Customer Reviews

Ute Lemper - Punishing Kiss

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What do you say about an album whose tenderest moments are provided by Tom Waits? "Punishing Kiss" is such an album, and Ute Lemper's best yet. The songs were all written for and/or carefully tailored to her eerily detached vocals by such artists as Elvis Costello (in the title song and two others), Philip Glass, Neil Hannon, Nick Cave (in a wistful little murder ballad called "Little Water Song"), Scott Walker (at his most allusive and morose in "Scope J"), and the aforementioned Tom Waits. Lemper even reprises "The Tango Ballad" from "The Threepenny Opera," in a scathingly arch duet with Neil (The Divine Comedy) Hannon, that provides historical context for this uncompromisingly harsh look at contemporary sexual mores. It's hardly the kind of album aimed at distracting pre-teens from the current crop of boy-toy groups and pneumatic nymphets, yet it might yield a hit or two, if radio jocks can recover from their shock long enough to play one of the three hauntingly recherche collaborations with Hannon: "The Case Continues," "Split," or "You Were Meant for Me." If you've never before heard Ute Lemper, this is the album to start with. But you might want to make a trip to the barber and get your pigtails cut first.

When Holly Cole did an cd of Tom Waits songs, the songs were smooth and beautifully sung. But, the life seemed to be drained from them. This is not the case in this work by Ms. Lemper. These songs demand to be sung not like a "lounge song" but in the style of musical theater. For these songs are stories that must be acted out. A great performance from a superb artist.

Thank god this is a cd and not vinyl for I surely would have worn out an lp by now. Late on the first night i obtained the new cd, I gave it a cursory pop into the cd player. I skimmed over the selections, replayed a couple that caught my attention and went to bed glad to have this new release.

Now, less than two weeks since that night, I've played the cd dozens of times and can say I am nowhere near being tired of listening to this collection of music.

Intriguing, Frightening, Melancholic, Lazy, Gorgeous, Beautiful, Mysterious, Witty, Light, Gay, Dramatic, Tormented, Demented, Heady, Intelligent, Ironic, Obvious. The terms and superlatives are too vast to convey the wide range of feeling this cd can and does elicit from this listener.

To use an overwrought expression, I feel this yet another Ute Lemper tour de force.

Do not look for descriptions of the "kind" of songs on this release from me. As Louis Armstrong said: "There's two kinds of music, good music and bad music".

"Punishing Kiss" is good music of the highest caliber.

The statuesque Ute is a beauty so monumental, she's almost architectural. And she's got a voice and delivery to match, plus on this album, a taste for superb material.

My favourites are the Nick Cave, Elvis Costello and Tom Waits songs, but what is really impressive is how her voice holds together the Scott Walker song Scope J (If one can call it a song).

Anyone who can sing along to, let alone intelligently interpret, such a bizarre and dark little symphony, deserves 5 stars just for the effort. I like my divas dark and brooding, like Nico of Velvet Underground, so Ute fits the bill. Investigate and enjoy!

That's what Marguerite Yourcenar said: We are punished for not being able to remain alone. This wonderful album by Ute Lemper seems to be supported by this thought. This songs are filled with all the rage, anger, and bitterness a bad lover can bring to your life. Even though this sounds really harsh, the songs are really well crafted. The brilliant arrangements by Joby Talbot and the felt participation of Neill Hannon - as the male co-star of a couple of songs - makes of this album an ourstanding piece of art. This recording represents for Lemper an expansion in her theatrical way to perform music, stepping into the fields of pop music. If you've heard her before you need to listening the dark "Street of Berlin", a lovers fight called "Split", the murder of a love in "The Cases continues", and the last thoughts of a drowning woman in "Little water song".

I've enjoyed Ute Lemper for years, but this album took me completely by surprise. Her distinctive, emotional voice is still here, but it's now surrounded by pop beats and substantial orchestration. The music is a joy to listen to, but (like other Lemper recordings) it is never a relaxing, easy time. Audra McDonald fans, you have been warned.

If you have the chance, see her live. It's the only way Lemper improves on her distinctive recorded vocals.

We all know Ute Lemper as the foremost interpreter of Weill and art songs, but who would have guessed that she is adept at popular tunes too? Well, let me re-phrase, these songs are not "standards", however, they are written by contemporaries that more people would have heard of than Weill. Nick Cave and tom Waits, for example, are two the lyricists whose music is given life on this album. Let's start with the voice: it has a timbre totally unlike any other that you would have come across in pedestrian music circles. It can be warm, it can be cool (with ice-cold precision), it can be smooth or rough. She does whatever she wants to with her voice and the listener sits there with open mouth, awed by the sheer sound of this woman. She doesn't treat her voice as if it is some precious antique, she slams it around and all for the sake of song. Which brings us to her interpretive gifts: they are ample. When I read some of the lyrics in the booklet, I asked myself how she was going to pull it off but she always did and in an approach at odds with whatever you were expecting. Her song selection is most interesting, the only one I was familiar with prior to my purchase was "Streets of Berlin" which I had heard in the movie BENT. In her version, she is very intimate and quiet at first in a way that out-shimmies Mick Jagger (who sang the song in the movie) but then she gets loud and audacious in a way that is totally in keeping with the song's intent and works with instead of against the melody. My only complaint is that occasionally Ms. Lemper lets her voice get the better of her and crosses *that* line into melodrama. Other than this one small quibble, I recommend this disc for listeners who want to be throttled rather than soothed, to think rather than be spoon-fed. Enjoy... I know I did!

Saw Ute live last night at Royce Hall in Los Angeles, she did all the selections from Punishing Kiss...they all are written especially for her by the international and ecclectic group of writers...theses songs really take you away, enveloped in the meaning, emotion and the power of her voice...a must buy

Wow. I mean wow. This is music. This is the sound of the new century. There is no one like Ute Lemper and that's just okay.

As fan of Ute Lemper for years, specially in songs from german Schlager/cabaret songs and French Chansons. Ute Lemper was a fantastic link from past with female singers as Dietrich and of course the biggest of them all Zarah Leander. I was very suspicious when I heard about this CD, but I must admit I have capitulate. To hear her voice in songs specially written for her by Cave,Costello,Waits and others is just perfect. Buy it and you have a close friend for a long time. I had the possibility to see her live i Stockholm June 1 this year, she is even better live. it was an evening I never will forget.It was magic!