Customer Reviews

Diana Krall: The Look of Love

5 star:		(218)
4 star:		(69)
3 star:		(82)
2 star:		(83)
1 star:		(51)

 

 

I usually will not add my review if a CD or book or video has already lots of reviews. I mean: what is left to say?

I felt, however, after reading about 20 reviews of Diana Krall's new THE LOOK OF LOVE that I wanted to write what is obviously a minority point of view. I LOVED this album. It reminded me of the Frank Sinatra "theme" albums like "Only The Lonely" where all the songs on the disc were of one mood. Here is Krall singing one gorgeous love song after another, accompanying herself, as always, on the piano with a small jazz combo and backed by a studio orchestra and the London Symphony. The orchestrations are lush, the sound on the CD is terrific and Krall is singing like I've never heard her sing. Every number is tops and done in Krall's signature throaty, sexy, husky style.

I especially enjoyed Schwartz and Dietz's "Dancing in the Dark" which is, in my opinion, one of the finest pop songs of all time and which cannot be allowed to be forgotten. Since the horrors of September 11, alot of songs with first rate lyrics take on all new meanings and here is a song which says, "We're waltzing in the wonder of why we're here/Time hurries by/We're here and gone."

This is a cuddle by the fireside with someone you love album. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

I have been a Krall fan since '93 when a Canadian friend sent me a tape of her first release. As a jazz guitarist and fan of jazz piano and vocals I loved her from the start..putting her in the league of early Nat Cole,Shirley Horn, Carmen Mcrae and Sarah Vaughn. While she wasnt a truly great singer....her voice really worked because of her phrasing, emotional feel, swing and the swinging piano she played extremely well. When I finally saw what she looked like, I knew she could be marketed to a very broad audience (I'm also a marketing consultant and former music executive). I only hoped she would NOT succumb to the same fates as Nat Cole, Wes Montgomery and George Benson, fine jazzers who became so marginalized by the music industry they became essentially pop musicians, and in my view lost the feel that made them stand out initially.

All that said, this is what Diana Krall has been pushed towards on this disc. It started somewhat on her last outing but seems to be virtually complete with this one. Sad thing is she sounds like she knows it..at least subconsciously. Her performance is often lacking in emotion, depth and her piano is virtually invisible. The accompaniment is superb from a pop perspective but boring from a jazz perspective...the instrumental performances seem to be deliberately mainstream....her guitarists especially lack the jazz feel of the past even though one was on her early records. The solid jazz feel of Peter Bernstein and early Russell Malone were solid secondary instruments to Kralls piano....not true here.

Bottom line....this is an ok pop disc and NOT a jazz disc at all. Its only a so-so Diana Krall CD and misrepresents her real abilities. I have seen her live 3x and she is great, funny, plays a hell of a piano and can sing with the best jazz singers..but this disc doesnt do it.I think its a loss to jazz lovers but also to music lovers as her performance suffers in this context.....she doesnt sound like she is sining from the heart....and she has the heart of a true jazz musician.

Krall is one of the few jazzers who can make a jazz record and have it really sell...ie. make a real living from it. This is a real issue for her and most jazz players and the true economics behind the push to pop from her record company...its also the art of music being subordinated to the "product" of commerce.

Maybe her next release should be a live trio or quartet date from a small intimate club....she probably doesnt play that way much anymore but it is where she shines. Maybe a charity date with a select audience....taped for later release?

Diana Krall has a lovely voice, with a wonderfully rich tone quality and impeccable intonation. For all that, The Look of Love is a disappointment. The emotional range Krall expresses goes all the way from A to B--there's no difference in the way she sings Cry Me A River, Besame Mucho, S'Wonderful, or Maybe You'll Be There. It is all emotional deadpan, and the slick arrangements make her sound like Tony Bennett on Prozac after a sex change. As music to make out to, it's perfectly fine, but as a CD to listen to throughout, it's a disaster. It's not that I don't love ballads, but if there's no pain in the songs about loss, no ecstasy in the songs about love, the point is missed. This one is probably not worth owning, even if she does look lovely in the photos.

