|
| ||||||||||||||||||||
|
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
Don't even think about buying this if you like a CD where all the songs are in the same musical style. This one gets around with a surprise behind every door - most of them very, very pleasant. Patty has a dynamic, expressive voice with a wide range. She uses it to great effect, sometimes sounding like a little girl (think a more childlike Rickie Lee Jones) and other times rocking with the best of them. I saw where some reviewers thought that the production overwhelmed that voice at times. On the first song, maybe. On the rest, impossible!
Styles range all over the place and all of them work. She uses the little girl voice well in "One Big Love", a jewel of a song inviting her boyfriend on a beach romp. It's got a real island sound until you hit the chorus and then it just flat rocks. She shows a lot of insight into the cruelties teenagers inflict on each other in "Tony", a tale about a homosexual kid she ignored in high school who later takes his own life. It's back to rocking on "Change", which describes what a particular woman goes through trying to please an impossible to please man. About the time you think you have her figured out she pulls out "Goodbye".
... Read more ›When I first put "Red" into my CD player the first 2 songs through me for a loop. Very different with the band. If I wrote a review of that album at that time, I probably would have vented like the others and said that she sold out and what a shame, blah, blah.
After a few listens, however, I found the hidden gems. The power of "Tony", the strength of her voice in "Change", the lyrics of "Mary" and "Christina". At this point (after about 1000 listens), I love every song from the power-pop "One Big Love" to the ache of "Peter Pan".
People said the "production" of this album hid Patty's voice, but I disagree. "Flaming Red" showcases it and I absolutely love every note. Please buy this disc and discover the wonder, beauty, magic, power, fun and uniqueness of Patty Griffin and "Flaming Red"
Yes, it's true I had never heard of Patty Griffin until Flaming Red came out. If this makes me a less "worthy" fan simply because I did not hear of her first, then so be it. The truth is that I came across the Flaming Red CD at a listening station in a music store and was blown away. If I could be that impressed by 30 second snippets of each song in the middle of a huge music store, I knew that it had to be something special. Flaming Red is very special.
To be fair to those people who criticized this CD for not have the "rawness" of her entirely acoustic debut album, I bought Living with Ghosts without hearing a single track. And though I was very impressed by the folky, country-like simplicity of Living with Ghosts, I still have to pick Flaming Red as one of my all time favorite CDs. The beauty of Living with Ghosts originates from her lyrics, simplicity and largely from the power of her voice... I feel that there are times when her voice is almost too empowering for a simple acoustic guitar.
On Flaming Red, she has proven that evolution can be beautiful.
... Read more ›