Customer Reviews

Ultimate High

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This should not work. A teenaged self-taught Irish girl should not be able to hook up with a couple members of a one-hit-wonder band and record a CD this good. Not to say that it's perfect, of course, but it's still a good CD.

Hennessy has a great voice, and if you didn't know the truth you'd think she's about ten years older and more experienced than she is. She can wail when she wants to, and happily stays away from the flight-of-the-bumblebee stuff that most young singers believe is the sole way to prove their prowess. In the few moments when she does hold out an "oooooh" for some emoting, she can give you chills. This girl is good.

The instrumentals are excellent. Well-played bass, flawless (if slightly overproduced) drums, and spectacular guitar. Songs are generally good, with a few spots of very good songwriting (especially when New Radicals refugees Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois collaborate). Tracks like "Young Love," though, are best if you try to listen to the singing without really comprehending the lyrics.

Best songs are "Beautiful You" (which should have been the first single; maybe then this would have sold more than 500 copies in the U.S.), "I Need a Little Love" (which absolutely rocks), and "All Kinds of People" (imagine Jon Bon Jovi as a 17-year-old Irish girl, and you end up with this song).

Evidently Ms. Hennessy has met with more success in Britain; hopefully MCA didn't completely pull the plug on her American future. This is a good CD, and if you've gotten to the point where you're reading reviews, you'll probably like it.

What a bizarre exercise! The vast majority of this album is written and produced by Danielle Brisebois and Gregg Alexander (of New Radicals) and sounds EXACTLY like Danielle's two albums. In fact, "ULTIMATE HIGH" basically sounds like a new Danielle Brisebois album with her vocals stripped off and replaced with someone else who is trying her best to imitate Danielle's inflections, accent, phrasing, everything. And doing a great job. Of course, since most people have never heard any of Danielle's music, Carly Hennessy may just get away with it, and ultimately, who cares? The songs are immediately ingratiating, the production is delicious and the vocal arrangements, since they are nearly identical to those on Danielle's album "ARRIVE ALL OVER YOU" are a joy to listen to, espcially with Danielle's BGVs. Carly Hennessy is totally unformed as a musical personality, as her imitative performance and complete lack of presence on the one track produced by Steven Dorff conclusively prove. But she's a great puppet, and if you're a Danielle Brisebois or New Radicals fan, already too aware that there is no new material immediately forthcoming from either of those artists, you'll love this. Commercial prospects are seriously in question here, as the first single has already flopped and MCA seems to be ignoring this release.

Stunning. That's all I have to say about this little overlooked nugget of pop genius. From the bouncing opening cut and second single 'Beautiful You' to the mellow closer 'What I've Found', Carly Hennessy released an album that should have been the pop chart revelation of the year 2001, but instead was criminally ignored, and from what I can tell, lost her recording contract, after her debut single 'I'm Gonna Blow Your Mind' failed to set Europe's charts on fire last year.
The album itself is the child of former New Radicals Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois, with their lyrics and production present on every track. Personally, I think this is some of their best work behind the scenes, easily blowing previous Alexander produced acts like Ronan Keating out of the water. Carly's vocals are great, and combined with the excellent New Radicals, the album just amazes.
The singles are what originally drew me to Ms. Hennessy, the first being the extremely infectious 'I'm Gonna Blow Your Mind', a powerful chorus and her vocal made this a perfect pop single. The joyous follow up track, 'Beautiful You', is nothing less than brilliant, a lively proclamation of love that never fails to make me smile when I hear it.
Carly's album is much more than just those two singles, however. Uptempo album cuts like 'You'll Never Meet God (If You Break My Heart)' and 'Get You Off' are cut from the same cloth as the singles, and are just as good too. She can also work a ballad or two, the stunning 'Surface Wound' and 'Rip In Heaven', being some of the slower highlights.
One of the best songs here, 'Just Missed The Train', was originally performed by Danielle Brisebois herself, and sounds excellent here. American Idol Kelly Clarkson has also released the song on her new album, which could mean this deserving song could have another chance at hit status.
A really good album. A really, really good album even, it's such a shame it was so ignored, and Carly will never get the chance to really show people what she's got. Maybe she'll release a second album someday, but if not, this excellent pop record is something to definitely be proud of, a huge smash or not.

