Learn to Sing Like a Star

Kristin Hersh | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 23, 2007)
• Original Release Date: 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Yep Roc Records
• ASIN: B000JJRXGG
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #179,459 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. In Shock

2. Nerve Endings

3. Day Glow

4. Ice

5. Under the Gun

6. Piano 1

7. Sugarbaby

8. Peggy Lee

9. Piano 2

10. Vertigo

11. Winter

12. Wild Vanilla

13. The Thin Man

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spicing up her solo work, January 24, 2007

By 

CMad "tc5998" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learn to Sing Like a Star (Audio CD)

Kristen's solo work is usually dark and a bit pensive, but for some reason the songs came out with a bit more push and drive for this solo effort. The Amazon review above nailed it pretty well. She, as always, shows great creativity, emotion, and layering in her songs that draw you in. Her voice is now more raw and powerful than in previous albums, but this is not a bad thing at all. Don't forget to check out her other bands - the hard charging 50 Foot Wave, and The Throwing Muses.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A carefully crafted yet compulsively delivered gem., March 10, 2007

By 

ST "Easy Listener" (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learn to Sing Like a Star (Audio CD)

The emo kids should lend an ear to Kristin Hersh if they want their music with dollops of misery.

It is never more eloquently done than on "Nerve Endings", the agonised lyrics set against uncomfortable chord changes, with only the elegant string arrangement to provide any balm.

"Getting up is what hurts," she wails on "Day Glo", and sings of being "twisted in slo-mo by angry water". (Having had the misfortune to name her last band 50 Foot Wave just before the Asian tsunami, and then mourning the flood disaster in New Orleans, Hersh's own home suffered a burst pipe so destructive that it used up the family savings and forced her to sell up.)
As Hersh's spiky work goes, this is less fraught, the sourness of that cracked voice balanced by the sweetness off the strings.
Still, it's never exactly easy listening.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars As good as her other CD's, February 23, 2007

By 

Nobody - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learn to Sing Like a Star (Audio CD)

How's that for faint praise? Actually, truth be told, it's a little spare, thus the 3 stars, only six of these songs made my MP3 list, which now contains 79 songs, and could have more. The problem is that as fine as this music is, and no question it's far more worthwhile than 99% of the drek dumped on plastic daily, it's really more of the same. Good, sure, but is there any real growth from what she did on "Hips and Makers" all those years ago? I don't see it, in fact I'd rate that material higher.

So, as much as I like her music, isn't it time for her to move on to something else? She and her charms were wonderful, but maybe it's time to stick with a band, try to build an ensemble sound and see where it can go with a writing partner as an equal. Right now she's spreading her talent a bit thin, and it's starting to tear a bit.