Dreaming Through the Noise [Import]

Vienna Teng, Vienna Teng, Vienna Teng | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 21, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Universal
• ASIN: B000JU7L9Y
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,052,472 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Experimental singer-songwriter Vienna Teng arrives at her ambitious third album at the peak of her considerable powers, with renowned producer/bassist Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Madeleine Peyroux) providing a more textured and atmospheric landscape. Contributions from musicians Jay Bellerose (Paula Cole, Duncan Sheik), Carla Kihlstedt (Tom Waits), and Marc Orton (Bill Frisell) make Teng's piano-based, jazzy chamber-folk shiver with new intimacy. But at the core, she remains as seductive and transcendent as ever, even as lyrically she takes more of a storytelling approach. Marrying complex melodies and moody tones to captivating lyrics about fevered longings, unspoken truths, and uncharted suffering, the former software engineer pulls listeners into a secret, subterranean world that is often as murky and disturbing as it is wondrous. On "Whatever You Want," a dutiful "company man" and his perfect wife pull back the curtain to reveal a disquieting darkness. In "I Don't Feel So Well," an unbalanced woman issues a provocative warning to a potential lover ("I thought you should know before you fall"). And on "Now Three," delicate cello lines play off a nearly mystical lyric about prenatal knowing. Teng delivers all 11 offerings in a chillingly pure soprano, multitracking her own voice 32 times on the Hurricane Katrina-inspired (if also overlong and ponderous) "Pontchartrain" to achieve something reminiscent of a Latin liturgical piece. Not yet 28 and frighteningly gifted ("Lake Pontchartrain is haunted: Bones without names, photographs framed in reeds"), Teng seems to know your own soul better than you do--the exquisitely beautiful "Recessional," which inspires the album title, may make you rethink your whole life. The album's most uplifting and hopeful cut: "City Hall," inspired by San Francisco's decision in 2004 to recognize gay marriage. ("Ten years waiting for this moment of fate / When we say the words and sign our names / If they take it away someday / This beautiful thing won't change.") Count Dreaming Through the Noise among the "can't miss" records of 2006. --Alanna Nash --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Product Description

One might call quitting a lucrative job as a software engineer for a life as a singer-songwriter a risky career move. Fortunately for Vienna Teng, it has paid off. Within two years of leaving her Silicon Valley career behind, 27-year-old Teng has appeared on the CBS Early Show, Late Night with David Letterman, and NPR, and has gained a large devoted fanbase through constant touring, selling 60,000 copies of her first two albums. Vienna Teng reaches a new musical pinnacle on her third album, and debut for Zoë/Rounder, 'Dreaming Through the Noise.' Producer Larry Klein (Joni Mitchell, Madeleine Peyroux) provides Teng with the perfect setting for an unforgettable set of chamber-folk compositions, which showcase her sharp lyrical prowess as well as her skills as an accomplished pianist. The album's eleven original songs show both an amazing lyrical depth and a broad musical scope, which ranges from the perfect pop simplicity of "Whatever You Want" to the stunning musical tour de force of "Ponchartrain." Clearly her most ambitious work to date, 'Dreaming Through the Noise' confirms Vienna Teng as a brilliant young songwriter at the top of her craft. --This text refers to an alternate Audio CD edition.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Still dreaming, August 9, 2006

By 

E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dreaming Through the Noise (Audio CD)

Most singer-songwriters didn't start out as software programmers, who then dumped the job for the sake of piano pop. In a lot of cases, it would be a stupid decision.

But Vienna Teng continues to prove that her decision was the right one, in her third album "Dreaming Through the Noise." It's not Teng's strongest album, but her delicately powerful voice and solid musicianship make this a quiet delight for anyone sick of prefab pop music.

"Blue blue caravan/winding down to the valley of lights/my true love is a man/who would hold me for ten thousand years," Teng croons in the opening song, over a bed of murky guitar and delicate piano. It's a soft, misty, slightly tense song that draws you in for the rest of the album.

That sound continues in the tripping melody of "Whatever You Want" and the sweeping balladry of songs like the quirky "I Don't Feel Well" and tries out a jazzy sound in the the rueful, meditative "City Hall." Teng trips down her ballads with rippling piano and lots of delicate sentiments, and lyrics written so that images pop right into your head.

If a few songs had been snipped out of "Dreaming Through the Noise," the album might have been perfect -- a few simply don't fit in, and don't grab you with images and musical beauty as Teng usually does. "Love Turns 40," for instance, is like a quirkless Regina Spektor song, a sound that Teng conquers successfully in the oddballish "1 BR/1 BA."

"Singer-songwriter" usually makes me think of coffeehouse singers, holding a big acoustic guitar. Vienna Teng is a different variety, with refined and complex piano pop and polished songwriting. She's like a less angsty, more meditative Sarah McLachlan, or a more romantic Regina Spektor.

Her piano is still the main instrument, whether tripping over a quirky melody, or cascading gently through a ballad. In addition, there's a bit of folky guitar creeping just under the piano. But Teng also adds some new flourishes, such as a viola, or the scrapy fiddle that pops up every now and then.

And Teng's songwriting skills are still excellent, with the lyrics knack and potent imagery of really good poetry. Even better, there's an element of human sorrow, love or thought in most of the songwriting: "For my true love is a man/Who never existed at all/Oh he was a beautiful fiction/I invented to keep out the cold..."

Though "Dreaming Through the Noise" could have been tightened up by the exclusion of a few songs, Vienna Teng's third album possesses the beauty and songcraft of her previous work.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another great album, July 27, 2006

By 

The Bookwyrm (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dreaming Through the Noise (Audio CD)

Like everyone else has said, this album is definitely different from Vienna's first two -- more polished, more "sophisticated" maybe. Other instruments beside the piano play a more prominent part. Her voice also seems smoother, a little less breathy.

My personal favorites -- "Blue Caravan" had me hooked from the first time I heard it on a televised concert from last year. "City Hall" almost made me cry the first time I listened to it, from the pure gladness that comes out of the music -- there's always a song on her albums that makes me want to cry...

"Recessional" is so beautiful it gives me the shivers.

The bottom line is, this is a great CD. New, different, but still that wonderful Vienna Teng.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Different.... It's going to take some time to get used to the new sound, July 25, 2006

By 

Anthony Vsetula (Englewood, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dreaming Through the Noise (Audio CD)

First, let me just say that I was introduced to Vienna's music a few years ago, while dating a person who was intimately involved w/ her music.

I have to say.. the first two albums were hauntingly beautiful. There was a limiting amount of instruments in the first two albums.. allowing you to concentrate more closely on her voice and her words.

In this album, the music expands, competing with Vienna's vocals. To me, I would much rather hear her voice, and her words, versus a chorus of instruments.. I can get that elsewhere..

Her music used to be naked... now it's built up and surrounded by a group of talented musicians..

I am not saying that I don't like the album.. just saying there's an adjustment period for the "new" Vienna Teng.