Customer Reviews

Time After Time

5 star:		(105)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

What a voice... At times she evokes the great Sandy Denny with a small vocal nuance, sometimes she sounds like a great jazz diva from the 30s. But always Eva. A remarkable voice that got no real attention while she lived (while scads of talentless boy and teen bands are hyped to death, don't get me started).

Starting with a lovely version of Paul Simon's Kathy's Song that leaves out the self-pitying middle verses, this album is one great vocal performance stacked on another until the final, gospel-tinged Way Beyond the Blue. There are standouts along the way, including a smoky Ain't No Sunshine and Time After Time. There are other songs that are not great, but are made better by the vocal treat that is this amazing voice. The tracks never mesh into a single album, though, as the jazz of Time After Time veers oddly into the country of Penny To My name and the varying recording qualities are obvious from track to track.

The album is worth having (hell, get anything you can by this amazing artist), but it's not the place to start an Eva Cassidy collection. Get Live at Blues Alley (oh, what a wonder that one is). Get Songbird (which repeats parts of Blues Alley, but has some real standouts from other sources). Then get this to listen to when you've played those two to death.

Eva Cassidy is probably the greatest voice never heard. But, happily, that is changing. Her voice cannot be described with just a few words because she does so much with it on such varied material. But if I had to choose one word, it would be soulful. Because when Eva sang... she meant it. It doesn't matter whether your first introduction comes from the Songbird CD or Time After Time. Anyone who appreciates a real God-given voice will love Eva. The title track, Time After Time, is an excellent example of how Eva can sing a song in a way that causes the listener to hear it differently. She makes it new again. Her interpretations bring new meaning and beauty to other songs on the CD like, Ain't No Sunshine and The Letter. I am usually a traditionalist and reluctant to like coversongs. But Eva is the absolute exception! As for the ballads and folk songs such as I Wandered by a Brookside, Anniversary Song and Woodstock... I dare anyone to get through the entire CD without being brought to tears. But Eva would not want it to end that way. So the CD ends with the gospel song Way Beyond The Blue. There are no instruments on this track except her rich and honest voice, which is no longer with us on earth. She is with God, way beyond the blue. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Cassidy and Chris Biondi for carrying on and making it possible for us to enjoy Eva's music.

Eva Cassidy was a true original, with a warm, emotional voice that she could wrap around any kind of music - jazz, pop, folk, blues, gospel, you name it. On this CD, she moves seamlessly from the sixties folk of "Kathy's Song", to the sophistocated "At Last"; from a haunting cover of Cindy Lauper's "Time After Time", to the quintessential Joni Mitchell anthem, "Woodstock". Each is different, and she makes each uniquely her own. Cassidy had an uncanny way of achieving an astounding level of intimacy with her listeners. You'll feel that she's singing each story just for you. Only one cut on the CD, the Boxtops' "The Letter", is unsuccessful, but this rare misstep does not significantly detract from the overall quality of the album.

If you've never heard Eva Cassidy's music, you're missing something special. As marvelous as this CD is, the earlier "Eva By Heart" is even better. And on "Live At Blues Alley", she accomplishes the impossible; she sings "Over the Rainbow" as well as, if not better than, Judy Garland. On that same CD, her rendition of Sting's "Fields of Gold" will leave you breathless.

Buy "Time After Time" now, and make it the first in what will certainly be a collection of CD's by a most extraordinary artist.

When God gave us Eva Cassidy he blessed us with a voice so implicitly perfect it seemed to shine like a beacon from Heaven. Eva's was a voice that came from such an innocent place that it simply came and stayed a while and then left us with only its haunting memory. Although Eva Cassidy died of cancer in 1996, her life continues to bless us through this beautiful CD.

Equally at home with jazz, folk, blues, rock, or folk, she was a woman who colored outside the lines and refused to conform to any boundaries in her art and music - boundaries that most of us take for granted every day. It was not just her voice that captivated and moved people, it was the texture and color of it and the way it made every little word seem to take a breath and have a life of its own.

