Liza Minnelli's "Confessions," her first studio effort in more than a decade, is like Swiss Miss hot cocoa - warm and soothing on a cold winter's morning, but lacking excitement or nuance.
Granted, the mood and atmosphere are deliberately restrained and downbeat, with the wonderful Billy Stritch often providing Liza's sole accompaniment. This is a lo-fi, acoustic recording that breathes and is virtually noiseless, with no song standing out from the crowd. For some listeners, this would make the perfect sleep sedative.
The production techniques could have been generated in 1980 in a suburban recording studio. Many albums achieve "intimacy" but do not sound recorded on the cheap, as this one does. Ultimately, of course, Liza's presence injects the proceedings with a world-class aura.
Liza does a good job of being "Liza" here - playing into the expectations of her audience. She is one of the few living performers who should be permitted to get away with doing that. This self-awareness, however, does not always lend itself so well to an album of brooding romantic odes.
Her "You Fascinate Me So," for instance, sounds more fun-loving and cutely awkward than cozy or sincere. The same goes for "Close Your Eyes," a Tin Pan Alley chestnut which Queen Latifah sang more passionately in 2004 on her "The Dana Owens Album."
Even Irving Berlin's lovely, evergreen "I Got Lost In His Arms" from "Annie Get Your Gun" does not strike any particular nerve. These tracks simply glide in and out of each other in one mildly pleasing wash of sound.
There are a few moments where Liza's voice sounds abysmal, with her trying to push it beyond its present capabilities. The final "life is like a song" of the perennial "At Last," for example, sees her going for a high note with grating results. A handful of such moments pepper the album. One can guess that Liza is surrounded by a fair share of sycophants. No slip-ups like these could be found anywhere during her 2008 tenure at the Palace in New York, nor on its accompanying recording.
When Kennedy and Nixon famously debated the television audience declared Kennedy the clear winner, yet for the radio audience it was Nixon. It is likely that, seeing Liza perform these songs this way in person - especially in their living rooms - listeners would swoon with applause. When popping the CD in, however, they might feel like they had one too many helpings of Thanksgiving turkey.
Liza is such an important - and immortal - performer that she can get away with releasing a rather underwhelming collection like "Confessions" and still have fans and critics praise her for simply showing up and mustering some emotion. She has been endearing and enjoyable for decades, and "Confessions" works as a quiet, cool-as-cucumber affirmation of that, even if it is hard not to wish for something more scintillating and less sedate.
Side note: The album was originally intended to be a 10-track CD and a 15-track deluxe edition. At the last minute that idea was nixed, and so was the 15th track, "Breathing."