Customer Reviews

'78

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

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.

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

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?

We've followed Pink Martini almost from their inception and see them every time they tour New England, often in multiple states. China Forbes has a beautiful rich voice with an expansive range. Listening to her sing is always a pleasure, a wonder ... until we listened to her on her new "78" album. Like ... Bombs-ville!! Formulaeic. Boring. Flat. Toneless. Unimaginative. Repetitious. Exceptionally dull, to the point that one panics and smites the STOP button on the CD player to kill the droning. Oh God, what was was China thinking? Or - flushed with PM successes, did she stop thinking? On this CD, she certainly stopped singing. No rating is low enough so for my wife and I, China's "78" CD should remain in the dark nether world of "unrated". Unfortunately, Amazon's system forces a minmal rating. The "78" CD is not worth even this! Stay with the Pink Martini professional CDs ...

I do like this recording but find the sound so similar to Sheryl Crow. Over the weekend I had it playing in the house and thought someone had changed the disc to a Sheryl Crow album.

I would like her next solo outing to be more unique in its character.

I am thoroughly disappointed with the quality of this cd. I am a huge fan of Pink Martini and was looking forward to China Forbes solo album. The recording sounds horrible. Her use of drum machines and other prerecorded instruments makes this sound more like a rehearsal session than a finished product. The recording sounds like it comes from an at home basement studio not a professional recording studio. I'm also not too keen on the simple lyrics that have no depth nor catch to them.

China, I like you, I really, really do. (Hey Eugene, where ever you are, yer a freakin' idiot!) But like the other guy said, what the heck were you thinking? This CD has none of the passion and range that the PM recordings have. It's just another mediocre pop CD that will collect dust after the first or second listening. Not my dust, though, because I'm not buying it. I listened to the whole thing on your website, twice, because I really wanted to like it, but it just ain't happening.

Why do you want to be a Sheryl Crow clone when you are vastly more intelligent and talented than her? Yes, she has made a butload of money, and if that's what this is about, fine. But I expected a lot better from you.

I gave it one star more than it probably deserves because I do like the version of "Hey, Eugene", but if I get it, it will be just that one track as an MP3. No way I'm buying the whole CD.

Some songs have a decent sound. Definitely lacks the artisanship and differentiation of Pink Martini.

The songs are all the same - bad mixing - her voice does not stand out at all. It all sounds so sad, the same pace, the same mood, the same, same, same... after the 3rd song I was ready to pull the plug (but I couldn't, to see if anything changed - it didn't!). I am a Pink Martini addict and think China has one of the best voices on the planet, but this is almost a monotone, and sounds more like a diary than an album. I don't know that I'll even keep it. Really, China, you're better than this!

She's great with Pink Martini. The selection of songs on this album make her sound like a ten-year old. Very disappointing.