Most of the songs on this CD are colored with simple often acoustic arrangements - some with just Cassidy's voice and guitar. Her version of Paul Simon's Kathy's Song will now forever be the definitive version for me. Also included is a jazz inflected version of Bill Wither's Ain't no Sunshine recorded live at Blues Alley.

In the CD's closing song, Eva sings "Oh Lord do you remember me way beyond the blue?" Yes Eva he does, and so do we in your special place singing with the Angels.

Everyone who loves her has a story of how they discovered Eva Cassidy. I happened to be reading the news on an Internet web site one day a couple of weeks ago and was intrigued to read the headline, "Dead Singer's Records Selling Like Crazy." After reading the story, I did some research on Cassidy and decided to take the plunge and order three of her CDs. "Time After Time," the most professionally-done in sound and in look, includes Eva's covers of some immortal tunes: Paul Simon's "Kathy's Song," Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine," and Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock," to name just a few.

How to describe this extraordinary singer? I can't think of any singer who sounds like HER, although Eva's voice occasionally shows flashes of other singers' styles. On the gorgeous, yearning "At Last," Cassidy's vibrato mirrors the butterfly shimmer of Phoebe Snow--on Harlan Howard's brief and bittersweet "I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again," Cassidy has the throaty growl of Teri Thornton. No song seems beyond her capabilities. Her voice goes from heartbreakingly fragile to taunting to saucy to brimming with pain in a heartbeat. There isn't a dud on this album, nor on the other three I bought. My four-year old daughter has already proclaimed Eva her favorite singer. I have to say that I have nearly arrived at that opinion myself.

I had the evening news on in the summer last year, just as background noise. Then I heard "Over The Rainbow" being sung. Actually, it was at a much more rudimentary level. The voice just drilled through the after-work ennui and sent a chill down my spine. No voice ever had that effect on me. Not even Streisand. I bought Songbird the same day.

I never really followed up on Eva's other recordings until a few weeks ago. Same deal. "Smallville" was on in the background, and The Voice seized me again. I didn't even have to wait for the end credits. I knew it was Eva. I found "Time After Time" on amazon before the song ended on the TV.

As someone else here has said, with Eva you either get it, or you don't get it. Observations about recording quality, arrangements, choice of songs, whatever... they're all irrelevant. It's all about The Voice.

For those of you who don't get it, my sincerest sympathies.

I'm just glad that I'm one who does, and I'm thankful someone had the great good sense to record that voice before it was silenced.

Yes, I admit it.

I love watching Smallville on the WB. And what I always found aggravating was the fact that at the end of each episode, there would be little announcements of who did what song during the show, followed with an album shot.

These little ad-bits never cease to annoy me.

However...

Last night's episode featured this amazing cover of "Time After Time," a song that a true child of the 80's remembers as one of the most honest and sincere songs of all time. And it was sung in such a melancholy, yearning, clear voice.

For once, I couldn't wait for the ad-bit to show up at the end, so maybe I could find out this miraculous singer's name....

And it was Eva Cassidy.

I did some research on her last night and found out sadly that she died at the young age of 33 from cancer. But in her lifetime, she lived humbly and without the marketing mish mosh. Her voice was clear and true, her vocalizations are absolutely gorgeous.

This album, and her Live album are HIGHLY recommended....(try to track down her beautiful cover of Sting's "Fields of Gold" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

