Customer Reviews

All Is Love (featuring Zoë Keating)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

At first listen I thought, "That singer sounds familiar". Turns out Curt Smith is the voice of Tears For Fears. For the past twenty years or so the market has seen a lot of gruff-voiced alt-rock singers, so Smith's clear strong vocals stand as a refreshing and welcome counterpoint. I especially appreciate his ability to deliver a song in a straightforward manner without affectation, allowing the lyrics and his voice their due. The arrangement is spare and beautiful with no unnecessary clutter.

I discovered Zoë Keating and her cello+electronics work while doing a random search here on Amazon about a year ago; the "Natoma" album was one of my most-played discoveries of 2009. For "All Is Love", her cello provides a perfect accompaniment without ever upstaging. Any day is a good day when Amazon's song of the day combines two such talents as Curt Smith and Zoe Keating.

One listen to "All is Love" is all you will need to get hooked. The musical and vocal connections Curt Smith, Zoe Keating and the musicians have on this track are beautifully orchestrated. Curt's ethereal voice and Zoe's passionate cello talents are truly blissful and magically sweep you away to that "feel good" place.

Curt's vocal quality just gets better and better. Much like his exquisite album "Halfway Pleased", this song rings true to Curt's quality and deep sense of creating musical beauty through his apparent love for his work. It brings me great joy to hear the upbeat and positive lyrics of hope intertwined amongst the heartfelt instrumentation. You won't be disappointed with your purchase of this song. It will definitely leave you wanting more new material from Curt Smith. I know I'll be able to enjoy this over and over & can't wait to hear more of Curt's musical creations!

All Is Love is the perfect amalgamation of classic Curt Smith with a classical cello. All at once it's sweet and hopeful, positive and forward thinking. Curt's mellow, melodic voice is soothing and amazing. I could listen again and again, and say "Bravo, Curt" and "Please might I have another?"

Everyone has one of those songs that they just love to play over and over and over again. The kind that if it were an old 45 you would have to buy a new one to replace it... well this is one of those songs. You can play this one in the background all day long and never be tired of it and then still find yourself humming it later on! And the lyrics... probably not the way he meant... but with all that is going on in Haiti right now... even more special. "Hold on tight everyone... We'll all reach out to touch someone... They'll be love for everyone"

All Is Love is another fantastic track from Tears For Fears co-founder Curt Smith. The layered arrangement, held at bay by the wonderful cello of Zoe Keating, is lush and Curt's voice soars effortlessly over it all. If this is a hint at what to expect as a followup to Halfway, Pleased, we are definitely in for something special.

The song by Curt Smith featuring Zoë Keating is a finely woven mix of modern and traditional instrumentation wth expressive and expansive compositional motifs. As the Rock genre reaches into the 21st Century seasoned listeners being introduced to a new song can often find it like reaching into a memory or a feeling established by some past time when music brought a new emotion to life. Within or outside the legacy of Tears For Fears, the open and sensitive listener will find several touches of the familiar mixed with the new in Curt Smith's "All Is Love".
If permitted to bring our suitcases of musical pasts as listeners with Curt Smith, we recognize a fine thoughtful moment distinct with self reflection opens in the lyrics, "Look what you've done...". The expression hangs with tones of regret in passing moment or past contrition. This familiar touchstone comes forward to remind the listener our childhoods are always with us. We react to the statement as though it were a question. Now as adults, many of us as parents, a reflexive "What have we done?" comes to mind and the suggestion to "look".
In understanding the beginning of Curt Smith within Tears For Fears, the question remain the same, how are making life better for another generation? What have we done when faced within the cycle of parent to child to the issue of the upbringing, the shaping of another life?
The introduction opens with delicate pensive vocals set against the cello of Zoë Keating and strikes a classical tone that never really dips into melancholy but rather a mild dissonant introspection and the glances of our human foibles. As the piece unfolds we find moments of questions that confront us, the renown reminders of humanity sewn into many songs either from Smith or Tears For Fears in whole. Then the piece reaches out with a warm chorus. A complex sting arrangement reaching back into the oeuvre of TFF as certain touches reminiscent of Lennon and McCartnery chord progressions have settled into the world around us. Reminders of who has come before us as artists and musicians -a reverb from that past that continues to touch lives, ensconced here and other arrangements with respect and dignity of our origins of a collective musical consciousness.
"Love for everyone" becomes a lyrical theme that repeats not with romantic limitations but the wish for a world where the love from homes in harmony will also bring a world closer to harmony. A psychological motif clearly familiar from the earliest messages within the legacy of Tears For Fears brought forward in this piece by Smith.
The really unique thing about this piece for me is the way the electronics and signal processing tilt and sway with contrasting textures to the acoustical elements of the cello, piano and orchestral parts. The modern, the now is still given thought and attention for those of us listening for "pet sounds". The piece is beautifully arranged and a sense of time of this creation is somehow not lost in the track time itself. Clearly, the thoughtful moments over the span that this creation came to life arrive with a sense of attention to detail with the larger, longer questions of how to give a piece such as this a full, rich, yet buoyant and poignant emotional package are met.
I as a listener feel only a sense of chagrin that this single is not the seemingly the preview of a larger body of work treated in this same manner of artfulness. May an album be forthcoming. Regards and for one and all that had a hand in the making and especially the featured talent of Zoë Keating.

