Customer Reviews

Simple Gifts

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this album as a gift for my wife after hearing the Kings singers in concert. Since they performed many of the pieces included, it was particularly appreciated. The sound is excellent, and the king's singers are a very pleasant and relaxing listen.

An eclectic grouping of songs performed to perfection! I am very much into musical harmonies, couple that with the incredible vocal ranges of the King Singers and you have Heaven on Earth. Need not say more...

It's not so simple to produce the close harmony and perfected diction for which the King's Singers are known. But they do it in every track on "Simple Gifts." One piece that amused me was the British accent on a Negro spiritual, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." The diversity of the selections provides great entertainment. What a gift!

I have many of the Kings Singers CDs. This isn't my favorite, but it is very good. My favorite Kings Singers CDs are Good Vibrations The King's Singers: Good Vibrations, Annie Laurie Annie Laurie ~ Folksongs of the British Isles / Barrueco · The King's Singers and Chanson d'Amour Chanson d'Amour.

I am a long-time King's Singers listener, with a particular fondness for their interpretations of popular material. The early/middle line-up of the King's Singers rendered songs from the folk/pop/jazz genres with a charming blend of humor, respect and tasteful musicality. Personnel has changed over the years, of course, and I haven't always kept up, but even *Good Vibrations*, which only featured three of the group's earliest members, was an enjoyable album.

Not that this CD isn't enjoyable.....

....I just have so many little complaints! This mostly new line-up (save David Hurley and Stephen Connolly, who've been around awhile) is making stylistic decisions I don't understand or like. There are newly distracting vocal details: pop sliding from the lead on Track 1 and especially irritatingly on Track 9 ("My love luh-uvs me"), and strange pronunciation decisions: "charioh" instead of "chariot" in "Swing Low" (??!), "oughta be" instead of "ought to be" in "Simple Gifts," and "flah" for "fly" in "Helplessly Hoping."

Also, a lot of the songs you would expect to be GREAT when given the King's Singers treatment end up falling strangely short here--"Helplessly Hoping," for one, somehow sounds more strident than gorgeous. What a disappointment! If anyone should be able to do CSNY, it's them! The versions of "She's Always a Woman," "Simple Gifts," "The Water is Wide," and "Black is the Color" are also mysteriously unsatisfying. Perhaps it's the arrangements that don't work for me, because the group's vocal blend is certainly lush, perhaps even more beautiful than in the old days.

And one final complaint: why, oh why, of all the fabulous Randy Newman songs in the world, did they have to record "When She Loved Me," a treacly nothing from his Disney days? Argh! This decision alone ought to knock another star off my review.

Anyway, despite all my whinging, you should probably buy this album. There are countless fabulous moments and at least six whole tracks that even *I* can't find fault with (including the trademark "New Day," as good as you've ever heard it). I might suggest *Beatles Connection*, *Get Happy*, or *Good Vibrations* before this album, though, if you're on the fence. That 2-CD *Greatest Hits* compilation looks like it's way beyond reproach too!