Customer Reviews

Little Voice

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Sara Bareilles burst out of seemingly nowhere with her runaway smash "Love song", one of the few songs out there who can claim to make AC radio interesting. Energetic, catchy and melodic, with an instantly memorable melody, it deservedly soared to the top of the charts and allowed the album "Little Voice" to sell respectably. The question is, does the rest of the album live up to that song ?

The answer, for the most part, is yes. While there's nothing here quite as instantly grabbing as "Love song", what you will find is a more relaxed and introspective collection of songs built around Sara's expressive voice and piano playing. And although lazy comparisons to Tori Amos will be unavoidable (Eric Rosse, who produced Tori's first two albums, is on the board here as producer), Sara manages to avoid the copycat syndrome by presenting herself in a down to earth manner in her writing and performance. Songs like "Bottle it up", "Many the miles" and "Love on the rocks" are quite memorable as well, while the piano and vocal "Gravity" is arguably the album's best song, full of longing and emotion. While a few midtempo tracks fail to leave a memorable impression at first, the album slowly grows on you and is a pleasant surprise.

As for what the future holds for Sara, she may have to work hard to establish herself as more than a one-hit wonder; radio-friendly material is not necessarily what she seems to have in mind most of the time, judging from this album. But the good news is, she obviously has the talent to avoid that status.

She is a musician with that rare combination of ability, taste and sensitivity.
An intensely emotional collection of songs delivered in a soulful manner with polished production and arrangement.
The sumptuous and shivering "Love On The Rocks" shows just what a remarkable talent Sara is.
This is a belt'n'braces album, content to relay its themes of love.
Each time she starts a song, there's no need to impress with technique : just a direct, immediate expression of the core emotion.
The cd is far from sedentary as arrangements and awesome sonics enliven the doleful princess of piano-playing singer-songwriters.
Standout tracks : "Fairytale", "Love On The Rocks" and "Love Song".