Much thanks to Curt and the wonderful gift of music he has given us over the past 20 plus years. This is a perfect example of classic Curt Smith work. He is always looking to work with new and up coming artist, not to may artist out there that do this. I have had the pleasure to meeting Curt many times over the years. Every time I see him its like talking to an old friend and catching up. He is so down to earth and is such a great family man. Cheers to you Papa Smith. Onwards and upwards. Looking forward to more music. Cheers to Zoë Keating. I wish you all the best.. Cheers, Danny C. Las Vegas, NV 20 + years fan.

Fantastic new collaboration between Curt and Zoe Keating. Wonderful arrangement, great lyrics and that amazing voice. Always look forward to new music from Curt.

I was looking forward to this, but once again, my hopes are dashed. Apparently Smith thought his delightful "demo" Halfway Home, released only on his site to great praise from his fans, needed reworking. This new version is far inferior. Worried that he couldn't have the word "halfway" in two of his releases, he cut-and-pasted the worn "all is love" into the chorus, stale and tasteless pabulum in comparison. A slow and melancholic opening left me itching to hit the fast forward button (in spite of the nice cello by Zoe--who's better off solo). The sudden electronic mish-mash kills the mood inelegantly, in contrast to the continued heavy-hearted lyrics ("Look what you've lost, Innocence and faith"). But hey, all you need is love, and a small choir for your chorus, and a generous serving of "love for everyone" to round out the conglomeration, right? Wrong. Trying to navigate this song is like trying to drive on ice-slicked roads.
And what about the lyrics? Well, in spite of what they might say, Smith says the song is about the 2008 election... Really? Politics, as in: say what the masses want to hear to get what you want, bend the truth about someone to make the masses dislike them and like you more, do what you must to get your masses to hear what you have to say but not what the other guy has to say, spin-doctoring, false facades, and backstage secrets. But don't worry! LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED. (Where are the trumpets?) Now that the "right" group is in, everything's going to be hunky dory? No more hurt, no more broken (bleeding) hearts, no more vanity, ego? We'll get our faith back, just like that? Our innocence? LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED. Really? I get the impression Smith learned quite a bit from the politics of the election (see above list). He'd make the perfect politician. And innocence may be gone, but it seems naiveté is alive and well in Smith's circle of fans (see previous reviews).
Finally, I can't help but wonder at other reviewers' use of the word "strong" to describe Smith's voice. It might have been once, but age and cigarettes have taken their toll. Not every singer has to have a "strong" voice, and Smith generally manages with what he's got, but let's not go overboard. I'd call it "adequate," at best.