Customer Reviews

No Promises

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Carla Bruni, ex model and former love affair of Mick Jagger, is the reincarnation of sensual infatuation, breathy words and purred seduction.
When she first started singing with a frangible but also very enwrapping voice, the French listeners couldn't resist giving Carla as much credit as she would have deserved. "Quelqu'un m'a dit", her first album, released in November 2002, was a bestseller in her adopted country, France. With her new record entitled "No Promises", she maintains her well proved concept, based on the leading acoustic guitar and interspersed variations of harmonising instruments.
She just changed two things which weren't essentially remarkable if we hadn't any understanding of languages. Besides the fact that Carla swapped from the fragile sounding French to the melodically caressing English, she doesn't sing over her own words this time.
The lyrics come from famous poets and they are all distinguished creations from several personalities. Bruni really proved her musical talent though.
All the melodies, which mostly suit and carry the statements of each poem, were composed by the Italian ex supermodel herself.
She's obviously not an eminently blessed compositor, but she improves when it comes to rather simple but effective acoustic tunes, which leave a mark of easiness and subliminal melancholy. On the opener "Those Dancing Days Are Gone"(William Butler Yeats) she uses the guitar like she's talking frolicsomely to a friend.
"If You Were Coming In The Fall" (Emily Dickinson) follows the mentioned example, but it seems a bit inapplicable referred to the poem's depressing theme.
A song close to decent perfection would be "Before The World Was Made" (William Butler Yeats) which contains a tangent instrumentation, modelled on folk and country elements.
"Promises Like Pie-Crust" (Christina Georgina Rossetti) needs less getting used to, according to Carla Bruni's latest efforts, which are mostly classified into the "chanson" genre.
On "No Promises" there's an arbitrary mixture of folkish melodies and pieces abutted to the musician's preferred " chanson" style. And even though the change of language doesn't bring in that much fresh air, the album's overall well rounded and is best suited to relaxed moments in front of a homely fireplace.
The incontrovertible fact that the lyric often is more enthralling than the musical aspect, doesn't reduce the delight that much. In this case, both parts go hand in hand and were made for operating together as one.

Auden and Yeats are among the finest English-language poets of the 19th and 20th centuries, endowed with rare insight and sensitivity.
Now W. H. Auden, W. B. Yeats and several others have taken on an unlikely new guise.
Their poems -- along with those by two other Britons, Walter de la Mare and Christina Rossetti, and two Americans, Dorothy Parker and Emily Dickinson -- are likely to enter the Top Ten in Europe.
Four years after her debut album after her first album, "Quelqu'un m'a dit" (Someone told me), which sold two million copies, Carla Bruni, the Italian former fashion supermodel offers a collection of music and poetry : 11 beautiful poems set to Carla Bruni's inspired melodies.
She gives a real personal interpretation of these poems with romanticism, melancholy which form a feeling of loneliness.
The album, "No Promises", has divided music critics between supporters hailing a new departure for Europop and detractors perplexed by haunting English verse half-sung and half-spoken in a sensual voice accompanied by folk guitars.
Although the writers have been set to music before -- the composer Benjamin Britten collaborated with Auden, and the singer Joni Mitchell has drawn on Yeats's verse, for example -- Bruni's work is a novelty.
In France , some newspapers wrote rave revues.
I personally like it.
It's different,it's delicate, it's elegant.
Have your say !

This popular French/Italian singer delivers her first English language CD and it is a beauty, setting some American and British poetry to music in a manner in which the most accurate description is "simply lovely." With a honey-smoked voice like a young Marianne Faithfull, the songs exude a peaceful mood like being the last couple on the dancefloor in the backyard of a Southern mansion on a magnolia-scented sultry summer's night. The soulful, languid vocals build up a momentum as the CD moves along and, as a whole, are a lot less sleepy than Norah's latest effort. Try "I Felt My Life with Both My Hands," "Promises Like Pie-Crust," "If You Were Coming In The Fall," "Ballade at the Thirty-Five" and "At Last The Secret Is Out" and taste the musical delicacy that is Carla Bruni.

I saw this CD advertised in the windows of several record stores in Amsterdam. Bruni is a model-turned-singer, and here she's interpreting poetry as music. It comes across nicely, in chanteuse style...nice, light, and enjoyable. Great music for a dinner party, methinks.

