Customer Reviews

Zipless

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A friend once burst into my home and said "YOU MUST PLAY THIS CD NOW," which made me groan a bit inside as she ran to my stereo. I expected to have to feign interest and approval. Instead I felt connected to Ms. Daou's music instantaneously. Six years later I'm still playing this disc at least once a week. Close your eyes and imagine tasting chocolate for the first time. I advise you to beware as this very unique sound and mood is the aural equivalent of superglue to the ear. If you've ever had an evening with a special person where you thought you'd literally die if you didn't kiss them, and you finally did, and it was everything you thought it would be, this is what it sounded like. "Long Tunnel of Wanting You" is that first kiss, and one of the most perfect three and a half minutes of music I've ever heard. The musicianship on every cut is brilliant, this band can play, it's like jazz from a foggy, sensual Twilight Zone. This masterpiece swings, it haunts and it exhilarates. A treasure. Special praise must go to Peter Daou for the clean, understated, intimate production. Got a new lover you want to keep? Forget the roses, give them this CD, and then expect to go places with them you've never gone...

A blend of trip-hop, funk, cinematic ecstasy and poetry, ZIPLESS is probably one of my favorite concept CDs of the last three decades. Six years after its release, it still sounds fresh and vital, and it baffles me how this gem remains overlooked by the mainstream (well, I take that back - look at the thoughtless, whiny, mindless junk they are buying and watching). Just last night I pulled this one of the collection and slid it into the CD car player and took a spin through the countryside with the sunroof down under the stars. Vanessa and her piano-wizard husband Peter made the 40 minute ride almost as good as sex.
Vanessa and Peter sustain a pulsating, shimmering, funk-laden cosmos for almost 40 solid minutes. The "songs" are tight and well-conceived, hummable, even the ones with spoken lyrics. Vanessa adapted the poems of 70s feminist/writer Erica Jong into an infectious, moody song cycle; husband Peter supplies the instrumentation...a swirling, thumping, driving, undulating mix of synths, saxes, piano and infectious percussion.
Highlights abound, but "Becoming a Nun" "Sunday Afternoons", and "My Love is Too Much" are about as steamy as mod pop gets. I only wish Peter had extended Erica Jong's reading of her own "Smoke" beyond its tease of 2:15. When I get some techware, I'll remix it myself to last 7:00. It's a superb groove.
SLOW TO BURN, Vanessa's followup funk-and-jazz based CD went largely ignored, also, and remains out of print, which is startling. I've heard her dismissed as a modern day Claudine Longet, which is [not true]. Vanessa is an artist, a lover, and in modest ways, a visionary. It's a shame Krasnow Records couldn't sustain her initial forays, and if there is any justice in LabelLand, a big outfit will eventually reclaim her.
Listen in: this is the lonnnnnnnnnnnng tunnel of wanting you.

I heard this at a restaurant bar while talking to a friend and was so immediately entranced I had to find out what it was. It's one of those rare finds. You can carry on a conversation or vacuum or ... to it, then you're like, "Waitaminute, stop, I just have to hear this one part...." You can play it when friends are over cuz its cool, jazzy, little-bit-tech vibe is not at all intrusive. Your friend will suddenly inquire, "Did she just say what I think she said?" Bawdy Jong lyrics set to most evocative music that is moody, but not dreary. After a few listens it makes you secretly long for those troubled relationships you had when young that were frought with longing, doom and lust. Like those liaisons, from the very get-go with Vanessa Daou's Zipless, you will be HOOKED.

I bought this CD after hearing the single "Black Forest", and I have never regretted it. The CD case is scratched and dull from the amount of handling!

This album is the poetry of Erica Jong set to music. A seemingly formidable challenge, but masterfully done by Peter and Vanessa Daou. I mean, the lyrics are already beautiful -- Erica Jong is one of my favorite female poets to start with -- and Peter Daou's compositions and arrangements fit them perfectly. Add to this Vanessa Daou's breathy, sultry voice speaking and singing, and you get one helluva good CD. I sense Erica Jong's stamp of approval on this project, since the poet herself does the vocals on one track.

The music is heavily atmospheric. It creates a mood. The lyrics are very intimate and personal, and you almost feel voyeuristic listening to it. The music is almost completely synthesized, yet it has substance -- it could be described as acid jazz, or trance, but it is powerful while remaining relatively relaxed.