I will confess to being a fan of big name singers, so when a friend of mine suggested that I put Eva Cassidy, a woman I'd never heard of, in my CD player I was a little hesitatnt to do so, but am now so thankful that I did. It's such a relief to hear a singer not afraid to simply sing without all of the electronic bleeps and blips. Ms. Cassidy simply takes a song, pours her heart and soul into it, and makes it something new. There are absoultely no low points on this CD- every song either gets an A-, A or A+ from me, but here are my thoughts on the individual songs:
1) Kathy's Song- Forgive me! I'm not a huge Paul Simon fan, but hearing Eva Cassidy sing in just might pull me around. Her voice is almost a whisper, and her guitar is a perfect companion to her voice. A+
2) We must have all heard that Bill Wither's 'Ain't No Sunshine' is a song that artist love to sing. Indeed, the only reason I agreed to listen to this CD was because Ain't No Sunshine was included. Her voice on this song almost makes you hurt because of the emotion behind it. A
3) I wondered if all the songs on this CD would be slow, but then came 'The Letter', which let me know that, whatever type of song Ms. Cassidy decided to sing would be golden. When she hits the high notes, her voice is perfection. A+
4) 'At Last' can either be overdone, or done perfectly, and the latter is the case from Ms. Cassidy. Again, the strength in the song is that, at it's heart, it is simply a woman singing about love, without confusing and distracting background music. A+
5) 'Time After Time', the title track, is the second best song on the album. Cyndi Lauper's slightly upbeat fun song has been transformed into a beautiful ballad. A+
6) 'Penny to My Name'- it's hard to follow such a great song, but again, Ms. Cassidy is always up to the challenge. Great song. A
7) 'I Wandered By a Brookside' is the kind of song you can listen to over and over again. Slow and melodic, this song will slowly take you to dreamland. A-
8) 'I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again' Is just plain fun- depending on how you look at it. I'm sure married women will appreciate the song, but a guy like me can like it too. A-
9) 'Easy Street Dream' Another fun song, that has Ms. Cassidy proclaming, "any love that's easy goes out with a bad name". Too true, and too good a song. A
10) 'Anniversary Song' gets back to what Eva does best- the love song that makes you ache. It is truly beautiful, and I know that I keep saying that, but it's the truth. A+
11) 'Woodstock' is my favorite song on this album. Like 'Kathy's Song', her voice is kept whispery and calm- but the lyrics tell an awesome story that will be hard to forget. A++
12) 'Way Beyond the Blue' has Eva trying to sing gospel, and she pulls it off, though I suspect that I have never loved this song because it follows Woodstock, which is such a great song. Still, she does very well. A-
Overall: A+ This CD is the favorite in my collection, and Ms. Cassidy is the definition of a perfect singer.

This is not my favorite Eva Cassidy album. I lean more toward her ballad and R&B interpretations as recorded on Songbird and Live at Blues Alley. Let me back up a moment. I'm a 58 year old guy who has heard a lot of singers over the years. I can bearly remember Vaughn Monroe singing in the late 40s while my mom was giving me a bath while living in Washington DC. I was a young teenager when Elvis was making his debut in the 50s. And Barbara Streisand was a new senation in the early 60s while I was in the military. The 70s, 80s and 90s brought forth a great collection of singers, groups and rock stars (although of late, some of the pop "crap" leaves much to be desired!). Today, some of my favorites are Jewel, Sarah Mclachlan, Celine, Diana Krall et.al. But none has moved me like Eva Cassidy! Listening to Eva is an emotional experience! That's why I have all 5 of her CDs.

Now to my main point of this review. On Time After Time, Eva brilliantly takes you through 4 decades of music genere starting with old pop-Paul Simon, to new pop-Cindy Lauper, through some old standards, and ends with old folk, R&B and gospel. What a trip through modern musical history!! I had to listen to this cut several times to even begin to appreciate how she treats each of these completely different musical styles! Her interpretation of most of these songs is absolutely amazing!! Her perfect pitch with her range, power and emotion makes most of these songs her own! A Penny To My Name and I Wish I Was A Single Girl Again are two songs that I've fallen in love with again. Although not my favorite Eva album, Eva does display her, now, renown ability to sing any song from any period by any artist-and treat as good or better than they did!! That's why I still give this album 5 stars!

June 1, 2006 - Update on my April 21, 2004 Review:

As of yesterday, Songbird was #75 on Amazon's best seller list and Time After Time was #475. Both have resale value over $10. Is there another artist's work that has held up like these CDs? Do yourself a favor and buy them both.

This is Eva's best album. "Songbird" is excellent but I prefer the songs on this CD. Isn't it amazing that "Time After Time" and "Songbird" have remained ranked so high on Amazon sales and have retained their resale value so well? Maybe not so amazing when you consider the wonder of Eva Cassidy.