Open Book

Evelyn "Champagne" King | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 19, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Thump Records
• ASIN: B001CITRIU
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,517 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A low down dirty shame........, September 17, 2008

By 

R. M. Desjardins "R. Mark Desjardins" (Vancouver, B.C. Canada) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Open Book (Audio CD)

Its a low down dirty shame that Evelyn "Champagne" King's new recording, Open Book hasn't garnered more attention.... yet. Steering clear of delving into retro material to stage a comeback, King bravely offers up new material which is surprisingly good, without blatantly catering to current trends. Her original hits were strikingly original and she has maintained her artistic integrity. Her deliciously smokey voice hasn't diminished from her heyday as the premier dance floor diva some 31 years ago. If anything, her voice has improved and deepened with maturity. Whole Lotta Yum Yum delivers it's implied promise. Open Book, and Paradise prove that Evelyn still has that "magic touch" with ballads. The Soul Seekerz remix of The Dance is proof positive that Evelyn Champagne King's brand of excitement can still drive club goers to frothy exhilaration on the dance floor. With its sly lyrical reference to the people who have kept her career down in the past, and clever weaving of some of her most memorable song hit titles of the past, Evelyn slams it to her past ghosts and serves up notice she won't be held back this time around.
It seems like a lifetime ago that Shame blew our minds, and it is totally conceivable that treating her natural wonder of a vocal instrument with care, Evelyn "Champagne" King will be thrilling fans with her particular brand of excitement for decades to come. Welcome back!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent comeback album, maybe, September 14, 2008

By 

Walter F. Rice (Sacramento CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Open Book (Audio CD)

This was supposed to be released a year ago, August 2007, but we were never told the real story (inside story) why it took a year to come out? Perhaps the music company believed it would not succeed commercially, no matter how good. The company is obviously small and independent, but the music on this album in my opinion is superb.

The real weakness in this effort, it has been such a long since Evelyn King was a real star. As the Beatles once put it in a song, she was famous 'before your mother was born'. That is true for many of the young people who listen to music the most, who buy the hits and support the singers. She is probably not a legend like the Beatles, or the Supremes, or Michael Jackson or Bob Dylan or Aretha Franklin, and that, plus it's from a small label, may keep this from being any kind of comeback. However, some of us think she was wonderful and she ought to be up there with the greatest. She has has a large collection of 'Best of Albums' by now, meaning there are others who are real fans.

It has been twenty years, a generation since Evelyn King released an Album of new songs (although she released one from England about 16 years ago that was barely heard of here, and for what I know maybe there also). Her new album has one song from that album, 'Not that Kind of Party' written by a man who was instrumental for this one coming about, Preston Glass.

As I said above, Open Book is solid. None of the songs are of a low quality, throw-ins. Several are very playful, and Evelyn has been known to be playful. She was playful on her 1982 Album 'Get Loose', which can be seen in the title song. My two children (I introduced them to Evelyn King) love the song 'Get Loose' and they still keep requesting it.

Songs that impressed me (on Open Book), that by merit (My personal opinion) could be top 40 hits (or top 10) are '(You Deserve)an Academy Award', 'Nobody Knows', and 'True to My Boo'. 'The Dance' already was a little bit of a Dance hit, it topped at 12 for dance singles. Evelyn was a great dance singer, notably for 'Shame' released when she was just 17 years old in 1977, and it was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame. She had several great hits in 1977 that on on the album 'Smooth Talk'. Her albums were of new songs (not best of) until 1989, and were on RCA and EMI. Some of have been reissued from foreign Countries in recent years.

I am hoping and praying this against what I see ('Open Book' is currently at 88,000 of Amazon.com music albums) that this album will be successful enough so we can enjoy future albums of new songs by Evelyn King. To me something is very wrong if this album fails.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a very good album, September 12, 2008

By 

fivestarfrankie (chippenham, wiltshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Open Book (Audio CD)

All the cuts I've heard are good, some even up towards the standard of her 70s/80s classics. It's a 4 star album but I gave it 5 to compensate for the other review which sounded 5 star but only gave 3.