Customer Reviews

The Beauty of the Rain

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The beauty of a Dar Williams album is that you buy it for a song that you heard on the radio, or a snippet of words and music heard in the background of a television show's soundtrack. You listen, you enjoy, then it hits you: the mainstreamy, poppish tunes that you thought you were getting are just the surface current. Dar Williams's music always runs much deeper, and one day you realize how much lies beneath the surface (and wonder why the record companies and the deejays aren't displaying the real treasures).

As it did to some extent on "The Green World," the album before this one, a subtle theme of family runs through this album's songs (some of them, anyway). And Dar's understanding of family is rich and complex. Her songs are not syrupy ballads about parents loving their children, nor are they angry screeds about one generation rebelling against the generation before. Those motifs are both present, from the anger of "Your Fire Your Soul" ("But any day now one of us could die, and if we make you suffer don't you want to find out why, / Cause we love to watch you try, With your fire, your soul, your soul") to her heartstring-tugging ode to a mother's love for her child in "The One Who Knows" ("I want to teach your heart to trust, as I will teach my own, / But sometimes I will ask the moon where it shined upon you last, / And shake my head and laugh and say it all went by too fast."). Love and anger aren't always mutually exclusive, though, in life or in these songs, and Dar is at her best when she captures them together ("You should leave this house, leave this town, All that's left to chart is nothing less than your own heart. / What can you do with a day? What will you wake up and see? / The farther you get, the closer to me.").

If you are buying this album for a song that you heard on the radio--"I Saw a Bird Fly Away," say, or "Closer to Me"--they are here and they are good songs. And it only gets better from there. I listen to Dar's music wondering, How does this woman know my family? and me? And I am grateful that such an insightful poet with such a beautiful voice is gracing the same generation as I am living in.

I was also introduced to Dar through her earlier music and very reticent to get this album, based on concerns about it being overly "pop." I got it anyway, and am very glad I did. It's definitely not the acoustic singalong style of some earlier music, but it's very far from soulless pop. The songs are gorgeously crafted and the lyrics are in many cases quite moving. Dar has not let me down in any way with this lovely album.

Life many people who wrote reviews, I have been a Dar fan since her Northampton days in 1993. Like others, she took me through college, through the quaintness of New England, and taught me how to ponder, criticize, and question our everyday life. Her latest release is drastically different from _The Honesty Room_. But listening to this release in the progression of things, through _End of the Summer_, through _The Green World_, we realize that like all of us, she has grown up some as well. This release, while having a full sound and a strong bass that sometimes beats so hard it brings a headache, still holds a certain ingenuity and sincerity that made Dar popular. Some of the songs here are clearly reminiscent of previous releases - "Mercy of the Fallen" sounds like "Spring Street" and "I Saw A Bird" sounds just like "What Do You Love More Than Love". In fact, you can sing one song along to the other... The fullness of the sound overshadows Dar's voice and takes the rawness and emotion out of it. But while her sound has evolved into a foreign one for her longtime fans, I believe the message and the intellect are still there. Songs like "Mercy of the Fallen" and "The One Who Knows" will bring you to tears with their poignancy. Therefore, I would recommend this release with the strong suggestion that any new Dar fan get a hold of her previous releases to fully understand her roots.

I've been a Dar fan since day one, and I've been buying her releases ever since. In contrast to what some others have said about this release, I found it to be one of her best, nearly moving me as much as -The Honesty Room- did when I first heard it. While it may be more produced than hardcore folkies are comfortable with, tracks such as "Mercy of the Fallen," "I Saw a Bird Fly Away," and "Closer to Me," bring Dar back to what I've always enjoyed about her lyricism; Namely, she seems continually able to find the poetry in the smallest occurences of every day life. I'd highly recommend this album... and suggest you enjoy the little deviations from the typical acoustic guitar/sparse vocals as a new way to appreciate folk.

Dar Dar Dar, what can I say? You've done it again! You've written, you've performed, you've come up with a fantastic collection of tunes, ballads, anthems. You shared from your life with the sadness of I Have Lost My Dreams. You encouraged and motivated with Your Fire, Your Soul, you got me moving and feeling good with I Saw A Bird Fly Away. You did a beautiful cover with Whispering Pines, you talked grew up with Farewell to the Old Me. You surrounded yourself with master musicians like Alison Krauss, John Medeski and Bela Fleck. You've created an all-grown-up CD that I'll listen to over and over. Thanks, Dar! You're the best!

