Customer Reviews

Forget About It

5 star:		(136)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I have been an Alison Krauss and Union Station fan for a long time. I bought this CD the day it came out. I fell in love with with "Stay" right from the start. It is an absolutely amazing song you can hear her soul being poured out to you as you listen and it makes your heart sag, you find your self singing along even though you don't know the words your lips try to find them. The entire album is like this. You will be dragged into the songs, the songs are visual, and very emotional. Do I miss the lack of picking bluegrass on this album, yes of course I do. Would I replace any of the songs on this album to make room for a bluegrass number...no. In my opinion this album is perfection you couldnot add or subtract a single song without destroying it as a work of art. If you remove one song you miss the entire concept of the album you miss the "whole" of it's beauty. This is not an album you should listen to a song hear and a song there...to be able to fully comprehend and sink into the beauty you have to envelope yourself for the entire album. I want to state first that this album is not depressing. One would state that happiness is the lack of sadness. How else to make yourself happy than to purge your sad emotions by letting them flow from you as you sing this beautiful music. Personally after listening to this album I felt exhausted, but emotionally cleaned.

Women know better than men that melancholy is an underated emotion, it's comfortable sometimes to be blue. Well next time you're kinda down play yourself this CD before you pop the Prozak.

Krauss uses her talent as a producer to put together a fine album of sad songs; uses her talent as a singer to break a few hearts; and uses her talent with a fiddle to create the best two songs on the album: "Could You Lie", and "Never Got Off the Ground".

You'll find the usual gang around her here, the Union Station guys, Jerry Douglas on the Dobro; with a few others added in. And they're all as reliably terrific as ever.

An aside here: Whoever put Alison Krauss and Union Station together years ago is a genius. Her voice is the perfect instrument to bring a soul to their incredible sound. And the addition of Douglas' dobro to so much of their work over the past few years has made this group the definition of contemporary bluegrass, the reason bluegrass has gained so much in popularity recently.

Looking up I see I've written a five star review and only given four. Well, the music and prouction are just fine, but there's just a little too much heartache here for me. Can't fault any one or two songs, they're all good. Just wish she'd thrown in a couple of upbeat tunes to lighten the load. My wife tells me that ladies are fine with eleven straight heart breaking tunes. OK, we'll call this one a chick disc.

Don't be fooled by those that try to pigeon-hole this un-pigeon-holeable artist: Krauss is one of those very rare all-in-one pros with more talent in her little finger than most of the population of Nashville combined. She's a virtuoso fiddler, producer extrodinaire, and intuitively understands that less is usually more. Being backed by a band that's just a good is the icing on the cake.

Refreshingly unformulaic, her music stands alone. While past albums have had more pervasive "traditional" themes, "Forget About It" rests so firmly on her foundation of experience that there's something here for everyone, from the hard-core fan to the first time listener: elemental guitar and dobro licks pristine in their simplicity, thick, layered harmonies and violin, and of course, that knee-weakening voice.

"Forget About It" has been oft-called Krauss' "Pop Album," but anyone who knows anything about her music understands that labling her in any broad way means missing the point entirely. The only thing Pop about "Forget About It" may be the well of inspiration she draws from, including writers such as pop-icons Todd Rundgren and Michael McDonald. But Krauss' arrangements have always done more than justice to their oringinal incarnations, invariably becoming works of art that stand firmly on their own. If you're a fan, you'll wear this one out just as you have all the others. If you're thinking of giving this truly talented girl a listen for the first time, prepare to be blown away.

Alison Krauss is a true talent. She has one of the most beautiful voices in country music, that expresses emotions, without overdoing it, or taking away from the simplistic nature of the songs. The harmonies on this album, FORGET ABOUT IT, are beautiful. The lead song "Stay" is a beautiful song with equally compelling vocals and instrumentation. This is common throughout the whole CD. "It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference" is a sorrowful, sad track about a realization that there never was any love or commitment in the relationship, it's my favorite song on the album. "Ghost In This House" is another tragic song, but its so beautifully done with its vocals and instruments. "It Don't Matter" and "Could You Lie" are other beautiful songs, actually in fact there are no filler tracks to be found. The final track "Dreaming My Dreams With You" is a nice love song, very nice. Overall, this is an excellent album and I highly reccomend it to anyone who likes country music, true country, with a tinge of bluegrass backed with beautiful vocals and instruments. And if you're tired of the same sounding country music that a lot of artists are making out of Nashville, give this a try, you'll be surprised and find she's very much talented and doesn't get the recognition or respect she deserves.

