get better insight on characters' emotions and motives, and we understand the drama a lot better. Carmen is all about great drama. Bizet drew the plot from the French writer Prosper Merimee's dark short story. Carmen is the ultimate femme fatale- a devil-may-care, sexy Gypsy living in Spain, seduces the conservatively raised soldier Don Jose, stealing him away from his fiancee, the passive Micaela, living a life of underground smuggling and rowdy taverns. "Habanera" and "The Gypsy Song and Dance" are very expressive of Carmen's extraordinarily liberal lifestyle. Don Jose, however, has fallen deeply in love- as he shows us in his song/aria "The Flower Song". But Carmen soon becomes tired of his constancy. Don Jose wants a committed, monogamous relationship with Carmen. But Carmen will not submit to love, since she is first and foremost a carnal creature. Eventually, she falls for the handsome Toreador Escamillo. Don Jose, consumed by jealousy, stabs Carmen at a bullfight after Carmen declares her love for Escamillo and rejects Don Jose's love. Don Jose's crazed, obscessive personality shines through in the English version as well. This tragedy has been done in English before so don't think this is the first time. Back in the 50's, there was a film, starring black actors "Carmen Jones" which was treated the same way as this opera- more like an English Broadway musical and with the dubbed singing voice of Marilyn Horne as Carmen. All in all, this recording is excellent.
A wholly credible "Carmen" -- finally!.......2003-09-17
I love Carmen!.......2003-08-15
And what of this recording? Carmen sits well in English, so it is good to hear in translation, although some of the detais in the text jar. Escamillo refers to Jose as "my dear", which sounds rather peculiar, and the guide's line to Micaela: "it's not exactly inviting, is it?" sounds distinctly Middle England rather than Rural Spain. Some of the performers, not least Carmen herself, make the words work, although there are long tracts, especially with the chorus, where the language is distinctly indistinct.
The soloists are, by and large, strong. Patricia Bardon's deep, Handel-friendly voice adapts well to Carmen and she colours the music with phenomenal detail, sounding sexy and provocative from the start with an edge of pride and anger that emerges as the show goes on. She is out of her depth above the stave, though, and some extra top notes in the second act don't show her off to her best advantage. I have previously said that Julian Gavin is poorly served by recordings, though here he sounds much more even and gives a thrilling and musical performance (but his wooden spoken lines let him down). Mary Plazas is a lovely Micaela, rich-voiced and sincere (and word-perfect), but Garry Magee sounds miscast as Escamillo, lacking the ballast at the bottom of the voice to do justice to this tricky role.
The supporting cast is good (Mary Hegarty seems to do nothing but Frasquita these days!) but the really treasurable thing is the conducting. Stepping out of Italian Ottocento, David Parry turns his hand to this French Comedie with an appropriate lightness of touch. His pacing and handling of the set pieces is exemplary and the enrtractes go with a real swing.
A pleasure, then, for the Carmen naive or a novelty for the Carmen-acquainted. I nearly wrote Carmen-weary - but I don't think it's possible.
