Search - Annie Lennox :: No More I Love You's / Ladies of the Canyon

Buy it for the extras, you won't be sorry

gencus | USA | 03/25/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"By now, much has already been written regarding Annie's disc, "Medusa", and her strange, beautiful take on this single's title track, so I won't waste time on it here.



Less has been written about "Love Song for a Vampire", an appropriately haunting ballad focusing on love, loss, and the plea for release. Though it was featured as the closing theme to "Bram Stoker's Dracula", (criminally snubbed when that year's "Best Song" Academy Award nominations were announced) I have always suspected that, in reality, this is a track written as a part of "Diva", but not included for unknown reasons. It's style and imagery place it squarely in the midst of that disc's tracks "Why", "Primitive" and "The Gift".



For that reason alone this three-song offering is worth the price, but the true undiscovered treasure here is Lennox's version of "Ladies of the Canyon", originally written and performed by one of her most frequently acknowledged role models, Joni Mitchell.



It is not overstating to say that Annie Lennox doesn't merely improve upon perfection with this track; with crystal clarity and utmost respect for the material she takes Mitchell's legendary song into a 180 degree turn. The quiet, tight study of three women's lives is skillfully opened up, now deeply colored with wind instruments, exotic percussion and some African-influenced vocalizations which allow it to soar beautifully.



It will come as no surprise to Annie Lennox's fans that she accomplishes this without negating the original song's intimacy or signifigance.



Get it while you can."

Sadly beautiful

S. Ranson | near the ocean | 11/22/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Lennox manages to pull this one off with not only the haunting melody, but the ever-present background vocals and the incredible clarity and power of her voice that all contrive to make the apparent pain and heartbreak behind this song all the more believable.



It's not a song that one would listen to often, for to do so would be to strip it of it's power in my view - but to listen to at specific times - this much makes sense to me.



In some ways, and I could misread here, this is a song about parting - and it doesn't matter who it is parting from, though here I read this as a lover, but it could just as easily be a mother and a child and a loss of another kind, but I've always read this as more of a break-up or loss of this sort.



If you're having a moment of Stadium Self-Pity (which is totally allowed for everyone and why not? We're all allowed our moments in which we fall apart, provided we get back up and try again, right?) then this is a good song to listen to because you can connect with it right away.



Lennox pulls this off beautifully. I couldn't give this a higher recommendation, and note that I also mention this song in my next column on Blogcritics.



Maybe this helps. Maybe not. Just one take.



sadi ranson-polizzotti."