Between Here And Gone: Mary Chapin Carpenter: Amazon.ca: Music

1. What Would You Say To Me

2. Luna's Gone

3. My Heaven

4. Goodnight America

5. Between Here And Gone

6. One Small Heart

7. Beautiful Racket

8. Girls Like Me

9. River

10. Grand Central Station

11. Shelter Of Storms

12. Elysium

Product Description

From Amazon.com

Mary Chapin Carpenter's first album of new material in three years has been hailed as a fine example of pop music for adults. This is both true and misleading. In changing producers (from John Jennings to celebrated piano man Matt Rollings), the literate singer-songwriter has slightly broadened her sophisticated Americana sound, and although it's less rhythmic as a whole, her acoustic-folkie approach remains at the core of her classic style. And while "Between Here and Gone"--which addresses the theme of travel and transition, the fragility of life, and the ephemeral nature of happiness--might be said to concern itself with grown-up issues, most of Carpenter's writing has always done just that. Yet this stunning album, informed both by her 2002 marriage ("Elysium," "River") and by the events of 9/11, is more introspective than much of her early work. The alto-voiced singer is compelling throughout, but never so much as on "My Heaven," inspired by Alice Sebold's novel, The Lovely Bones, or on "Grand Central Station," in which a New York City ironworker, standing on the bucket brigade at Ground Zero, hears the voices of the dead, desperate to find their way home. In moments such as these, Carpenter reestablishes herself not only as a world-class poet, but as an artist of the first order. --Alanna Nash

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Customer Reviews

50 Reviews

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (50 customer reviews)

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Love This CD, Jan 10 2005

By

Eileen Unhola (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Between Here And Gone (Audio CD)

Terrific MCC cd. Better than 'Stones In The Road'. Highly deserving of proper packaging though, instead of that cardstock case - you'll want to keep this one around for a long time to come so be sure to nick a jewel case from one of your kids. :)

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars And Yet More Georgous, July 15 2004

By

C. Batty "faithless" (Austin) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Between Here And Gone (Audio CD)

It is important to remember the purpose of am Mary Chapin Carpenter album. This is not back ground music, this is music to focus on and think about. As good as they were in their time, Stones in the Road and Come On Come On were recorded at a time when there was still potential for Carpenter to be played on mainstream radio. Room for intelligent and grown up voices doesn't exist anymore, and so, like many others Carpenter seems to have stopped caring. And, like so many others she has found her true voice in that vauge collection of music that has become known as Americana. These songs pull you in and let you think about life, love, loss and self--all the things that mainstream outlets seem to want give us easy answers. Carpenter doesn't profer the answers, in fact, she almost never seems to know them. However, unlike the mainstream, she seems to have figured out the questions.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb - Heart & Soul, Subtlety & Brass, July 6 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Between Here And Gone (Audio CD)

There's a problem facing any musician who's been in the business as long as MCC - what comes next? Do you stick to what's worked in the past, or do you change as time changes you? Admirably, she's chosen to change. Though some have certainly damned her for it, that was inevitable anyway.

There is no equivalent of "Shut Up And Kiss Me" or "I Feel Lucky" to grab both your earlobes and jerk you into 3.75 minutes of perky pop hook heaven. As fierce and fine as such songs are, it's just as well. BHAG is indeed slower and more sparse than earlier work, but it also spares us the spectacle of a talented singer and writer in her mid-40s trying to recapture who she was nearly 15 years ago.

Instead, there's the charm of "Luna's Gone", the twangy bounce of "What Would You Say To Me" and "Beautiful Racket", a clanging, shimmering mid-tempo number. "Girls Like Me" is the quietest song here, but absolutely piercing, walking the right side of the line between sentimentality and clarity (I saw her perform it live last week and it was riveting - you literally could have heard a pin drop during the number). Finally, there's "Elysium", as lovely, insightful and hopeful a love song as she's ever written.

This disc may not be quite the Mary Chapin Carpenter you expected, but I'd encourage you to jump in. The road may wind a bit, but the ride is smooth and the views are magnificent.

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Most recent customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Count me among the disappointed
To say that MCC diversified her sound on this album must mean that adding a violinist to songs that do not depart from her previous slow and slower recipe counts as a major step... Read more

Published on July 1 2004 by M Lupo

5.0 out of 5 stars Older than Dirt
Hey guys! The soundtrack of my life extends back to the mid 1950's. So, I've seen and heard a lot of different artists. Read more

Published on Jun 30 2004 by Alexander H. Lorch Jr