Customer Reviews

Beyond an Infinite

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

 

 

One of the freshest, most interesting and flat-out coolest discs to come down the river in years. I can't believe people aren't tracking this yet, as evidenced by the fact that this is the first review. The Beauty Room successfully melds the styles of a wide range of artists/genres into some absolutely stunning and gorgeous vocal harmonies and rhythms. At times I hear Brian Wilson, Zero 7, Sting, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and others -- and it somehow blends beautifully with an old school, yet contemporary feel. Thanks to King Britt for turning me on to The Beauty Room by tracking an advance of "Visions of Joy" this summer on KCRW's Chocolate City (Go Garth). If "Visions of Joy" and the others here don't blow you away, you're not alive. This is music with beauty AND brains.

This is a very nice album.I discovered it on the Bob Harris show back in 2006. Harris has been a BBC DJ since the late 1960s and although he's in his sixties he still has amazing taste in music. Every week I discover a new artist that I didn't know about before.

I have enjoyed listening to this CD over the last four years and decided it was time to tell the world about it. Often with good albums it takes time to appreciate them fully. The vocals are soulful and the songs feature lush strings and strong melodies. The musiciship is excellent. There are plenty of excellent tracks, Bob Harris played Holding On often but Soul Horizon is another stand-out track.It is rather sad that not many people know about this band.

The Beauty Room consists of Kirk Degiorgio (producer, keyboards, vocals) and Jinadu (lead vocals, keyboards). Together they wrote most of the songs. The other musicians include guitarist Ian O'Brien, keyboardist Tom O'Grady and drummer Chris Whitten. The Heritage Orchestra provides the strings.

Although another AMAZON reviewer indicates that Beauty Room has "the "British Air" sound of Zero Seven and that these two bands are not dissimilar, I disagree. These two bands are not in any way similar, and Beauty Room does not attempt to measure up to Zero 7.

Zero 7 has a more ambient sound with liberal touches of soul, whereas Beauty Room quotes the sound of 70's Bread, CSNY, Donald Fagen and America without trying to mimic or wax nostalgic of an era long gone.

What this album has is tight harmonies backed up by crisp musical arrangements, and austere instrumentation. Although lyrically a little too clever in approach, the lushness of the vocals more than compensates for this slight lyrical shortcoming.

What a great album this is. I picked up this disc about four months ago, and it is still getting spun regularly on my player. This album was originally released only in England, which may explain its limited presence thus far here in the States.

This music can be described as ambient 70's soul mixed with some mild funk and jazz elements, but made with modern production techniques. The result is a sonically beautiful set of songs. The writing here is top notch...sometimes artists seem to get caught in the 70's trap, and end up sounding cheesy. Here, The Beauty Room's lyrics and instrumentation are thoughtful, introspective, and frequently beautiful. They somehow managed to pull off the entire album without sounding sappy or pretentious once. If you are a fan of other retro-influenced groups like ZERO7 or Jamiroquai, this album is highly recommended.

If you like the "British Air" sound of Zero Seven I'm sure you'll like this as it is not dissimilar. I bought this CD after reading good things about it by an online electronics review magazine. They said the sonics were good too, which they are. All in all though, it doesn't quite measure up to Zero Seven status. You could make a case for the first 6 cuts as smooth easy listening with catchy electronica, but ultimately the album is a bit boring and just fair.