Customer Reviews

Tempting: Jenny Toomey Sings the Songs of Franklin Bruno

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Toomey, former vocalist of Tsunami and Grenade (among others) sings us musically sweet, lyrically sarcastic love songs on Tempting. The music is a straightforward pop entree with a side of Latin and a hint of jazz. Take my word for it, pick any song and you'll be fully satisfied. The simple, captivating melodies and witty lyrics remind me of the Magnetic Fields. This album is pleasant and coherent, clever and poised, beautiful and brilliant-one of the best I've heard this year.

Any one person who has followed Frank's songwriting for the past 11-12 years should know that this is by far his finest hour
of compositional equanimity. Jenny Toomey has an album under her belt that the best of us wish we had written, much less recorded.
With a Kitty Wells lounge attack, backed by a phat, raw, mancini-like production...
Well, if you don't by this album, you just ...
Kiss without makeup is top notch, but this album is the annals of one of the great Inland Empire sinner-songwriters.
I'am making sure Patrick Brayer hears of it any-hoo.
Toomey nailed the masonic eye. Cheat & Unionbusting get one big " DANG !"
Not one bad cut. First time in a long while I listened to an album straight through twice.
Besides, Frank also seconds as a great philosophy teacher.
You will learn something here.

Great lyrics, great voice, but where's the memorable melodies? Every lyric here is let down by the uninspired tune that accompanies it. Bruno is obviously under the spell of Cole Porter, but he has forgotten that Porter wrote great tunes as well as great lyrics. The best melodic effort here would be the swinging, Let's Stay In, but it is itself a slightly hollow pastiche of the better male-female duets of the fifties. The difference between Bruno and Stephen Merritt, to whom he has been compared, is that Merritt can write great tunes, whereas Bruno can only write great lyrics. One would be pushed to find a decent hook in this collection of songs. Everything else is there, but the hook is vital. Porter understood that better than anybody. As for Jenny, she should be tackling the standards, not these pale imitations. She has the most stylish voice in contemporary music. It deserves to be wrapped round the classics, but whether it ever will or not is another matter. Her own album of songs, Antidote, is a better buy than this one, but until we get Jenny Sings The Gershwin Songbook, or something of that ilk, her great vocal gift is being squandered.