Customer Reviews

Angel in the House

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The listeners of my favorite radio station (WXPN in Philly) voted this album the #1 of the year 1993 and its very hard to argue with my neighbors. Its a terrible shame that Jonatha Brooke and Jennifer Kimball went their separate directions after this record, because its simply beautiful.

The songs are a little mix of 1960's folk music with an underlying layer of jazz floating though the songs. Some of the songs are acoustic masterpieces, like "So Much Mine" and "The Angel in the House." Some are a flok-jazz blend like "Missing Person Afternoon" and "When Two And Two Are Five." And there's a beautiful a capella song called "In The Gloaming." Jonatha and Jennifer's voice blend so well together...they have similar styles and ranges, and the harmony is angelic.

Both of these artists have gone on to solo careers, and Jonatha Brooke is threatening to become nationally known. The Story was made in a time when both of the songwriters were still young and their talent was still developing. And it this was the sophomore effort at songwriting, all I can say is that it is scary to see these talents develop even further. Jonatha still performs many of her songs from this album in concert...so DON'T MISS HER SHOW is she comes to your town.

If you are true romantics at heart then you will no doubt be touched by the sensitivity in her writing and the soft, angular and unique harmonies she sings with her longtime writing partner Jennifer Kimball. Together they are "The Story" and they are amazing on "The Angel in the House" and "Grace in Gravity." Jonatha will blow you away ON HER SOLO CD "PLUMB" especially if you like Stevie Nicks, she is not country influenced like her she is more easy jazz and neo-folk instrumentally but she is just as insightful lyrically as Stevie and she is as heartbreakingly romantic lyrically as Wendy & Lisa. (If any of this rings a bell with you go and buy Wendy and Lisa's first cd right now!!) Jonatha is not as well known as sheryl, sarah, alanis and paula, for a good reason (she is too harmonically rich and too smart lyrically...she is not ever trite like them, no offense they are all talented but they all get trite enough to sell lots of records and their respective record companies are encouraging them to do so. So she is not as well-known. She probably has too much artistic integrity to care because disc after disc and now as a solo artist she hasn't sold-out. She gets very real in her songs, (and has the chords to back it up) and they do not have a simple story or superficial context all the time. Many do not have a happy "sing-songy" chorus...her songs are like real life, the one we are living, not like radio fodder where everything is rosy and sunny every minute of everyday of everyone's life.

The Angel in the House is by far one of the most singularly fantastic albums of all time. The lyrical quality is top notch. The harmony is lush and beautiful, especially the graceful and complicated dissonneces. This is a Masterpiece of Contemporary Folk Music. No musician, no lover, no thinking, emotional human being should be without this CD. The Story, comprised of Jonatha Brooke (lead vocals / guitar) and Jennifer Kimball (harmony - not to be taken lightly) went to Amherst College and sang in their A Cappella Group The Sabrinas. In recent years the power duo has gone their seperate ways and each have continued to creat e beautiful music with Boston-based Folk solo and pop projects. The best songs on this disc are Missing Person Afternoon, Amelia, The Guilded Cage, In The Gloaming, and The Angel in the House.

"My mother moved the furniture When she no longer moved the man We thought nothing of it at the time..."

I only give the highest rating to CD's that I have to have in the limited space in my car. This one definitely makes the cut. Too bad they broke up, but Brooke is still putting out excellent CD's. If you liked her '10 cent Wings' CD, you'll like this one too.

I have no idea why this took so long to click with me. Idiscovered Jonatha Brooke's work after being seduced by her voice ontrumpet player Chris Botti's recent "Midnight Without You" album, started with "10 Cent Wings", then worked backwards and sideways. Initially, neither of The Story's albums did much for me. Then one day, during a seven-hour drive that took me along the magnificent scenery of the east coast of England through to northern Scotland, everything fell in to place. This CD refused to leave the player. Since then, it's one of a handful among over 1000 CDs that still selfishly takes up regular residence in my CD player at the expense of newer, still-to-be-absorbed albums. "So Much Mine" and "At The Still Point" are beautiful pieces of melancholic song writing. "Missing Person Afternoon" has some fantastic percussion work underpinning two of the purest voices of their genre. And "When Two And Two Are Five" is one of those great, great songs that has 'huge radio hit' painted all over it, yet as with so many bands in this modern age, I never heard a note of it before I picked the album up. (Radio programming in the UK is so desperately bland.) Even the humour that belies the half-serious intent on "Fatso" isn't misplaced - how can you not enjoy a song that preaches the joys of whipped cream filling while undermining the popular media's perception of the perfect female form? The real achievement with this album is one of thoughtfully considered balance - no shortage of light and shade, delight and sorrow, exhilaration and fragility. Of their two albums, this is by far the stronger effort. Rather wonderful, in fact.

It's a wonder that the Story never became a huge phenomenon. Perhaps they were recording too pre-Lilith. These two are phenomenally talented, with beautiful voices and music. It's a shame that they only have two albums to grace us with.

I had to buy another copy because I wore out my first one!

What an amazing CD! My sister had "So Much Mine" on a mixed tape, and I loved it so much, I had to get the whole CD, and I have no regrets! The Story's amazing blend of guitar, piano, hauntingly beautiful voices, and the occasional bongo make this one of those albums you can listen to over and over and over again. I am a huge fan of the Indigo Girls, and if you like them, you'll love this album!

This is one of my favorite CDs, and has been since it came out. I saw the Story perform in Boston by accident (dragged by a friend), and I have appreciated their music ever since.

One of my favourite female singer-songwriter albums... also Jennifer Kimball's swansong with Jonatha Brooke, and not a huge surprise since by then Kimball's input as a songwriter to the group's work was minimal and she was relegated to harmony vocals.

Brooke's moved on to prolific alterna-folk-pop visibility since then, while Kimball's been off the radar since her 2 low key offerings... a pity when the 2 singers blend so harmoniously on tracks like 'damn everything but the circus' off their debut 'Grace in Gravity' which recently appeared in Brooke's 2006's 'Live in New York' sans Kimball.

The opener 'So Much Mine' traces the grief and guilt of a mother whose child has turned into a streetwalker (where you'd get that dress,where you learned to walk like that...tell me where you've been, I do't really wanna know...), while the title track witnesses a subjugated woman's plight and contains the saddest lines I've heard "...my mother moved the furniture when she no longer moved the man..."

Other standout tracks include the retelling of the classic tale in 'Mermaid', "Amelia" and the harmony laden traditional "In the Gloaming"... The lighter moments on "Fatso" also shows the ironic wit of this much missed duo. A reunion is in order for this wondrous pair...