Customer Reviews

Let It Rain

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Tracy Chapman is the anti-star. She avoids unnecessary media spotlight, shys away from the glitter and gold and is an avid charity supporter.

Every now and then, between her touring circles, she puts her confessional poems into melodies and another album is born.

In 1988, Chapman defied big-hair bands and senseless dance tunes by suddenly skyrocketing into super-success with her debut album and the hit singles "Fast Car" and "Baby Can I Hold You" - songs so uncomplicated, yet they spark an immediate emotion.

However, ever since her chart-dominating days, Chapman gradually faded away with albums not as directly radio-catchy as her debut, yet musically superb - resurfacing in 1995 with her single "Give Me One Reason."

Chapman's disappearance is directly due to the mainstream media's episodic fascination with new artists. The proof is Chapman's impressive catalogue.

"Let It Rain" is her latest full-lengther that continues Chapman's legacy as one of the best folk singers of our time.

The album opens in a rising fashion with the title track and the sorrowful "Another Sun." Then the first single "You're The One" takes off with its clap-along beat.

Then Chapman suddenly turns downhearted with the lo-mo "In The Dark" and then delves into the mysterious "Almost." This evolution is bittersweet.

What is pleasant about a Chapman album is that it merges perfectly and the album sounds like one long track. Here, Chapman uses an instrumental track "Over In Love" to achieve that ambiance, taking us from the Norah Jones-sounding "Goodbye" to the closer "I Am Yours" where Chapman wants to be wanted.

It is unlikely that Chapman will achieve former victories with "Let It Rain."

Although it is a complete and pleasing release, it still lacks a highpoint or a tune that is bound to strike gold.

But then again, who needs gold?

The songs are mostly ballads. They sound very similar to one another. I had a hard time listening to the album in its entirety.

Buy her self-titled album or "Crossroads" or "Telling Stories" instead.

This CD gets 5 stars easily. The songs are heartfelt, and Tracy shows a depth and maturity that many singer/songwriters achive mid-career. If you like Tracy's music, check out a NJ singer/songwriter named Steven Delopoulos. He has a CD out titled 'ME DIED BLUE', and it is an acoustic singer/songwriter's masterpiece! Steven is the next big thing.

This is such a beautiful, heartbreaking album. For the most part soft, subtle, and slow, and *incredibly* moving.

But it has its jumping tracks as well. "Hard-wired" is just a brilliant, funny/scary prediction of the future with a great chorus. "Say Hallelujah" is a fun, bouncing, gospel song. Very addictive.

But the strength of this album lies in tracks like "Goodbye" and "Happy", and "I am Yours", which have the listener examining her heart as it lies naked, bleeding, and vulnerable on the floor.

Oh, but do I love these songs.

An earlier review stated that this album has a particular resonance. What resonance? Literally, the recording for this album clips Tracy's wonderful voice along with the instrumentation. They must have used some whacky production methods. As a friend put it, "The album sounds dry. I'm getting thirsty listening to it." That might sound weird, but that is exactly the way it sounds. In addition, the voice seems completely disconnected from the music.

I like Tracy Chapman and have enjoyed all her albums to a great extent. I like this because it is still better than 99% of what's available. I just wish they had produced it better.

This is suuuuch an amazing CD. From start to finish it's just beautiful lyrically and musically. The songs are powerful and moving and just enjoyable and I think anyone would really appreciate this album.

What a wonderful CD! Tracy's voice is more beautiful and haunting that its ever been. The tambourines, handclaps, percussion and various 'sound effects' throughout this album play so nicely against her rich vocals. I would not call this an upbeat album, but it will make your rainy day blues feel good!

I've had this album since it has come out, and it gets better and better. It is so gentle and haunting and beautiful.

When Tracy Chapman titled her gorgeous, 1992 album "Matters of the Heart," she not only came up with a title for a single album; she found the four words that most accurately describe her musical approach. Let it Rain's barrage of delicate, poignant melodies and confessions illustrates that every song is a matter of the heart for Tracy. While each Chapman album conveys a unique honesty and integrity, only this latest release captures a sound that does justice to the distinct and immediately gripping melancholy of her voice, deeply resonant with the Mississippi Delta's legendarily ghostly blues or the harrowing, broken-hearted chant of an Alabama chain gang.

"If I never see another sun . . . I'll gladly take my place/in the world beyond," Chapman croons on the bleak but exquisite "Another Sun," a poignant craving for escape from suffering and death's guaranteed repose. "If no love will comfort me/If no kind words come/To offer hope or peace/When I have fallen/If I be a stranger/Friend of no one," Chapman continues on one of the best songs of her career. These are songs of an emotional depth almost unheralded in today's musical climate of pop trash, lascivious music videos and a seemingly endless supply of bubble gum. Chapman's enduring refusal to produce her albums to death, despite her big deal with Elektra, is an act of heroism, with Let it Rain standing as her most courageous effort yet.

