Customer Reviews

Gifted: Women of the World

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"Gifted: Women of the World" is the much delayed compilation of female vocalists on the Real World label. Happily, the wait was well worth it. Featuring new material from Sheila Chandra and Yungchen Lhamo (two Real World artists), and excellent contributions from Susana Baca, Susheela Raman, and others, this album is an excellent, well-balanced trip through both world, and women's, music.

Sheila Chandra, known for her esoteric, complex works, delivers the opening track. This suprisingly pop-focused homage is a remake of a earlier Tim Buckley song. The beat and instrumentation is beautiful, pure pop, with Chandra's gorgeous vocal tones gliding through wonderfully imaged music. Her other contribution is actually a well-executed remix of "Ever So Lonely." The remix gives the piece an electronica-edge that blends seemlessly with the original piece.

Yunghchen Lhamo from Tibet turns in two wonderful produced pieces. Sam Mills, the genius production behind "Real Sugar" and "Tama", gives a nicely modern, pop/electronic backdrop to two beautiful traditional Tibetan pieces. Lhamo's hypnotic singing is complimented by Mills's production, and some excellent percussion and shakuhaci flute brought in by Joji Hiroto ("The Gate"). The meeting of minds produces wonderfully traditional, but modernly accessible tracks.

Susana Baca is her usual radiant self, with contribution of two slow, seductive pieces. Her beautiful, languid voice, and South American percussion and guitar backdrops, produce the exquisite textures of musical strip-tease that stays on the very edge of proprietary. Eleftheria Arvanitaki (Greece) produces a similar dramatic effect in her "Sappho," a dark and meditative piece. Her rich, breathy voice plays within light guitar and percussion as she relates a tale of lost life and love.

This is the first album of its kind from Real World. In its selection, and production, it rivals the work of Putumayo, who fundamentally revolutionized the focus on world female artists. For the world music afficiando, a lover of women's voices, and person with deep emotion wells, this album is the opening to a beautiful, seductive, and emotionally dynamic landscape.

The only singer I was even vaguely familiar with when I ran across this disc was Eleftheria Arvanitaki, who is a truly mind-blowing Greek vocalist, surely one of the most impressive singers ever, male or female. As any Greek nationalist would tell you (rightly in this case!), Arvanitaki is unknown outside Greece only because she sings in Greek. Yet even apart from her, this disc was a total revelation. I've been looking for CDs by some of these artists ever since. I admit I was still most impressed by Arvanitaki ("Bodies and Knives" is an incredible song), but some other gems here are "Cardo o ceniza" ("Thistle or Ashes") by Peruvian jazz singer Susana Baca, Andalusian vocalist Estrella Morente's "Los pastores" (Lorca remembered this song being sung to him by his mother during his childhood), and "Assitan Mama Keita" by the Malian vocalist Baro.

The tracks are alternatively dreamy and up-beat, but tend toward the sedate. I wouldn't call it exactly a "new age" recording, but there's definitely an indefinible ivory-smooth disco feel to Sheila Chandra's "Ever So Lonely", and Yungchen Lhamo's two Tibetan songs will appeal to most latter-day hippies (not me, though...). Something else interesting about this CD is how the language of the lyrics influences the melody of the songs. Arvanitaki's Greek struggles against the grain of the music: long, drawn-out words, electric passion -- basically, "detonation". This is also true of Baca and Morente's songs in Spanish and Susheela Raman's very American-sounding Sanskrit love-hymn (Raman is accompanied by a guitar here, which is a non-Indian instrument). Sheila Chandra, though, singing in English, just FLOATS on top of the music, and Lhamo's music, like her native Tibet, is, well, interesting but pretty challenging.

...could be given such a beautiful planet, populated by such divine creatures as Sheila Chandra, Susheela Raman, Eleftheria Arvanitaki and Estrella Morente from such rich and diverse cultural backrgounds... yet spend all their time trashing the environment and fighting war after pointless war.

This is a wonderful album and a joy to behold. I originally bought it for Sheila's stunnning version of the haunting Tim Buckley song, Song To The Siren, which I also have by This Mortal Coil (Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins on vocals).

Yet having played the album through I was blown away to discover that there were literally no filler tracks. This is a wonderful collection of songs which includes some enchanting pieces by Yungchen Lhamo, which are simply intriguing.

Highly recommended.

Despite its conception as an all-female project and its marketing tie-in with Cacharel perfume, this album really appealed to me as a caucasian male. Why? Because the songs themselves are just plain beautiful. Standouts include Sheila Chandra's take on "Song to the Siren" (produced by Stephen Hague of New Order and Erasure fame), Estrella Morente's sparse interpretation of a traditional Spanish Christmas song, and Susana Baca's quiet, Celtic harp-tinged "Las Muchachas." There are also some great contributions from Yungchen Lhamo, Susheela Raman (who appeared on JOI's debut) and Assitan Mama Keita (who performed on the "Tama" album). One curious note: on the British version of "Gifted" (available from amazon.co.uk), "Song to the Siren" is performed by Isobel Cooper (aka Izzy) rather than by Sheila Chandra. Also, the UK edition features the original version of Chandra's "Ever So Lonely/Eyes/Ocean," whereas the U.S. album contains a Stephen Hague remix of the song. Despite contributions from different artists and producers, "Gifted" is a consistent package of very pretty, melodic world music.

I like this CD in general: besides presenting excellent selections from artists I already knew (e.g., Susana Baca), it introduced me to several others I didn't, notably Eleftheria Arvanitaki. Her passionate "Bodies and Knives" features several musicians who have recorded with Omar Faruk Tekbilek, and I thought it was the highlight of the CD; "Sappho" is also lovely, if quieter. I also greatly enjoyed "Los Pastores," a jazz-flavored rendition of a traditional carol, and Susheela Raman's piquantly flavored contribution. Sheila Chandra's two selections are well representative of her work, but I don't particularly like her and would rather have heard another selection from someone else. And I loathe the two Yungchen Lhamo tracks: she has a lovely voice, and her two previous albums kept it in the forefront; here, it's obscured by (I felt) rather obnoxious electronics that try to convert the traditional lyrics into trance dance -- bah, humbug!! All in all, this is a high-quality album, but it definitely has warts.