This album is truly beautiful... I, too, was expecting a bit more fiddle but once I sat back and soaked it in, I couldn't stop listening. Each time I hear, "Stay" and "Maybe", I am completely taken away. Lay to rest your expectations and appreciate this album for what it is. I, for one, am not afraid of a little change. I trust this artist. It's about time this girl's voice rises above the fiddles...she's way due. And I have no doubt the bluegrass will be back...she hasn't lost her roots - I think she was just in a different mood. I applaud her for sticking to what she was feeling at the time she made this album. The more I listen, the more I enjoy and appreciate it's ebb and flow. And if I want some pickin ditties...well, I've got plenty of that lying around here. There's no shortage of good bluegrass. There is a shortage of talented artists who can play both sides of the coin. Nice job, Alison!

a brilliant, beautiful, gentle album sure to bring a tear to your eye or a flutter to your heart. Alison Krauss does not forsake bluegrass material entirely here -- nowhere on pop radio will you find dobro breaks (although pop radio would be better if you could) -- but the album is essentially folk/pop. Alison manages a terrific balance between songs with her familiar, Union Station backup, and different sounds: hushed, crystalline, and luminescent. This album certainly should delight anyone who liked "So Long, So Wrong" or any of Alison Krauss's forward-thinking bluegrass records -- the radio-friendly single "When You Say Nothing at All," being a good example. Alison Krauss has a golden touch -- everything she attempts ends up unique, beautiful and worthwhile to any fan of bluegrass, folk, pop, or someone who simply appreciates a true talent, a georgeous voice, a sweet fiddle, or a deft subtlety.

A long time ago I learned the hard lesson that even the most gifted performers will bomb at times, so beware of rushing out to buy brand new releases. So...I felt let down with "Forget About It" when I first heard it, after buying it on blind faith in AK's wonderful efforts in the past. I'm glad to say that I've come to love this disc. I think it may be my personal favorite. Buy it, and listen to it several times before passing judgement, and you'll come to love these hauntingly (ghost in this house) beautiful, honest, compositions that are played with tender loving care by AK and her talented supporting cast. I'm sorry that I initially thought otherwise, but staying with this disc was well worth the effort. It's great to come to know songs that are so pretty that you can't get them out of your mind.

Three months ago, someone could have said Alison Krauss' name and I would have replied, "Who? " Fortunately, I had the opportunity to see her in concert in Fairfax, VA. From the moment the lights went down and she began to sing "Stay," I was hooked. Not only were the acoustics great in that auditorium, but her voice was (and still is)amazing. In a time where singers are trying to dance and lip synch, it was wonderful to see someone focus on the music. I bought this album as a Christmas present to myself and I'm glad I did. All of the songs are heavenly--the music is soothing and provide a perfect backdrop for a quiet night or a rainy day.

Let me begin by saying that my tastes run almost exclusively to classical music, from Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven through the elegant turn-of-the-century French masterpieces of Faure, Debussy, Ravel and the Spaniards Albeniz, Falla, Granados, and Turina, to the 20th century works of Stravinsky, Rachmaninov, Satie, Poulenc, Milhaud, Koechlin, etc.: beautiful works produced by musical geniuses with years of rigorous practical and theoretical training. As a rule, the works of modern musicians do not appeal to me, do not touch me inside, do not draw me in. Alison Krauss is the exception, and this CD demonstrates once again the many talents of this wonderfully-gifted, pure-voiced singer: her ability to select achingly beautiful melodies, to arrange them perfectly, and to sing them with a sweet and gentle vulnerability that has no pretense or artifice. From the softly swaying "Stay," the cathartic "Forget About It, " the silky smooth '80ish ballad "It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference," the beautifully Beatlesque "Maybe," the sweetly plaintive "Empty Hearts," the touching paternal tribute of "Never Got Off the Ground," the ethereal "Ghost In This House," the achingly beautiful "That Kind of Love," this release is full of exceptional songs that demonstate Alision's penchant for continuous growth and evolution as a superb musical artist.

Once again, Alison Krauss manages to put out an absolutely beautiful album. Although all of the songs are well written, arranged, and sung, the album is entirely devoid of any sort of uptempo songs. Because all of the songs are slow (and some rather depressing) I find it hard to listen to the CD all the way through. When the songs are taken individually, however, it's excellent