I have four of Diana Krall's albums and thought her "When I look in your eyes" was MORE than deserving of a Grammy win. A truely astonishing singer, Krall ranks way up there. Butttttt, I was disappointed in this CD. That is not to say this is a CD with no redeeming music - it is simply inferior to her previous CD. I found three things on this CD especially disappointing: One, virtually all of the songs are melancholy - how they chose to load this with so much sadness is beyond me. If you're even close to having a bad day, don't put this baby on - you'll end up tossing yourself through the window. Second, her rendition of Besame Mucho clearly sounds like an American TRYING to sing a latin song . . .. it loses something to hear an American singing in Spanish. Third, Krall has some superior muscians - outstanding guitarists, bassists, keyboards, drums . . . To add a symphony loses that intimate jazz sound. A good CD worth getting but be prepared to continue giving more air time to her previous CD.

Over the past few years I have become a big fan of Diana Krall.She is both a tremendously talented jazz vocalist and pianist.In the past I have seen her numerous times in concert and have seen her perform much of her latest material.Yet, I was really surprised by the style and sound of her new CD, "The Look of Love".If you were looking to hear a sound alike sequel to her grammy winning, best selling album, "When I Look Into Your Eyes", you are in for a very big shock.Gone is the small band sound with Diana's jazz piano playing out front in the mix.Instead Diana treats us to a very subdued, vocals album which is heavily orchestrated, with many of the songs given a bossa nova touch. It greatly sounds like Diana is emmulating the Sinatra concept albums of the late fifties and early sixties.In fact when I first heard this album, the first thing that came to mind was the classic album, "Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim". When I later looked at the credits of these two albums, I found out that they were both arranged and conducted by the same person, Claus Ogerman.I have to admit, that this CD threw me for a curve, when I first heard it. This album sounds like nothing she's done before.It took repeated listenings for this new sound to grow on me... but it did! It is like a fine wine that you need to acquire a taste for. Highlights include a wonderful, "S'Wonderful" and a fantastically, sexy version of "Cry Me A River".My only real complaints with this album is that the orchestration is a little heavy handed and I wish I could have heard more of Diana's piano. Still, it's a good CD, which I would recommend you give a chance!

Sides will perhaps be taken as to whether or not THE LOOK OF LOVE is a step forward for Diana Krall, since it does veer in style from the expected. Not to marginalize her previous albums, but I consider this CD to be a major leap forward for an already impressive talent. Note the following: 1) Diana is accompianed by an orchestra here, rather than a small jazz combo (although of course Diana still contributes piano solos). 2) Those who liked some of the finger-snapping up-tempo tunes she has recorded in the past should prepare themselves--that isn't the mood she is visiting this time around. 3) The music generally falls within the spirit or the letter of bossa nova, and the expected degree of subtlety in this genre is maintained from the album's beginning to finish.

The tone of the album isn't somber, but it does deal with adult emotions, specifically the ups and downs of love...and as anyone who is familiar with such bittersweet gems as I GET ALONG... can attest, the latter can be particularly poignant when the singer channels such tunes' multi-layers of heartfelt emotion effectively, as Diana does here. Throughout, Diana's voice is a flawless gem, not so much technically--although I have no complaints regarding that--as in her power to communicate from the soul to a degree that I find approaches that of the best 1950s-vintage Frank Sinatra concept albums. As did Sinatra, Diana often sings barely above a whisper, but at appropriate times raises her singing voice for dramatic effect. Hopefully such a departure from previous CDs is an indication that Diana isn't going to pander to the change-resistant faction of her fandom, but rather that she will risk her popularity by exploring whatever music that she is inspired to tackle at a given point in her career. Who says a traditionalist can't think like a progressive?

There's probably no bigger fan of Diana Krall around then myself, but I have to say that with each CD she moves farther away from what made her special in the first place. She is experiencing what I call "George Benson-ization". Let me explain...

A long time ago, George Benson showed promise as one of the great jazz acoustic guitarists, in the mold of Wes Montgomery. After he released more than a few tunes with vocals, it seemed that his guitar playing became secondary as he became more of a pop singer than an "artist". Soon, he was irrelevant within the genre of jazz. If one listens to early Diana Krall, we hear her superb piano style, as well as her rough but greatly interpretive vocals. But with each successive album, and in keeping with her expanding popularity, her albums are increasing string-laden and, well, syrupy. The arrangements not only overwhelm the vocals, but in many cases seem to lack any relation to the emotional viewpoint of the song. And where's the piano?

My feeling is that her record label is pushing her toward the mainstream, when they should be letting her follow her muse and allow the mainstream to come to her due to the force of her talent. Either way, I hope that she will again someday get back to the jazz combo sound that made her special in the first place.

