![]() ![]() Here she offers a pleasing rendition of Breathless. She tends more toward MOR pop with a country tinge. The other female performers make excellent contributions but outside the Spiritual/Gospel mold, not surprisingly in the case of Taylor Swift since she doesn't come out of that background. Here, through its rhythm and use of hand clapping, she turns it into a revival meeting. She did a stirring version at the Live 8 show. Like A Prayer has apparently become her default contribution to aid benefits. She is backed by a very effective organ accompaniment.Įven Madonna gets in on the act on this album. It seems to cap off the album's Gospel influence with an almost religiously fervent performance that conveys a true understanding of suffering. One of the songs I had reservations about during the TV broadcast was Many Rivers to Cross by Haiti's Emeline Michel. Jennifer Hudson employs a choir in her version of this song, giving it the full Gospel treatment in a rendition that would be worthy of Mahalia Jackson or Aretha Franklin. Įarly in The Beatles' Let It Be, when Paul McCartney does the first run-through of the chorus, the back-up vocals are introduced behind him in such a way that they evoke a sort of ghostly choir The whole thing resonates with so much reverb that it sounds like it was recorded in a big church anyway. A tour de force performance and a candidate for performance of the album (though the competition for that distinction is so close I don't think it can be called).īeyoncé displays impressive range on Halo. Blige burns up Hard Times Come Again No More with one of the most genuine fusions of blues and Gospel I've ever heard. She preserves the anthemic power of the original but overlays it with soulful feeling. The beauty of Shakira's voice comes through in a version of The Pretenders' I'll Stand By You. Keys isn't as raw throughout this song, but she touches those limits. She builds this number into an impressive display of power, at times pushing her vocal to a point that reminded of John Lennon in The Beatles' rendition of Twist and Shout, in which he almost stripped his voice. It starts off so softly that you'll be tempted to jack the volume up (or you may think there's something wrong with the recording). The proceedings get underway with Alicia Keys' Send Me An Angel. The other is the richness, texture and range of their voices. ![]() With only a few exception they embody the Spiritual/Gospel sound (though a couple of the male singers do as well). There are two things that distinguish the female musicians from the males on this record. It's divided between the male and female performers, so instead of running down each song in order, I'm going to discuss the two groups separately. What wasn't as clear in the broadcast, but came through on first listening to the album, is that this recording has a kind of split personality. The majority of numbers - even those originally by artists such as The Beatles or Simon and Garfunkel - are cast in that style, often by singers who came out of that tradition, and the tone amply suits the occasion. The other overall impression is the strong Spirituals/Gospel tradition that imbues this album. In that sense, there is not a superfluous number among the 20 tracks. Each one is appropriate to the suffering and devastation caused by the quake. Overall, the songs chosen by the performers relate directly in sentiment, through their lyrics, to the situation in Haiti. It's hard to overstate the quality of the performances, though I have a couple of reservations, and I'll get to those. So here they are, presented in the same order as they appeared on the TV show, with a bonus track added. Many of the performances were so superb that I felt a near sense of relief when it was announced about halfway through the show that they were being compiled on an album to be sold through iTunes. But the glue in the production was the almost uniformly phenomenal music. It would have been singular enough in having blockbuster celebrities taking pledge calls. This album, which was officially released today, is the recording of the musical performances from George Clooney's telethon of last Friday to raise money for earthquake relief in Haiti.Īnyone who saw the show knows it was a restrained and dignified fundraiser. ![]()
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