I like most people have purchased this cd because of the Wall Street Journal article. How can a company spend all that money and not break an artist? That's another story. This is probably the best sounding pop cd in some time. The stand outs are "just missed the train"...what a vocal range this girl has...just gorgeous. Also "i'm gonna blow your mind" is a joy to behold. I can't recommend this cd enough. Don't miss this!!!

Like the earlier reviewer Frank, I only became aware of this artist because of the Wall Street Journal article that appeared about this album. The article is kind of "Anatomy of a Failure." Even with the big bucks and power of a big label behind her, this album sold only 370 couples in the entire nation!

When I listen to the album, I am mystified as to why Carly is not a big star.

If you are interested in reading that interesting WSJ journal article,...

My wife and I were big fans of Carly Smithson on AI. Her voice is perfect for Pop Rock and edgier stuff. A 21'st century Ann Wilson in the making. If they ever make a movie to tell the story of the Band Heart, Carly is the natural choice to play Ms. Wilson. While personally I could do without the tats etc. I couldn't help but love her vocals until the Andrew Lloyd Weber week, and then I could have done without the song choice.

In any case I bought the download of this album from Amazon hoping for more of the same. Unfortunately, until you get to the last two tracks of the album, this might have been a Brittany Spears album, which is not the Carly we fell in love with at my house. Now if you like bubble gum pop, this is a pretty good buy, but if you want Carly Smithson instead of Carly Hennessey, you should buy the AI songs on I tunes which I like much better, but that's just me.

Hopefully and I'm sure this is the case, that the AI exposure will bring Carly the kind of opportunity to make the kind of album I want from her, unfortunately this just wasn't it.

I was looking through the store for something different to buy instead of some the other stuff we see everyday and came across this cd. I had never heard of her and decided to give her a chance. I am glad I did. I like Carly Hennessy a lot and hope to hear more from her. I enjoy this cd quite a bit and I am glad it is not big so I can have something different in my collection. I reccommend this one.

I think I bought this CD for one cent. The way it makes me feel is priceless. Sure, it sounds like the New Radicals or Danielle Brisebois, but all of this music is extremely well produced, has very touching, emotional hooks and flawless vocals and harmonies. Gregg and Danielle's influence make this a better record.

This stuff is so good it makes me wonder why I'm still involved with making music: If records like this are released and sink without a trace---what chance would I ever have of "making it"?

As I've mention elsewhere, this is a good example of just how wrecked our music industry is.

If you love great pop/rock tunes, great singing and you have any feelings at all, you're gonna love this! Highly recommended!

Now that Carly has "proven" herself on American Idol, I am sure she can nostalgically look back at this album as not her failure, but the failure of the record label, poor marketing, and bad timing in the release date (one month after 9/11...). With that said, I gave this album four stars because Carly as a singer is absolutely outstanding. She has a big voice and can definitely sing. I am not that much of a fan of this "kind" of music though. Its too much pop for me...too bubble-gummy. I suppose a teenager might enjoy it, but for someone who is a year or so older than Carly, I expect a mature sound from a mature person.

Which leads me to this comment: Carly's voice has matured in seven years. She has a power-rocker voice comparable to Kelly Clarkson, Pat Benetar, or Annie Wilson from Heart. Carly's success will come from making the "right" song choices that fit her personality and style, and ultimately her vocal strengths. Hopefully she will sign with a label this time around that will move her in that direction. She certainly has a following, including myself, who will anxiously await the day her first post-AI album is released.

This is one of the only good cd's that will come out this year, and it looks as if it will continue to flop! If you are a brisebois fan, or a New Radicals fan-this is a culmination of both. The best songs on here are Just Missed The Train, Never Meet God, and Im Gonna Blow Your Mind. The songs Carly writes tend to be disco/bubblegum, but they blend ok with the brilliant ones by Greg and Danielle.It makes for an album that is a cross between Nina Gordon's(Veruca Salt) solo album, and Natalie Imbruglia, or lesser known Chantel Krevuziak.I wonder if this could be radio-friendly if they gave it half a chance-I think so. Especially songs like Im going to blow your mind.Radio seriously needs to reevaluate where it's going when it misses out on stuff like this, but yet plays rappers who have zero talent-as if the words RAP and TALENT belong in the same sentence.???? Any serious music fan knows that radio is the shame of society, and Clearchannel is the death of radio-they're clearly unaware of anything except dollar signs. If Vanessa Carlton, Train, and Five For Fighting can fit in alongside all the trash, why cant Carly?