Speaking With the Angel

Mary Black | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 7, 2000)
• Original Release Date: March 7, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Atlantic
• ASIN: B00004R8R8
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #97,047 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Turning Away

2. Cut by Wire

3. Don't Say Okay

4. Bless the Road

5. Broken Wings

6. Fall at Your Feet

7. Message of Love

8. Moments

9. Speaking With the Angel

10. Big Trip to Portland

11. I Live Not Where I Love

12. Fields of Gold [*]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mary Black Continues Her Magic, November 10, 2000

By 

"hongkongmom" (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Speaking With the Angel (Audio CD)

Mary Black continues to prove that a truly gifted singer can put her special mark on a wide variety of music. While I love Mary's traditional Irish pieces of the early years, I am equally thrilled with the more contemporary music she's recorded more recently. Whether singing the energetic "Message of Love" or the poignant "Moments" she is, as always, one of the best female vocalists in the world. Her clear-as-a-bell voice and flawless interpretation is one of Ireland's greatest national treasures.

Her staying power as an artist is in her choice of diverse songs, many by contemporary Irish artists, that keep her sound ever-fresh and exciting. The old Irish tunes on her early albums are great (as is "Bless the Road" on this one) but she would be doing a disservice to the tremendous songwriting talent in Ireland today if she stayed stuck in the past.

I waited to buy this CD because I was deterred by a couple of less-than-complimentary reviews on this website. One day I decided to give it a chance and I'm glad I did. This is a beautiful album which I listen to over and over. I can't wait for her next one!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars ...and have I mentioned that it's overproduced?, May 16, 2000

By 

Baby Strange (Brock Marsh, New Crobuzon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Speaking With the Angel (Audio CD)

As lovely as Mary Black's voice is, many of her albums are marred by bad choices of material and overproduction. "Speaking with the Angel" is, unfortunately, not an exception.

The best songs on the album are the first two--"Turning Away" and "Cut by Wire." "Don't Say Okay" is energetic and catchy, but Black's voice is mired in a soup of instruments, including some rather annoying harmonica. "Fields of Gold," the bonus track on the CD, is alright, but only alright--it is too slow, and the harmonica on it, also, is overdone. "I Live Not Where I Love" is nice enough, but it suffers from the same overproduction problems that plague the rest of the songs on this CD.

"Bless This Road" and "Broken Wings" could have been much, much better with different arrangements; as it is, the keyboards are way too prominent and make otherwise good songs sound syrupy. I found myself longing for the acoustic-oriented sound of "No Frontiers" very quickly.

"Fall at Your Feet" is interesting, but it just doesn't fit very well on this album, and the overdone production doesn't help.

Some of the songs are not so much bad as uninteresting--"Bless the Road," "Moments," and "Speaking with the Angel." "Big Trip to Portland" is dreadful, however, and "Message of Love" is downright embarassing in its sappy, spunky cuteness--take a hint, Mary: Sheena Easton's career is dead for a *reason*.

I'm not sure if it is simply a matter of the production or mixing on this CD, but it sounds as if Black is losing some of the power of her voice. On "Message of Love" she sounds as if she were completely out of breath. Much of the time, however, she is simply swamped by the bloated production. Maybe someday we will get an entire good album from Mary Black--it's not too much to hope (I hope). "Speaking with the Angel," unfortunately, isn't it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mary at her best, March 12, 2000

By 

M. van Setten (The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Speaking With the Angel (Audio CD)

On her 9th album "Speaking With The Angel" Mary has gone back to her roots: it is more accoustic then the previous album "Shine". The album contains incredible beautifull songs, like the title track by Ron Sexsmith "Speaking With The Angels", "Moments", "Cut By Wire" and a great cover of "Fields of Golds". Besides these more slow-pased songs, the album also contains more up-tempo songs, like "Message of Love" (a great message for the new millenium) and "Big Trip To Portland". This is certainly one of her best albums, with some delicate songs performed by Mary Black as only she can do it. A must have...