Customer Reviews

Ink

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

" Ink " is an excellent place to start for anyone who is not familiar with Livingston Taylor's work. From beginning to end, this album is a definite winner--especially beautiful and poignant is the tune " Fly Away. " Liv always seems to have that ability to fill your heart to full capacity. From original tunes, such as " First Time Love " to startling remakes of Ambrosia's " Biggest Part of Me " and Stevie Wonder's " Isn't She Lovely, " Liv consistantly paints beautiful pictures of lovliness and delivers powerful doses of positivity. " Hallelujah, Liv ! We love you so ! "

This is one of those rare cd's that after owning for over a year, I still keep it with me constantly. whenever i am at a loss as to what to listen to, thisgoes in. Livingston combines the beauty of his acoustic talents with a never overbearing backup that is a joy to listen to time andtime again. His acoustic talents shine on Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" and the romantic ballad "The More I See You". His remake of "I Must Be Doing Something Right", previously released as a duet with Michael Franks,is far superior to the original. The cd closes with a splendid version of "Never Can Say Goodbye". I recommend this cd to any and everybody. It makes a perfect gift for those who have never experienced Livingston'smusic.

The vastly underrated Livingston Taylor has been honing his craft for some thirty years now, and on this CD he turns himself loose on a collection of well-chosen material. Two of the songs are Liv's own ("Our Turn To Dance" and "I Must Be Doing Something Right," both from the CD _Our Turn To Dance_); the rest are from all over the musical map.

For this recording, Liv has hooked up with a tight little outfit consisting of two (other) acoustic guitars, acoustic bass, percussion, harmonica, and a pair of backing vocalists; the overall style is no-frills jazz-inflected folk of the very finest kind. The tunes themselves are all wonderfully arranged for this musical setting, and some of them work shockingly well: I personally didn't even particularly like "Baker Street" when it was new (and tremendously overplayed), and I was pretty well blown away by this recording of it. (The sax part taken over by a blues harp? Believe it or not, they pull it off.) Likewise, a couple of the others -- for example Ambrosia's "The Biggest Part of Me" -- are not tunes I especially cared before before I got this CD. But Liv breathes new life into them.

Liv's own guitar work is uncredited in the liner notes, but if you're familiar with his style you can hear him playing on some of the tunes anyway. And his mellifluous tenor has only improved over the years; his delivery is earnest, credible, and inflected with his trademark impish humor. The result is one of Liv's finest CDs, a studio effort that sounds live.

If you're new to Liv, this CD is a great place to begin. (I even prefer the version of "I Must Be Doing Something Right" on this CD to the one on _Our Turn To Dance_.) If you like it, you may want to check out _Bicycle_ and _Our Turn To Dance_ next, in either order.

Most of Liv's older releases are now available on CD as well -- including his fine debut album, his terrific follow-up _Liv_, his third release _Over The Rainbow_ (good songs...), and his stellar _Three-Way Mirror_. Enjoy.

I have heard some excellent albums over the years and whilst this album is still not in my top ten it is within my top twenty. I love it. Smooth vocals and lovely relaxed music. What more could you ask.

Whenever I am stressed out by the day's events, this is the first album I put on. Livingston Taylor's vocals are just so soothing and the songs on this CD are so smooth and easy to listen to. While Oleta Adams has the best performance of "Get Here," Livingston brings his own style to the song and makes it one of the best renditions of this classic.

His last name is Taylor and his voice sounds like James' so to answer the question is he related to James Taylor? The answer is yes, they are brothers. Livingston's music is every bit as good as his brother's in most every way and this album is excellent. If there is any criticism at all, occasionally Livingston's voice seems to get slightly stressed on certain passages but I also think Livingston is willing to go places his brother won't with his repertoire. James may make a conscious decision to stay within his vocal ability to avoid any limitations. I think Livingston is willing to take a few more risks and that is refreshing.

I did not purchase this album here but instead downloaded a much higher resolution version that surpasses CD quality to a large degree. CD quality is 16bit 48kHz. After all it is a technology that is over 20 years old. Recording studios now record at a minimum of 24bit 176kHz but the old CD does not handle that. The sound gets watered down in the process of transferring the music over to the CD. Super Audio CD or SACD does accommodate the higher sound quality of today's recordings but the SACD for this album is hard to come by. Now thanks to improved methods to move sound from a computer to your speakers using the latest DAC technology, the average person, for a reasonable cost, can download the better quality recording and you certainly can hear the difference. Enough of the soapbox.

The bottom line is the HD version of this album is superb and really shows Livingston's work in the best light and that light shines very brightly in any format you decide to purchase this album.

I consider the "Ink" to be the best album released by Livingston. Just like the "Last Alaska Moon", the sound is rather mellow with a slow pace suites for long winter night listening sessions. Lyrics are relaxed and easy to comprehend. Chesky's recording is, like always,on the highest level and I wish all Taylor's albums were recorded by David.Get it and you will not regret!!!

This CD is a great collection of music for those queit and introsepctive times. Livingston really puts a lot of stylings into his voice. Although most of these songs are covers of other people's amterial, Livingston really makes them his own by tinkering with the arrangements. I like the blues inflection on Hallelujah I Love Her So. Overall this is a winner for those who have some ease in their souls.