Customer Reviews

Kawasaki

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I have been a long time fan of Eddi Reader since her days of Fairground and have wondered about a US tour since her band released their first album. It was a pleasant surprise to have found this import rummaging through the import bin at Virgin music in Chicago while on a recent trip. This album sounds pristine and is very "live" sounding. It shows in spades how wonderful a singer Eddi Reader is. I was fortunate to have met her opening for Hothouse Flowers at the Birchmere in Arlington,VA a few years ago and eagerly await a "real" show in the states soon. This release will delight any fan of the different incarnations she has had and will win over any new fans of wonderful female vocalizing. Fans of Eva Cassady should look into this release. Fairground's first LP "First of a Million Kisses" remains an unending classic of songcraft, vocalizing and most of all romance. It should be noted that this album includes eight tracks written by Mark E. Nevin which were slated for a follow up album. However, upon return to the UK for subsequent studio sessions, the group imploded making these recordings the only released versions sung by Eddi Reader. I am not sure what extra tracks are included with the "Live in Japan" box set so at this point this seems to be the most effective version.

`Kawasaki', recorded in the city of that name on 2nd July 1989 during Fairground Attraction's only tour of Japan remains the sole officially released recording of them playing on stage as a band, and features them performing many of the numbers intended for their never-completed second album.

As live recordings go, it's a good one: fine, crisp, well-balanced sound with richness and depth, where it's easy to hear each instrument sharply defined in the mix. Eddi Reader proves she really can sing that way, naturally, with no post-production enhancement necessary for that magical, sonorous and expressive voice. The band is in fine form.

The 16 songs on the album include eight performed from the FoaMK album, plus `Winter Rose (from AFK) tacked on to `Allelujah'; and eight new numbers intended for the second album and unavailable elsewhere (`Ay Fond Kiss' though good, was essentially an album scraped together by RCA from odds and ends and covers following the band's untimely demise).

`Kawasaki' is all good stuff, and the Japanese audience loud and appreciative to the point of adulation.

The album contains sleeve notes from both Nevin and Reader written in 2003, 13 years after the sudden and unexpected 1990 split. If you liked FoaMK, you'll like this album too.