Customer Reviews

Not Going Anywhere

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"Not Going Anywhere" is Keren Ann's 3rd record, Her first in English. The first to get a US release. And it's about time.
As the Israeli - French artist is one of the best singer-songwriters in the world today. Her delicate singing, is strong and powerful as if she was screaming. A perfect writer, Keren Ann molds her songs like little sad diamonds and then adds a lot by whispering them to your ear.
Think a modern Francoise Hardy, with a touch of nick Drake.
If you loved Joni Mitchel and Suzan Vega, If you adore Damien Rice, Rufus Wainwright and Tom Mcrae, if you went to see Simon and Garfunkel live this summer - Keren Ann is your next best friend.
Get her before the hype.
She is the new Nora Jones minus the Nutrasweet.

The first English-language recording from Keren Ann is sure to elicit comparisons to Francoise Hardy, but there's more of an English folksinger/bossa nova vibe to her Blue Note debut, like Astrud Gilberto singing the Nick Drake songbook. Her voice is delicate, yet sure; the arrangements intricate, yet spare. Some may miss the electronic textures of previous albums, "La Biographie de Luka Philipsen" and "La Disparition", but Keren Ann sounds more like herself now, less like a French Beth Orton. When foreign artists sign to American record companies and start singing in English, it's usually the kiss of death, but this is Keren Ann's best record yet.

There's no one like Keren Ann - in this century anyway. Her singing style might be best described as "softspoken", pun intended, but the overall effect is mesmerizing, soothing... I slightly prefer "Nolita" over this effort, that CD is darker, haunting, but this is also very very good. The title track, with its ironic but key "This is why I always whisper" lyric (it really is like listening to a whisper to a scream) sets the tone and the rest of the disc just sails along. Other standout tracks that keep the mellow spell intact - By The Cathedral, Polly, Sit In the Sun... heck, theyre all good, if in pretty much the same mode (except Sailor & Widow, which seems destined for an off-Broadway musical somewhere).

Having seen her live I got the feeling I was in Paris in 1935, listening to a sexy lounge singer coo her way through a series of unfamiliar torch songs, accompanied by an antique guitar, a piano, a french horn and 2 strings. That description might not sound all that great, but somehow, in todays world of WT hip-hop and screaming death metal, it really, really works.

Keren Ann is a talented musician who definitely has carved a niche of her own in the music landscape.

One listen to this disc tells you the "goods" are here. Describing Keren Ann (Zeidel) is difficult: This feels almost like a good movie soundtrack in that each cut has a different sound and feel but it still all coheres into a nice whole. "Not Going Anywhere" sounds Nick Drake-ish. "Sailor and Widow" sounds like Suzanne Vega on the verses, Aimee Mann on the choruses. "Right Now and Right Here" has the lilt of a musicbox melody with words added to it. "Seventeen" could be a Disney outtake.

This is Keren Ann's 1st release in English. (Previous albums have her singing in French.) Vocally, if I have to compare her, I'd think about Nina Persson (Lead singer for Swedish pop outfit The Cardigans) crossed with Suzanne Vega. With the right promotional "push" she could really be big.

HIGHLIGHTS:
The wispy cadences of the title track let you know you're in for a wonderful ride here as she proclaims "This is why I always wonder/I'm a pond full of regrets/I always try to not remember/rather than forget") "By the Cathedral" is enigmatic. It paints a beautiful word picture but leaves you wondering what exactly DIDN'T happen (the chorus is "I wasn't able/I was unable") there. "Polly" seems to be a tender ode to a daughter who died young. ("There were so many ways to hide/in the hours of waste/And I will be/more than it takes/to you") "End of May" is a spine-tingling mixture of beautiful (the delicate tinkling keyboard part) and eerie (the children's choral and Ann's own voice) ending in an ethereal acappella coda. "Sailor and Widow" combines staccato nearly limerick style singing on the verses into the charging pop hook ("all the children played/around the neighborhood..") It's a tale of a woman who kills her husband by torching her houses with them inside, once again combining the lethal and the sublime.