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Nothing in Vain
Most Precious Blood Manufacturer: Caroline Distribution ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00005R8F3 Release Date: 2001-11-20 |
Tracks:
- Less Than Zero
- Apparition
- Sincerely,
- In Effigy
- The Knot
- The Lantern
- Morphine
- And The Band Played On
- Come What May
- Heroes And Conspiracies
- Song Of Siren
- No Place Like Home
- Unknown
- Unknown
- Unknown
- Unknown
- Unknown
- Unknown
- Unknown
- Unknown
- Unknown
- Unknown
- Unknown
- Unknown
- Bonus Track
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Album Description
Most Precious Blood has roots like an oak tree in the New York City hardcore scene. "Indecision" is more than a credit on a musician's resume, its an assurance that the players in question have made a contribution to hardcore music. There's a raw energy you feel in New York City that is unlike any other place in the world, and as products of Gotham City, MPB capture all that raw energy, emotion, and passion of a city always on the brink... of something wonderful, or disastrous. Most Precious Blood arrived with a vengeance, feeling they had to prove they were not just another "ex-members of" band back for glory. They are a new machine. The song writing has matured like a fine wine, now focusing more on melody, proving that you can be catchy while remaining heavier than gravity. Although their first album as MPB, this is collectively the seventh album for these members overall, and by far the most extraordinary example of true devotion to heavy music and hardcore.! This is undoubtedly an instant classic.Customer Reviews:
does indecision justice.......2003-12-14
For Those I Love I Will Sacrifice.......2003-08-09
I bought this album when I saw Most Precious Blood live with Hatebreed. The played a good set. I got to meet Justin, Rachel, and Matt from the band. They signed my CD and were really nice. Most Precious Blood is one of Indecision's album titles. Indecision featured current members of Most Precious Blood. Their guitarist, Rachel, is a female which is rare in a metal band. I don't mean to take anything away from her, she really rocks. Vocalist Tom Sheehan (who has since been replaced) has a strong, screech-like scream. The album cover is a bathtub with blood in it and on the back it shows a man in the bathtub bleeding from the wrist and has the lyrics from the song "The Lantern" Love is stronger than Death at the bottom. Inside the booklet, the band explains that the album cover is just abstract artwork made by their good friend Justin Borucki and they in no way condone suicide. It goes on to say that they put a lot of thought into their album covers and they want it to "help illustrate the lyrics". It ends with the powerful statement FOR THOSE I LOVE I WILL SACRIFICE....
The opening track, "Less Than Zero", which contains the standout lyrics Burn my fingertips so that no one knows my name, is a favorite of mine. It lets the listener know that the album will be good. It's followed by "Apparation", another one of my favorites. Along with great music, the band writes amazing lyrics, some about death and love loss. For example, the song "Sincerely," contains the lyrics "I can set a watch to the change of your heart" and "The Lantern" has the lyrics "I'd give my life just to save yours". After the twelve regular tracks on the CD, there are twelve tracks of nothing, each twenty-six seconds in durration. After that, there are a bunch of tracks of the band messing around and talking, some of which are funny. This is followed by some songs that I think are demo versions of a few songs on the CD or something like that, which makes the entire CD ninety-nine tracks and about one hour and six minutes long.
The CD is a must for any Indecision fan. It's also good for fans of bands such as Shai Hulud, Eighteen Visions, From Autumn To Ashes, Bane, or Norma Jean. I suggest you pick this up and I'm sure you'll like it.
A must've!!.......2003-06-26
Indecision Returns.......2002-11-17
Everything you loved about Indecision is still here. Insane hard driving guitars from Rachel and Justin. Tom Sheehan's shrilling screams are still present and sound better than ever, and the tight rythym section will knock your socks off. You won't find any of the generic metalcore melodic parts or solos here, just hard driving emotional moshcore. This belongs in every hardcore fan's library.
Top tracks: "Less Than Zero", "Apparition", "The Lantern", "Sincerely."
Incredible.......2002-10-28
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Faust (Sung in English)
Gounod , Clarke , Miles , Plazas , Magee , and Parry Manufacturer: Chandos ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00006NSEC Release Date: 2002-11-26 |
Average customer rating: |
Nothing in Vain
Most Precious Blood Manufacturer: Trustkill Old ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00008K502 Release Date: 2002-07-09 |
Tracks:
- Less Than Zero
- Apparition
- Sincerely
- In Effigy
- Knot
- Lantern
- Morphine
- And the Band Played On
- Come What May
- Heroes and Conspiracies
- Song of Siren
- No Place Like Home
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- O Invasor [Import]
- Orquesta Sinfónica y Coro de RTVE Vol. 13: Los Gavilanes [Import]
- Piazza Del Campo: Live in Siena [Import]
- Pokhara [Import]
- Pompa [Import]
- Raga Enayetkhani Kanada
- Rai: Moroccan to Algerian-The Gold Collection
- Reencontro [Import]
- Rimor
- Seuls Au Monde
Recommended Music:
Now It's on Pt.2 [CD-single] [Enhanced] [Import]
17th Century German Harpsichord Music: The Stylus Phantasticus
Live at the Village Vanguard [Live]
Vintage Nimmons 'n' Nine: CBC Air Checks '59-'64
You Can Be a Daddy, But Never Daddy-O