Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A nice career overview, December 22, 2004
Kim Richey is a talented singer-songwriter who has a clear, powerful voice and the songwriter's gift. Unfortunately she has not been treated well by the machinery of the recording industry. Her music doesn't fit into one neat little category, so they never knew how to market her. And her record producers have never been able to fully capture Kim's talent in the studio. Bill Bottrell just butchered her sound on "Rise". When that record didn't generate big sales, Lost Highway dumped her, then put out this collection to fulfill her contract obligation.
Anyway, this CD collects some of the highlights from her four previous albums, and leaves plenty of good tracks yet to explore. I bought this CD for the live track "electric green", but was disappointed to find that Kim is singing harmony to Pete Droge, her voice is never really heard! I'm still hoping she will put out a live solo acoustic album.
|
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The right place to start discovering Kim Richey, September 9, 2006
Well, this can be said of any "Best of" album, if you are new to an artist. But in Kim Richey's case, this is particularly true, because with Rise (2002) she departed quite dramatically from the sound of her previous albums. As a proof of what I'm saying, just scroll down the lowest rating reviews of Rise and see how many fans felt betrayed by the change. Conversely, some of those who discovered Richey thanks to Rise were disappointed by her previous efforts.
Richey's first three albums can be loosely catalogued as "country-pop", even though the production becomes "glossier" as she moves from "Kim Richey" (1995) to "Glitter" (1999). I suspect her record company of yore, Mercury Nashville, was behind this gradual but steady shift. However, since sales didn't materialize, they dumped her.
Free from fetters, Kim looked for a new sound to describe her situation and to convey her emotions. "Rise" was born. Understandably, the lyrics are bleak and biographical (when she sings "I never liked a foreman standing over me" in "Girl In A Car" I don't think she's simply talking clichés; do you agree with me, guys at Mercury Nashville?) but the music is also different. She and producer Bill Bottrell must have been tinkering in a shop with all sorts of instruments when recording Rise: melodica, birdie, vibraslap, mini-moog, bozouki, washtub bass, farfisa, wurlitzer are present, among others. The result is a singer-songwriter album with Irish and Middle-Eastern influences. How some people can find it bland, I don't know.
As you have surely understood, I'm fond of Rise, but I also enjoy some songs from her previous albums, especially her debut. For instance, "Just My Luck" and "I Know" are terrific songs, very catchy, but often the other songs in these three albums are just unmemorable.
As for the new songs in this collection, "Electric Green" is a stripped-down live version of the same title song in Rise and "Break You Down" occupies the same turf. It may be an indication that Richey will stay the course started with Rise.
To summarize: buy "The Collection", see where you stand and pick from her precedent discography accordingly.
|
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great overview of Kim's recorded songs, May 31, 2004
By A Customer
The liner notes indicate that Kim Richey picked her favorite songs from each of her four albums. It is a balanced set with about four songs from each album. There is one new song, "Break You Down", and a live acoustic version of "Electric Green". It would have been nice to have live versions of other songs because I love her as a performer, but this is a very good collection for new listeners and an enjoyable one for long time fans as well. This collection highlights her incredible songwriting, and I recommend it highly.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Interact With Your Music: Discover, listen to, and buy new music, all from the pages of SPIN's digital edition, free to Amazon customers.
~ Kim Richey
~ Kim Richey
~ Kim Richey
~ Kim Richey
~ Plant, Robert/Krauss, Alison
by Kim Richey 