But while Chapman's work rarely lacks emotion, her songwriting has never pierced the heart with a sharper blade. These twelve new songs achieve a poetry that eclipses even her best work, as on the gospel-tinged death chant, "Hallellujah," a wickedly raw song that gushes with hand claps, tambourines, and a haunted acoustic guitar. "The sun will rise/the stars will shine/turning day to dusk/and night to dawn/We'll pass on," she bellows. More than just "songs," many of these pieces are evocative of prayer hymns. "The picture makes a promise/The flesh lets it be broken," she laments on the somber "Broken" as a sudden, seductive throb of drums stomps through the heart of the song. With its succession of brooding, understated ballads, Let it Rain amounts to an album about as cheerful as Leonard Cohen on a rainy day. These are songs of death, desire, heartbreak and mourning, and Chapman's piercing, blues-laden writing leaves little to be hoped for. On the eerie and appropriately titled "In The Dark," Chapman almost seems to pine for ruin, having abandoned hope for anything even a slight shade brighter. "Make me fumble/Make me fall/Make my heart stop and start/To tremble uncontrollably/Let my eyes see fear make desire/Keep those who long apart/Forbid the kiss/And leave us innocent/Of the things some do in the dark," she murmurs through the song's sultry, candle-lit ambiance.

Like Leonard Cohen's recent, deeply intimate Ten New Songs, Tracy Chapman, along with producer John Parish, keeps the polish to a minimum here, allowing the bare pain of her voice and words to resonate with absolute clarity. On many of her past albums, including the universally hailed debut, Tracy appeared to struggle for a sound of her own. A modest but still too slick 80's production mars the hushed, earnest intimacy of classics like "Fast Cars" and the signature "Talkin' Bout a Revolution." It is no wonder that Tracy's unaccompanied vocal performance on the stirring "Behind the Wall" rings like a stroke of genius. The folkish leanings of 1992's Matters of the Heart delivered a gorgeous album and a classic song in "Bang Bang Bang," but not until her breakthrough single, "Give Me On Reason," did she seem close to discovering the sound that fits her voice like a glove: the blues.

With success comes the pressure for continued success, however, and while the catchy single "Telling Stories" from 2000's album of the same name made for a compelling listen, still the album's most memorable tunes are confined to its concluding handful of stripped down ballads. Tracks like "First Try" are capable of ringing tears from the very first flicker of a mandolin, banjo or tambourine, reminiscent of the kind of pathos Emmylou Harris achieves on recent triumphs such as "Red Dirt Girl" or Wrecking Ball." Some songs on Telling Stories squandered the opportunity envisioned by its final few tracks, though, resorting to a radio-eager clutter of organs, electric guitars, synthetic backing vocals and beats that were just a bit too "hip." But beginning with "Unsung Psalm," the album's centerpiece, Chapman's voice comes alive amidst a faintly wailing musical atmosphere, an atmosphere that blossoms with astonishing power and grace on Let it Rain.

Chapman and Parish neglect the pressure for commercial success at every turn here, making for an album that is at once accessible and challenging. Some songs, such as the gorgeously fragile title track or the raw, barn-stomping and angry "Hard Wired," are like listening to a broken-hearted woman's whispered prayers from the other side of a bedroom wall. ""Give me hope/That help is coming/When I need it most," she pines on the title track, "Let it rain/let it flood these streets and wash me away/To where it makes no difference who I am." While this refusal to compromise her integrity serves up a couple of bland duds, such as the aimless "Goodbye" or the wandering instrumental, "Over in Love," this is an unusually rewarding album.

Tracy Chapman's "Let It Rain" is a ray of sunshine. It's quiet thoughtful melodies ooze sincerity as they beautifully weave their spell. The title track is a soft breeze, "Give me hope that help is coming when I need it most." Greg Leisz's acoustic lap steel gives "Another Sun" an eerie haunting quality in juxtaposition to the strength in Tracy's vocals. The joyful toe tapper "You're the One" has me hitting the repeat button in my personal top ten, "Let 'em talk you down, call you names; my mind's made up; it ain't gonna change." Larry Taylor's upright bass sounds like a heartbeat in the slow & powerful "In the Dark," "Leave my body with permanent marks, faded scars & lines, but not a single impression of the things some do in the dark." "One hello, just one kiss before the tears come," Tracy sings on the midtempo "Almost." "Hard Wired" sounds like a peppy protest song that keeps wanting to be a ballad. "Say Hallelujah" thumps like a lively elegy for the dearly departed. "Broken"'s melody has the charm of an eastern European folk song. "Happy" is one of the softest, moodiest pieces I've heard in many a moon. On "Goodbye," producer John Parish brings in a number of wonderfully unique sounding instruments including gourdolin, oboe, cello and viola. "Over in Love" is a pretty instrumental piece with Tracy's acoustic guitar and Matt Brubeck's cello. The CD concludes with "I Am Yours," "When voices call me to question my faith, when misperception taints my love with hate, I am yours if you are mine." Tracy's CD packs an emotional wallop. While a couple songs will set your toe to tapping, most will softly lead you to contemplate reflective times. This is a fascinating and engaging work. Prepare to be touched!