Diana Krall, riding a huge wave of popularity, probably has her pick of musicians, arrangements, and producers. If true, she has opted out of jazz and into a bland flavor of pop in her last two albums. She is doing her fans a great disfavor, because it is clear from two great renditions here that the earlier jazz-oriented Ms. Krall offers far more than her recent lightweight popular fare.

The first track is "S'Wonderful," and it is. It's what this album could have been: luxurious strings and a "Latin" beat accompanying Ms. Krall's distinctive vocal interpretations and excellent piano riffs, with clean, intimate backing. The overall concept was not flawed, this and the song "The Look of Love" show that, but the orchestration and safe vocals on most of the album simply disappoint.

Track 2, "Love Letters" is average, the strings don't get in the way, Ms. Krall hits some interesting blue notes (otherwise largely absent on the album) and there's some appropriately dreamy piano. However, the tone is too languid and there's nothing very challenging--let alone interesting--about the arrangement. Track 3, "I Remember You," will remind you of track 2; just as Track 4 will remind you of Track 3: The songs begin to run together. The high-pitched, dreamy vocals and lackluster Latin accents start sounding like mush. And here, the orchestra does get in the way. An opportunity for one of Ms. Krall's superb piano solos is filled instead by some unimaginative strings.

"Cry Me a River" is mostly homogenized glop, all so floaty that the mix of her voice and instruments are a flat melding of sea and sky. Her precise enunciation and phrasing on this and other songs almost sound condescending like "Let me spell out the emotional meanings for you." Lush, relaxing, yes, but it sounds at best like background dinner music, and at worst like bedtime music when you have the flu.

Other nice but unexciting vocals follow (e.g., "The Night We Called it a Day," vocally uninspired and bereft of genuine feeling). At least this song features some excellent piano and builds tension.

One of the better songs is "Dancing in the Dark," featuring good Doris Day-like clarity, and excellent, complementary playing between piano and orchestra. The playing, the tension, the dark undercurrent, the mystery all fit the song. There's some sweep and emotion here.

The big exception (other than S'Wonderful) is her version of "The Look of Love." If you've been lulled into a soporific state, this song will awaken you with a surprised "Who is THIS?" It's Diana Krall at her best, inventive, husky and sultry, the potency of smoke and scotch. It's what we liked on her last good album, "Love Scenes," the assured, risk-taking vocals and the spare, intimate jazz backing.

Again, the problem with the CD isn't the strings so much as the one-dimensional orchestration, the lack of intimacy, and a overall similarity in sound, vocal approach, and tempo. Often, Ms. Krall sounds overmiked, with a resulting diminishment of her generally superb tone, dynamics, and coloration.

Looking more like Traci Lords than a jazz singer, Diana Krall isn't what you'd expect when you think of blues vocalists. But her extremely effortless and efficient voice comes through quite well in her latest CD, even though her piano skills are unused. Krall compliments the already-faultless London Symphony Orchestra in creating a number of well-crafted tracks that relaxes and electrifies the listener at the same time. Following up her tremendously popular tribute to the Nat King Cole trio in All For You, and then her Grammy-winning When I Look In Your Eyes was never going to be easy, but she seems to have succeeded in putting together some wholly pleasurable and fully tranquil tracks that harkens the memory back to the songs of `Ol' Blue Eyes' - Frank Sinatra. "I Remember You" in particular sounds like it was written by Frankie himself for Krall, combining an excellent guitar beat with an unexpectedly adequately-performed piano tune. It's followed by "Cry Me a River", which, to us at least, sounds straight out of a blues joint in the 50's - entirely depressing yet entirely enjoyable at the same time. However, the lack of her piano dexterity on the album destroys what could've have been some superb songs. Both the opening track "S'Wonderful" and "I Get Along Without You Very Well" sound too orchestral for our tastes, using a plentiful number of flutes, violins and other instruments, while "Besame Mucho", the now-formulaic `Spanish' track on every jazz CD, seems to forced onto the listener with Krall sounding like a foreigner trying to speak the language. Despite those minor failings, The Look of Love is a compelling yet flawed album that's a respectable, but not outstanding, album.

It's been done before. Julie London and Barney Kessel. Diana is very talented but she would be better off to develop her own unique style. Julie London hasn't been dead long enough for all of us to forget her.