Wild for You

Karrin Allyson | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 8, 2004)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Concord Records
• ASIN: B00023B1UI
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,454 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It takes a few listenings, September 17, 2004

By 

Jim (Richmond, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wild for You (Audio CD)

Karrin Allyson is as the NY Times says a "gifted" vocalist and this CD proves it. Her greatest strength is the melancholy standard. Her "Too Young to Go Steady" (on an earlier CD) reinvented that song. Like any true artist, she likes to stretch her wings. On many of her CDs she makes admirable attempts to sing the blues, but she isn't convincing as a blues singer. In this new CD she brings fresh air to oldish standards. These are not covers. They are attempts to make oldish songs new. In most songs she succeeds, but in others the attempt comes close to reinvention but fails. My sense is that she and her record company need to capitalize on her strength with the sad song and stop trying to make her into something she isn't. In the end what audiences long for is authenticity. Nevertheless I like this CD and find it something different from re-warmed, tired, jazz standards, and therefore refreshing. If you have the chance to see Karrin Allyson sing in person I urge you to do it. She is an aluring performer just coming into her own.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great artist, good material, mixed results, May 26, 2005

By 

Greg Brady "columbusboy" (Capital City) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Wild for You (Audio CD)

This CD was my introduction to Karrin Allyson. My initial impressions of her vocally are what Carly Simon may have sounded like had she been more inclined to jazz. What you get here is jazzy takes on 70s pop songs..all covers.

There are pitfalls when one sings covers: Slavish remakes that don't lend anything new to the song, bizarre reinvention sheerly for the sake of originality, and material the artist loves personally that doesn't fit their voice or style. To her credit, Ms. Allyson avoids them and ends up making a pretty good album that lets you hear some weathered classics as though they were new. Even when they're not great, they're at least credible and fresh.

HIGHLIGHTS:

I've always thought of "Don't Let me Lonely Tonight" as a lesser hit among James Taylor's work, but Allyson's melancholy rendition may make me rethink that notion now. It reminds me a bit of a Vince Guaraldi track and has a nice, spare standup bass solo. Old Elton John song "Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word" gets a nicely understated take including a sumptuous accordion solo. I'll confess "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" was a new song to me, but I loved it. Allyson sounds the most "Carly Simon-esque" on this one.

LOWS:

The title track never really gets to the bluesy heart of Raitt's song...it's not salacious and smoldering enough. Raitt sounded like she was gonna rip her man's clothes off the instant she saw him. "Mind on my Man" is a lovely vocal in service of a fairly mediocre song. "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Love" is completely limp musically and Allyson doesn't really add any vocal firepower to it. If there was a song on here that requires a "diva" vocal, this one's it. No one's gonna forget about Flack's version after hearing Allyson's.

BOTTOM LINE:

Jazz lovers who also enjoy good singer-songwriter material will probably like the cherry-picked best of this and would do well to search the online services to buy the tracks they like. Fans of 70s pop who aren't necessarily jazz lovers might find this a nice step outside their usual listening parameters. Allyson's voice is wonderful and I intend to seek out other CDs from her (and I'll probably try and find the best tracks from this on iTunes or something similar) but this one failed to grab me overall.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A divine singer, but not her best work, May 6, 2005

By 

Swamp Dog (Our Nation's Capital, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wild for You (Audio CD)

I read through the other reviewers comments, and I agree with them for the most part. The Joni Mitchell covers, in my opinion, are the most lively, and show obvious love and reverence for the material. And they swing. Joni Mitchell is such a distinctive artist, she is very hard to cover, and Karrin pulls it off. "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" . . actually would not have been out of place on one of Karrin's earlier recordings.

But, I agree that most of the material is pretty tired, and it if I never heard the original of "It's too late" or "Wild World" again, it would be too soon. So covers of these songs are pretty painful to listen to.

My main reason for the review . . is to plug Karrin's CD 'Ballads', which is a masterpiece, brilliantly conceived and executed. If you want to own one Karrin Allyson CD, buy that one. It's dark and dreamy . . . and accomplishes what many would have thought impossible . . . a vocal artist's homage to John Coltrane.