Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Subliminal melancholy., July 30, 2007
Carla Bruni, ex model and former love affair of Mick Jagger, is the reincarnation of sensual infatuation, breathy words and purred seduction.
When she first started singing with a frangible but also very enwrapping voice, the French listeners couldn't resist giving Carla as much credit as she would have deserved. "Quelqu'un m'a dit", her first album, released in November 2002, was a bestseller in her adopted country, France. With her new record entitled "No Promises", she maintains her well proved concept, based on the leading acoustic guitar and interspersed variations of harmonising instruments.
She just changed two things which weren't essentially remarkable if we hadn't any understanding of languages. Besides the fact that Carla swapped from the fragile sounding French to the melodically caressing English, she doesn't sing over her own words this time.
The lyrics come from famous poets and they are all distinguished creations from several personalities. Bruni really proved her musical talent though.
All the melodies, which mostly suit and carry the statements of each poem, were composed by the Italian ex supermodel herself.
She's obviously not an eminently blessed compositor, but she improves when it comes to rather simple but effective acoustic tunes, which leave a mark of easiness and subliminal melancholy. On the opener "Those Dancing Days Are Gone"(William Butler Yeats) she uses the guitar like she's talking frolicsomely to a friend.
"If You Were Coming In The Fall" (Emily Dickinson) follows the mentioned example, but it seems a bit inapplicable referred to the poem's depressing theme.
A song close to decent perfection would be "Before The World Was Made" (William Butler Yeats) which contains a tangent instrumentation, modelled on folk and country elements.
"Promises Like Pie-Crust" (Christina Georgina Rossetti) needs less getting used to, according to Carla Bruni's latest efforts, which are mostly classified into the "chanson" genre.
On "No Promises" there's an arbitrary mixture of folkish melodies and pieces abutted to the musician's preferred " chanson" style. And even though the change of language doesn't bring in that much fresh air, the album's overall well rounded and is best suited to relaxed moments in front of a homely fireplace.
The incontrovertible fact that the lyric often is more enthralling than the musical aspect, doesn't reduce the delight that much. In this case, both parts go hand in hand and were made for operating together as one.
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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Poetry in music for folk guitars and smoky, sultry voice., July 31, 2007
Auden and Yeats are among the finest English-language poets of the 19th and 20th centuries, endowed with rare insight and sensitivity.
Now W. H. Auden, W. B. Yeats and several others have taken on an unlikely new guise.
Their poems -- along with those by two other Britons, Walter de la Mare and Christina Rossetti, and two Americans, Dorothy Parker and Emily Dickinson -- are likely to enter the Top Ten in Europe.
Four years after her debut album after her first album, "Quelqu'un m'a dit" (Someone told me), which sold two million copies, Carla Bruni, the Italian former fashion supermodel offers a collection of music and poetry : 11 beautiful poems set to Carla Bruni's inspired melodies.
She gives a real personal interpretation of these poems with romanticism, melancholy which form a feeling of loneliness.
The album, "No Promises", has divided music critics between supporters hailing a new departure for Europop and detractors perplexed by haunting English verse half-sung and half-spoken in a sensual voice accompanied by folk guitars.
Although the writers have been set to music before -- the composer Benjamin Britten collaborated with Auden, and the singer Joni Mitchell has drawn on Yeats's verse, for example -- Bruni's work is a novelty.
In France , some newspapers wrote rave revues.
I personally like it.
It's different,it's delicate, it's elegant.
Have your say !
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I LOVE this album!, July 18, 2008
I truly do not understand how anyone can give less than a 5 star rating for this album. I find it amazing that Carla Bruni took these poems and made them into intriguing, sexy songs. Her voice is so unique and I just cannot say enough about the greatness of "No Promises." When I've had a bad or stressful day, I put this album on and I am immediately calmed. I can't wait for her next album and hopefully she'll release another one in English. I'm extremely surprised that "No Promises" did not pick up as much attention in the U.S. as it deserved.
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by Carla Bruni 