Dar Williams' music and lyrical charm and wit have captured my attention on her previous outings. Upon fist listening to "The Beauty Of the Rain", it seemed things were getting a little samey. During subsequent listenings, I sensed something unfolding - that rare moment when musical transcendence occurs. The voice lofty, sweet and earthy. The lyrics insightful, mellifluous and of the soul. The music a comfortable vehicle for a journal of life and its changes. Remove one note (as Salieri said of Mozart's music) and there would be diminishment. This album is a gift, like a comfortable novel that on can read again and again, each time revealing an intriguing nuance. For those unfamiliar with Dar Williams, this is an luminous introduction. If you treasure the unique, you will not be disappointed.

I'm not an unquestioning fan of Dar Williams. I first saw her on a complete lark, some time between the releases of her first and second albums; I bought the first CD at the show, which was held in a community center in San Diego. As a singer, she both benefits and (occasionally) suffers from a sweet, sweet voice, since it works well with the better material, but can drift into the oversweet on some of her other tracks; still others sound like what you might expect from a young, inexperienced college girl. Even when her melodies are at their prettiest, you are either attuned to the sentiment of "Family" (from "Mortal City") or you are not. As a writer, I find the majority of her songs forgettable, but every one of her albums has three or four absolute gems of songwriting craft on it, and while everything has a sheen of sweetness cast over it, underneath the sugar there's an unusual range. Her songs are alternately tragic, funny, reflective, didactic, etc.

On "The Beauty of the Rain," I suppose the big story is the recruitment of a decent roster of guest stars (John Popper, Alison Krauss, John Medeski, etc.) in supporting roles, but for the most part (thankfully) they never intrude too far. This is still a Dar Williams record, and like all of her others I can pick out some highlights (the title track, "Farewell to the Old Me," "Closer to Me," "Fishing in the Morning") and the rest, with one exception, I'm just not into.

But the one exception is everything, here. The song is called "The One Who Knows," and while, like most Dar Williams songs, the sentiment might run a little sweet, it never crosses my personal threshold for such things. That threshold is set a bit higher these days, though, since I've been a parent for several years, and this particular track is a love song from parent to child that hits all the right notes. Everything I want for my daughters is encapsulated in this song, all the more notable for being written by a woman with no children. It's not often a non-parent manages to get it right. "The One Who Knows" should be mandatory listening for anyone who thinks highly of schmaltzy wedding reception fare like "Butterfly Kisses;" it's the song that "Butterfly" only wishes it could be.

Future artists, male and female, are going to be cherry-picking Dar Williams' songs for decades to come. Joan Baez hopped on the bandwagon early on with a cover of "You're Aging Well," and I'm surprised Alison Krauss hasn't covered her yet. You might as well listen to the original now.

perfectly reflects the caliber of music contained on this record. It's unfortunate because Dar Williams was once one of the most intelligent songwriters around. Now it sounds like she's writing the kind of music a songwriter writes when he or she has to fulfill a recording contract. Nowhere here is the fiercely individual music heard on "The Honesty Room," "Mortal City" and sometimes on "End of the Summer." It all sounds generic, overproduced and heartless. "The Green World" was disappointing, but not as bland as this. Dar Williams may be trying to gain new fans with this more "accessible" sound, but she's losing this one. Dar, baby, come on home.

Dar Williams' music just gets better and better. I ordered two of The Beauty of the Rain albums, one to give to a friend- so I wouldn't have to lend her mine... I did not get the CD yet, but am listening to it via Amazon's Digital Library. Deciding on which song to tell you about is hard, they're all 'individual'. The duet [track 9-'Whispering Pines'] is beautiful. Track 10, 'Your Fire Your Soul' does get me thinking 'this is exactly why I want to stay home during the holidays!' And the final track, 'I Have Lost My Dreams' is a wonderful choice for an ending. I get the chills. Of course it did take me quite sometime to get to the end, as I kept replaying the first few tracks. -'I Saw a Bird Fly Away' is closest (in my opinion) to her previous releases. Just get the album, you'll hear what I mean. It makes no difference what kind of mood you're in, listening to her music is always the right choice. She hits it every time! ... She truly is a wonderful entertainer as well as a terrific storyteller in both her music and her song intro's. The bonus of having her do intro's on this album is worth additional stars, bumping it past the max. 5! Thanks Dar!!!

I'm a fan of Dar Williams first two albums and sort of lost track of her after that. But this album definitely got me interested again after hearing samples of a couple songs. This album is much more accessable and musical. This album really highlights her beautiful voice in the title song as well as 'Mercy of the Fallen,' 'Farewell to the Old Me' and 'Closer to Me.' I even caught my wife who is normally a pop radio fan listening to this one frequently! It's really a 4 1/2 star album; some of the later songs are just ok.