String Quart Tribute to Clay Aiken

Tribute to Clay Aiken (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 27, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Vitamin Records
• ASIN: B00019JQKU
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #663,912 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

CLAY AIKEN/THE STRING QUARTET Tribute To Clay Aiken (2004 US 12-track CD album of cover tracks originally recorded by the American Idol runner up. Claymates of all ages will love this tribute! picture sleeve - still sealed! CD8806)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I'm definitely a Clay fan, but..., February 20, 2004

By 

Rose Ann Jenny (Edmond, OK United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: String Quart Tribute to Clay Aiken (Audio CD)

I bought this CD for two reasons: (1) I like most of the songs on Clay's MOAM album; and (2) my husband plays the cello, so I'm a string quartet fan. I love Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman, but don't get me wrong--I certainly wasn't expecting anything of their quality on this CD.

Having said that...I almost took the CD out of the player halfway through the first song ("Invisible"). But I'm hard-headed...and I figured I'd listen to the rest of it before making a final judgment.

Briefly...there are some songs on Clay's album that lend themselves better to a string quartet than others. "Invisible" is definitely not one of them. One word...horrible. If you get this CD, I advise you strongly to skip to the second track.

As for the rest...the ballads (such as "The Way") are much easier on the ears when performed by a string quartet. But unless you just *have* to have every CD that's even remotely associated with Clay, save your money. Better yet...make a $15.00 donation to Bubel-Aiken.

BTW, to the person who thought it was just three instruments (violin, viola, cello) instead of four (with two violins) because of the listing of only three musicians on the album notes--the parts were recorded separately and dubbed together. If you're used to listening to string quartets, you can pick out both violins. Unfortunately, the fact that the four parts were not all recorded at one time just makes the songs that much more...unpalatable. On many of the tracks, the balance is...well, terrible. Worse than the balance on the BOTW CD...and we all complained about that :( The least they could have done if they wanted a decent product would have been to hire enough musicians to record the pieces with all four instruments playing at the same time.

Again, bottom line...save your money, or give it to some worthwhile cause.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars String trio sells CDs with Clay's name & thin tune versions, February 20, 2004

By 

Mantisdolphin "Mantisdolphin" - See all my reviews

This review is from: String Quart Tribute to Clay Aiken (Audio CD)

I think this "tribute" is unfortunate in that it strikes me as a bit of a farce or parody. Without Clay's vocals, without his charm, warmth, and sensitivity suffusing the lyrics and hinting at emotional color, the pop tunes themselves, reduced to two or three string instrument lines, are thin, shadowy stuff. The tunes of course were penned by some of the best song writers in the business. So the "tribute" is really less to Clay--much less--than it is to the veritable army of highly regarded song writers who were fortunate enough to get their songs recorded by Clay (for Clay's double and probably eventually triple platinum CD).

I'm a man who likes Clay's singing quite a bit. I also like instrumental music, particularly piano music, string quartets, and piano and string duos, trios, etc. And I'm tempted to buy a copy of this--but then, what for? The purchase hardly benefits Clay or the Bubel/Aiken foundation. If you buy it, buy a used copy. The tunes are but faint echoes of what you hear on MOAM, and do you want a true tribute to Clay or a tribute to the recording industry's best go-to song writers--which is really a tribute to Clive Davis's organizational and administrative capacities. I love Clay's voice and personality. Clive Davis's company or adiministrative abilities? Not really.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Yeah, I've only listened to the samples..., March 1, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: String Quart Tribute to Clay Aiken (Audio CD)

...but it's enough to make me know not to buy this CD. Like some of the other posters, I'm also a musician. I'm 25 and I've been a cellist since I was 10.

The musicians-- poor things-- sound like high schoolers. And, in fact, I've actually heard better high school performances. The CD sounds like it was recorded in a high school, too-- too echoey and NO sound balance. The cello is way too loud. It's only an accompaniment and it sometimes drowns the melody.

Moreover, the compositions seem amateur. Cellos almost never get the melody, and that's something we live with. Sometimes we get great harmony. Here, however, it's like the cello was designed to replace the drum machine, with nothing but repetitive rhythms on the same note. I used to play like that-- when I was in middle school and was practicing from the rhythm exercise book!

I'm no Yo-Yo Ma, but I'd be embarrassed to play this arrangement this poorly.

The original accompaniments on the show and on the CD itself are much nicer.