Customer Reviews

Something Real

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

 

 

Phoebe Snow means Talented and gifted. What a truely amazing woman, I wish I had half her talent, Id be rich and famous, but alas I can only dream!

Phoebe has a unique voice that is easily distinctive from the rest, the music is not harsh, allowing her voice to drift over you in all its lyrical beauty is wonderfully satisfying.

I love this album, I have three copies of it in case I lose one, I love it that much, to me she is on par with Stevie Wonder which is high praise indeed, since I love him absolutely! I wish she would recieve more recognition as she is an incredible artist, a singer songwriter a brilliant guitarist and pianist she is so obscenely talented it makes you ill! I am inadequately glad that she exsists, this world would be all the poorer without her. So she is yet another who I HIGHLY RECOMMEND, get a copy enjoy and be pleasantly blown away!

This album seemed so long coming that I had begun to wonder if I had heard the last of Phoebe Snow. Since Snow is eclectic to say the least one never quite knows what to expect, but she is certainly right at home here. Pop is what its all about - latherings of catchy melodies and exuberant and slick playing and production from Ricky Fataar and others. Snow's vocal control is a always exemplary and she makes it all seem so easy - today's pop princesses could do worse than to take some lessons out of this classy demonstration of power pop Think Bonnie Raitt's Nick of Time and you'll be in the right territory but like Raitt, Snow's voice is very much her own and comparisons are odious.

Phoebe sang alot of comercials and deep jazz cuts like Thankful And Thoughtful in the 80's. She had a AC hit with Dave Mason titled Dreams I Dream. By the end of the 80's she had suffered a heart attack, hence the song Cardiac Arrest, and comeback to the pop/folk scene with this CD. It's a combination of her traditional thoughtful folk writing like the title track to the the spirited single If I Can Just Get Through The Night. She even went as far as recording an updated version of the Emotions disc classic, Best Of My Love, very effectively! Also listen to Mr.Wondering, We May Never Feel This Way Again and the jazzy Soothin'.

Always loved Phoebe. This cd is true to her form, it did not let me down. I bought this one and Natural Wonder. Something Real, I believe is much better than the latter.

I had this album on cassette when it first was relaeased. That was when VH-1 used to show music videos 24/7. I saw the video for one of the songs, "If I Can Just Get Through the Night", and I liked it so much that I bought the cassette (wasn't buying cd's yet). I hadn't played the cassette, or any cassettes for that matter, for years. I recently came across the cassette and tried to play it, just to discover the magnetic tape had broken. That's when I looked up the title on Amazon and I ordered the cd. I still like that one song very much, but the rest of the songs aren't as good as I remembered them to be. Phoebe Snow is very talented, but on this collection, she has a tendency to slur the lyrics, making it difficult to understand what she is singing about. And there are too many 'moody' songs with mediocre melodies. She does a respectable cover version of "Best of My Love", which, after listening to a number of 'downer' songs that precede it, comes as a refreshing lift. "If I Can Just Get Through the Night" and "Best of My Love" save this cd from a * rating. Overall rating ***

In the years of the late 80's when big voiced female singers were all the rage (think Anita Baker, Mariah Carey and - because of her Grammy Impact - Bonnie Raitt), Phoebe Snow made a strong attempt at a "Nick of Time" like comeback. "Something Real" was a solid effort, if not a terrific one. It was also her first album after a nine year hiatus. She even had a minor adult contemporary radio hit off of it, with "If I Could Just Get Through The Night," and the album climbed to 75 on Billboard.

While Snow wrote half the songs here herself, the problem becomes that the music doesn't rise to the occasion. Snow has a one of a kind voice, which keeps the album from falling completely off the radar, but the is so slick and professionally tasteful that it falls on the wrong side of sterile. That is readily apparent on the ill-advised cover of The Emotions' "Best of My Love." When Snow plays to her strengths, like on "Cardiac Arrest" or the jazzy "Soothin'," the album is far more effective.

"Arrest" stalks the turf Raitt claimed on her comeback album, and makes me wonder what a more effective or unified production team (the album credits four producers) might have given "Something Real." I was fortunate enough to see her live at a small club in support of this album, and she socked these songs with a power the album lacked...especially "If I Could Just Get Through The Night" and the title song. These are good songs by a gifted artist on what is, ultimately, a so-so album.

As far as I'm concerned, not enough great things can be said about about the vocal ability of Phoebe Snow. This cd "Something Real", was a comeback of sorts for Phoebe in 1989. Hard to believe this much overlooked album was released 20 years ago. I consider this cd the absolute best release of her long storied career. Her take on the Emotions "Best Of My Love", is full of funk and she literally blows the roof off the house with her 7 octave take on the rockin "Cardiac Arrest", which is an autobiographic rocker regarding her own health issues. Phoebe has always sung from her heart, and I consider her the most underrated female vocalist of the modern rock era. Her dedication to her personal life, in which she spent 31 years caring for her late handicapped daughter, may have prevented her from reaching more commericial heights, but in my eyes, she remains as talented as ever, and deserves recognition beyond her biggest hit "poetry Man". Her latest release "Phoebe Snow Live", further illustrates why she has never left, and remains the real deal.