BALLADS & BURLESQUE

Rachael Sage | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 24, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: MPRESS
• ASIN: B0002KVUTI
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #308,944 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tori? Sarah? Move Over, September 29, 2004

By 

Holly_golightly202 "holly_golightly202" (Columbus) - See all my reviews

This review is from: BALLADS & BURLESQUE (Audio CD)

Talk about serendipity. I picked up this cd on a whim, and it has honestly turned out to be my best music purchase in the past year. Now I'm anxious to get my hands on the other five cds that I've heard she has out there and I'm ready to join the chorus of voices asking when Rachael Sage will get the radio love that she deserves.

Ballads and Burlesque manages to call to mind the work of talented musicians like Sarah McLachlan, Tori Amos, and Ani DiFranco, and yet in the end, what Sage has created here is entirely her own. She is more grounded than Sarah, more accessible than Tori, and more wistful than Ani--this is quite a coup, and it could end up being a very marketable one, if she finally gets heard airtime.

Simply put, there isn't a weak song on the cd. Even when she tackles the downside of relationships, as she often does here (the romantic dynamic, in "It's so Hard" and "Even Love Dies", the father-son dynamic in "Sacrifice") she manages to analyze and examine without seeming neurotic, and without wallowing...a lesson that other singer-songwriter types could stand to learn.
She can break your heart a little when she wants to, such as with the lost love described in "Jane's Dimitri", and yet manages to stay buoyant almost in spite of it all with her touch of humor in songs like "Leah" keeping her listener right there with her for the ride through relationships past.

From the sound of it, she's a believer in the "better to have loved and lost..." school of thought. And if you know what's good for you, you had better listen to her. It's worth it.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great artist, June 10, 2009

By 

Olga A. Shapiro (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: BALLADS & BURLESQUE (Audio CD)

I discovered Rachael Sage this past winter at the SXSW show.
She is a very talanted, original and entertaining artist. This CD is one of my favorite alboms by Rachael. I like to listen to it whan I need to do a lot of driving and also on the way from work. It has a calming effect on me. The lyrics are great!They are deep and beautiful at the same time.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better with each listen, September 22, 2004

By 

JoAnn Whetsell (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: BALLADS & BURLESQUE (Audio CD)

Rachael has put out another good album. The songs here are mostly about love in its various forms: self-love, confidence, and acceptance (Sacrifice), unfulfilled/lost love (the heartbreaking Jane's Dimitri), the complications of new feelings (Leah), the difficulty (It's So Hard), the end (Even Love Dies).

Illusion's Carnival and Public Record both took a while for me to really love, but I think those albums had sonic experimentation that took me a little while to get used to, and they had songs that I immediately loved. Overall Ballads & Burlesque is a bit mellower than her previous work, and I miss some of the punch. I guess I wish there was a little more burlesque in the ballads and a little less ballad in the burlesque.

"Ferris Wheel" is a good case in point. The original, which appears on Public Record, is bright, almost bouncy, and one of my favorite songs on that album. Here it is transformed into a far moodier piece. The trumpets that I had grown to love so much since Illusion's Carnival only appear here on 2 songs.

Rachael's voice and piano are as wonderful as ever though, the arrangements as lush (especially Stephanie Winters' cello), and the trumpets shine when they do appear. The album gets better with each listen, as the songs reveal themselves. There's more energy than first appeared.

Long-time fans should definitely add this to their collection. However I must admit I don't think it's quite as good as her previous work (her previous work being of such consistent high quality, that's really less of a slight than it sounds) which is why I recommend newcomers start with something else, say Smashing the Serene or Illusion's Carnival. Then again, maybe this disc would be better appreciated if it's not being compared to her previous albums.