I truly do not understand how anyone can give less than a 5 star rating for this album. I find it amazing that Carla Bruni took these poems and made them into intriguing, sexy songs. Her voice is so unique and I just cannot say enough about the greatness of "No Promises." When I've had a bad or stressful day, I put this album on and I am immediately calmed. I can't wait for her next album and hopefully she'll release another one in English. I'm extremely surprised that "No Promises" did not pick up as much attention in the U.S. as it deserved.

Carla Bruni putting music to Yeats and singing the verses is a masterpiece.
She sings in a sweet,thoughtful whisper.
A favorite 'Those Dancing Days are Gone" is sung exceptionally well. It's very delicate, like a lullaby to a child.
Admiring her as a model for many years. She's now more than a beautiful face in a crowd.
I recommend this highly to folk fans and anyone who lends their ear will probably fall in love with her songs, particularly this CD.

While I authentically respect Carla Bruni's prowess as a musician (try finding her amazing rendition of "Deranger les pierres" with Julien Clerc on video), her second album remains an oddity even in her reasonable musical arsenal. While her debut album remains to this day a breakthrough of sorts (remember this was before the general public even knew her much), this CD seems like a weird experiment that doesn't quite go anywhere.

Despite being a listener of mood music and concept albums such as this - Isobel Campbell being a prime mascot of the genre - I was half expecting some sort of masterpiece when I first got it. However, it has to be said that of all her albums, Carla is the most monotonous on this one. Her husky, breathy voice is reduced to a flat drill here, and it looks like shes actually struggling with her English language lyrics.

"Those Dancing Days are Gone" was the first single, and easily the most listenable thing here. However, once you reach Track 4, a certain sameness creeps in, and it all goes downhill very, very quickly. I think the problem is not the song selection, but rather the lyrics of these great texts being enunciated with incorrect syllable stress almost everywhere - Carla doesn't let these songs breathe - its evident shes laboriously reading off a page, and that isn't pretty.

Unlike Susheela Raman who took ancient Sanskrit texts, set them to blues and jazz, and in the process won huge fans from both the art circuit and the mainstream, Carla's experiment here is just an experiment. Its not very listenable. And mostly, its not very good (though I admit I did give it four to five listens to find something of any worth, but was unlucky)

The main problem also remains that the album actually gets even slower and duller as it progresses. The beauty of "Autumn" as a poem is totally lost, and by the time we get to the most lyrically intriguing song - "Ballad at Thirty Five", most listeners would have tuned out. I also must state that the two closing tracks - in particular the final track, is a sure cure for insomnia.

When Bruni does a ballad with class, she really nails it. "Ma Jeunesse" from "Comme si de rien n'etait" for example is a prime contendor for the kinds of songs she is good at, but give her a bunch of poems to set to music, and shes totally lost. I think even she probably gave up halfway on this record (which is perhaps why she has never sung any of these songs live or in concert)

Two Stars.

The music was ok but for some reason I was expecting it in French. I have to figure out how to order in French.

I'm not sure if it is possible to be too languid, but if it is then Carla Bruni must surely be the prime candidate of the genre. On this, her follow-up to the charming album Carla Bruni: Quelqu'un M'a Dit (Audio CD in French), she adopts a languorousness that goes above and beyond the call of duty, sounding at times as if she has barely woken up. Quelqu'un M'a Dit was sung convincingly in French (although she is Italian), but on this album, her singing debut in English, there is an awkwardness as if the words she is enunciating were previously unfamiliar, and I often found myself wishing, despite the otherwise adept production, that they had gone for another take.

However, the project is a worthwhile one, and one that has been well executed in respect of the arrangements and melodies. Carla Bruni has created settings for a number of English-language poems: Dorothy Parker, WB Yeats, Walter De La Mare, Emily Dickinson, WH Auden and Christina Rosetti are all represented. The poems and a few lines about each are included in the booklet. Is it significant that there is no British or American equivalent that springs to mind? One wonders if our record companies would have been readily sold on such a concept.

Rich sound of acoustic guitars perfectly balanced with beautiful soft voice and touching melodies, this album is a great addition to Carla's first release (which is more gentle and sofisticated than this one - however, "No Promises" has "catchier" songs). The arrangements on both albums are fantastic - accompanying instruments are naturally blended into Carla's guitar and vocal lines; you are getting a truly harmonic experience here.

I was introduced to Carla's music in 2003 by a friend from France, and Quelqu'un M'a Dit (her first album) just would not leave my car stereo for almost a month. I remember that at the time it reminded me of Norah Jones' "Don't know why". It was very difficult to find Carla's albums in US at the time, so you guys are lucky you can simply order them from Amazon US! I would highly recommend "No Promises" (and the first one, of course).