BOTTOM LINE:
Safe to say if you're locked into a single genre collection, this probably won't be for you. If you're not in that category, give this a listen or borrow it from your library if they have it. She's so good I can't believe she's so unknown in the U.S. still. In fact, I considered giving this 5 stars but I don't like to do that until I've "lived with" a CD for a long time. Suffice to say, I'm giving this a hearty recommendation.

4 1/2 stars

Keren Ann (Zeidel) assures us in the first tune on this amazing CD that she's not going anywhere, and she closes her effort by asking her listeners to follow her. Maybe, after you play the CD a few times (and you need to hear it more than once), you'll be glad she's promised to stick around. And maybe you'll be wanting to follow along as she embarks upon what looks like a bright career, too.

This French-Israeli chanteuse, singing in English for the first time (she was recently profiled in "The New Yorker" magazine, which is where I first learned of her) is, well . . . hard to say exactly. Folkie? Too edgy. Pop? Not hardly! New age? I don't think so. Jazz? Umm no. Unclassifiable? Well I guess.

In any case: Her tunes flow seamlessly on, sometimes soothing, sometimes scaring. Sometimes there are horns. Highlights, in addition to the opening and closing cuts would be "By the Cathedral," the chilling "End of May," and one of the most amazing songs I've ever heard, "Sailor and Widow," which has a strange galumphing minor-key march tempo. Its incendiary verses tumble out of Keren's mouth half spoken half sung (forget trying to follow along with the lyric sheet--wait till it's over and go back and check it out then) while she sings the chorus in a deadpan alto that is, on the grittiness scale, somewhere between Suzanne Vega and Kristin Hersh.

If you give it a chance, odds are it'll be on your CD player for quite awhile.

This is a bit on the melancholy side. I liked it. I like to expand my horizons and I truly cherished the uniqueness in this piece. On a lonely night, or a dark and dreary day this will extend the mood into infinitum

I had high hopes for this album, having heard an English version of "La Corde et Les Chaussons" on a plane a year ago, but found this very disappointing. I'd recommend that you get her two albums in French first ("Biographie De L. Philipsen" and "La Disparition".)

This album has some new songs but the 'stars' are English versions of songs from those two. The big problem is that the lyrics are ho-humm, which I find distracting. I've no idea whether the lyrics in French are any good, but without understanding the words I just hear her voice, which is astonishingly beautiful. She sings very quietly, so quietly that you can hear every mouth movement sometimes, superbly intimate. This works much better in French, the sounds just roll off her tongue more naturally.

Oh yes, and the beautiful English version of "La Corde et Les Chaussons" (which had the refrain "...need to know, if you love me... if you love me") is not on this CD.

I literally bought this album because of the first song 'Not Going Anywhere'
When I bought it I listened to the whole CD and found only a few other songs that I liked...but after the second time I listened to it all the way through I was totally hooked.
I don't know if I can express how excellent this CD is. Her songs are soft and endearing while still having a strong and clear presence. A very good balance of slow and more upbeat songs.
The lyrics are fantastic, very original and quirky without being difficult to listen to.
I don't even know what genre to describe this as but I like it.

Basically if you loved Simon and Garfunkel or Joan Baez or Happy Rhodes or Fiona Apple or Norah Jones etc...or if you are simply a touch too old for the loudness and disco tempos of contemporary bubblegummers like Britney and the rest of the media circus queens - go get this album and enjoy. It's very unpresuming and will not kill your eardrums even when you have your headphones on... and the music itself is very very good, slow and thoughtful. IMHO, this is better than Norah Jones, and I am not kidding you. Title track, "End of May" and "By the Cathedral" are a bit similar but beautiful songs, "Sailor & Widow" has some very catchy and jumpy funk to it.. only a couple of songs do not immediatley grab your listening attention and this is an extremely high percentage from my point of view which deserves five stars.

I read a short story about Keren Ann in March' Vogue and found it intriguing. I had to hear her voice and searched Amazon. The first time I heard "Not going anywhere", my heart felt like it slowed almost to the point of stopping. The whimsical music and her haunting, yet sweetly innocent voice were strong and overpowering. The best way I can describe how "Not going anywhere made me feel: I felt like my soul was dancing in the rain around a fountain in a beautiful garden. I love when music transports my mind and soul to another place. Keren Ann's music does that.