Like I said, one of my faves. Buy the CD, draw a nice hot bath, light some candles, and pour a glass of good beaujolais, and fade into it.

This is the most relaxing, mellow, sizzle to burn music that I have heard in a long time. I was searching for something different from popular music and dance music was lost its beat, so then I saw "Near the black forest" video on some jukebox channel and I became hooked. I reccommend all of Vanessa's work with a nice book and a bottle of wine.

I first heard Vanessa on her MTV video for "Black Forest." I was intrigued by the song but it wasn't until a friend played her "Zipless" cd for me that I fell in love with her stylish, soft, sensual vocals... I bought Zipless immediately and if asked which cds I'd take w/ me to a deserted island, this would definitely make the list. It's erotic, passionate, poetic, haunting, make love to me all night type of music... JL One more thing: all of her other music is jut as brilliant!

Ok, if you want to own a CD that's guaranteed to elicit a "who's THAT?!?" from every person who hears it, buy this CD. This is one of my very favorite CDs of all time (out of a very large collection across genres). What's most mesmerizing is the sensual beat that's underscored by jazzy/bluesy piano riffs, not to mention Vanessa Daou's sexy, breathy vocals. I have a later CD of hers (Make You Love), and while it's decent, this one's the one to own.

Agree with the other reviewer who noted it's a very HOT thing to pop in the CD player if you're yearning to get that elusive kiss. As to the reviewer whose review has since been summarily and properly panned (0 found it helpful), yes, a few of the lyrics, which are from Erica Jong, are a little, uh, sexual, but forget the lyrics! Just sit back, listen and let the groove of every track on this CD transport you. You won't reach for the skip button on any track. Listen to it front to back and over and over and enjoy the, uh, ancillary benefits. ;)

This Cd is delicious. If you have a heart for "LIFE" put your hands on a copy of Zipless.

Vanessa Daou's voice on "Zipless" is sultry as an August day in Miami. The siren's sensuous and lazy vocals coupled with throbbing ambient music subtly overpower the senses. Listening to this potent mixture is addictive; the album begs to be replayed endlessly, which is delightful at first but then can quickly turn to something akin to Sisyphus' punishment of rolling that darn rock up a hill.

Lush electronica is played by husband Peter Daou, who also produced and arranged the album. The opening track of "The Long Tunnel of Wanting You" allures you into an orb of luxurious pleasures from the get go. "This is the long tunnel of wanting you./ Its walls are lined with remembered kisses/ wet and red as the inside of your mouth,/ full & juicy as your probing tongue." The poetic lyrics (taken from Erica Jong's 1991 poetry book, Becoming Light) merge perfectly with music and vocals that beckon reclining in the bedroom.

However, "Zipless" is more than a manifestation of cupid's wet dream. The album becomes darker in theme as it tackles topics like heartache, physical abuse, infidelity, and suicide. In "Dear Anne Sexton," "Live or die,/ you said insistently. You chose the second/ & the first chose me." In "Sunday Afternoons" Daou appears to take us back to the safe shores of a successful love relationship, "your arms ached for me,/ and your arms would close me in." But then she quietly drops the biting line of "though they smelled of other women."

Yes, love is often a messy thing and this album does not purport to clearly understand the heart, but has presented the vagaries of the heart's journey in an enticing manner. "Zipless" may make you want to give up this whole business of love as the protagonist thinks she can in "Becoming A Nun." "I think I can live without it--/ love with its pumping blood,/ sex with its messy hungers,/ men with their peacock strut."

However, the album does wane and lose its potency on the last two tracks. "Smoke" a poem about the effects of getting stoned is spoken by Jong. "Autumn Reprise" is an evocative instrumental that has Daou gently vocalizing as if unable to warm up enough to let the words completely out. These two oddballs are enjoyable, but "Smoke" is out of place, more at home on a spoken word recording while "Autumn Reprise" could have been deleted to make the album tighter and stronger thematically. Nonetheless, "Zipless" will awaken the coldest of hearts and much more.

Bohdan Kot

this is absolutely a fabulous collection of music. one of my most favorite CDs EVER (and i am not easily pleased). the music is very seductive & beautiful - makes you want to move with it. the lyrics, though very sexual in nature, lie subtly under the music. it makes great dinner music leaving the unknowing unaware of what is being said. it is unlike any of Vanessa Daou's other's albums. i wish she would put out something else comparable to this, but unfortunately i find her other works far less superior.