Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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34 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliantly crafted album with an intimate, subtle sound., February 27, 2008
Her unlikely story started at Harvard. ChinaForbes was studying visual arts with the aim of becoming a painter, and met up with Thomas Lauderdale, a history and literature student who played piano in the Boston clubs.
They both came from multi-racial backgrounds. Forbes had "a black mum and a white French-Scottish dad", while Lauderdale was "adopted, and a mystery Asian - he might be half-Chinese or something, but doesn't want to know".
The duo discovered they had a shared interest in opera. Lauderdale was a classically trained pianist, and at Harvard he would take out Puccini and Verdi arias from the library "and we went into the common room at night, where he would play the grand piano and I would sing in the dark. Nobody was listening but we had this cute bond that was our secret little thing", China explains.
After college, the two parted. Forbes had taught herself to sing not just by practising opera but "by listening to Donna Summer, my first teacher, then Stevie Nicks and Joan Armatrading".
She spent two years as an off-Broadway actress, then became a professional musician. "So I started writing songs and playing guitar in a Sheryl Crow style, and had a band and put out a solo album", she says.
After some time, the chic lounge million-seller PINK MARTINI was born.
But China Forbes never lost her old dreams.
Forbes has now revived her bizarre and brilliant solo career.
After years with Pink Martini, she now strikes a warmer note on this folkish recording, where heatbreak and personal emotions are the recurrent themes.
"She dusts off her guitar and returns to her singer-songwriter roots.
She recorded an album of strikingly personal songs in her hometown of Portland, Oregon with producer/drummer Gregg Williams (Sheryl Crow, The Wallflowers, Dandy Warhols)".
The title track's prosaic rendering of her mother's leaving for New York is the album's best tune--small, poignant details lovingly rendered below Herb Alpert-ish horn riffs and cozy acoustic strumming.
Other highlights include the Sheryl Crow New Wave of "Everybody Needs Somebody Now" and a far more effective version of Pink Martini's "Hey Eugene".
Her take of "Hey Eugene" is much less ironic, more compassionate, appearing here as it was originally written.
While Pink Martini often suffers from trying too hard, the seams in its contrivances showing, China Forbes on her own is almost the exact opposite: relaxed, at ease with herself, natural, even emotional and sentimental at times.
It will be difficult for her adoring fans to accept such a drastic transition.
Gone, this time, are her theatrical, ironically camp aura, her touch of the glamourous diva and the quirky, international loungy sound of Pink Martini.
All in all, this is a lovely, brilliantly crafted album of pop-rock songs, handmade music sung with low-key charm and warmth by the talented, enchanting singer/songwriter.
China Forbes: vocals, guitar, piano, bass, harmonium, Wurlitzer, keyboards
Gregg Williams: drums, percussion, programming
Eric Earley: guitar, bass, banjo, lap steel, drums, Moog, Wurlitzer, piano
Eric Matthews: flugelhorn, valve trombone
Phil Baker: bass
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
missed opportunity, April 28, 2008
I saw Forbes perform this album live in Boston before buying the album, and the differences between the two are staggering. Even though this pop/soft rock genre is a departure from the tried-and-true work of Pink Martini, she was still distinctively China Forbes up on stage ... that voice came through strong and clear and confident. Not so on the album. I kept thinking, this sounds like Sheryl Crow ... Forbes is a much better singer than Sheryl Crow. What's going on here? Then I learned that the drummer/producer used to work with Crow, and it all started making sense. So ... '78 is getting 3 stars instead of two because I actually like a few (3 or 4) of the songs, and I'm prepared to give Forbes the benefit of the doubt, that she listened too much to her producer and held back her powerful voice in an attempt to sound more "rock," or something ... thinner and tinny. China, we know you can do better ... looking forward to your next solo venture.
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40 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A Real Disappointment, February 26, 2008
China Forbes, whose marvelous voice is one of the great features of the band Pink Martini, sounds here as if she is just another pop singer. I had no expectations for this release, and certainly did not expect it to be another Pink Martini album. That would have been unfair. But this is an unremarkable solo effort. The arrangements are lackluster, the lyrics insipid and, worst of all, the singing lacks the power, drama and charm that she brings to the concert stage and all her previous contributions to the Pink Martini releases. The opening measures of Amado Mio from Sympathique and the one octave "just like all the others" voice present here are worlds apart. China, what were you thinking?
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