Richard J. Roberts | Indianapolis, IN USA | 11/02/2000
(1 out of 5 stars)
"As much as I love Miss Andrews, I must warn you against this album. The selections are fine, and Julie is in fine voice, but the instrumental accompaniments are agonizing. Imagine the worst in early eighties bad synthesizer. Then imagine the painful contrast of Julie's crystal voice and that awful background noise. If they could remix this, isolate the vocals, and then replace the synth with a simple piano, bass, and drum combo, it would be great. But as is, I just can't bear it."
Crystal-clear Julie!!!
PJ Samith | Holtsville, NY United States | 11/11/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Anyone who panned this has missed the point. The album was recorded as a birthday gift for Julie's husband, Blake Edwards. It was NOT intended for commercial release! But thank goodness it WAS released! Now that our Julie can no longer sing for us, we must thank our lucky stars that she DID sing for us while she could! And this CD is an example of Julie at her gorgeous, mature peak. The sensual whispering of "Tea for Two" is about as romantic as any music can possibly get. And I'm GLAD she is not drowned out by instruments. The synthesizer accompaniment allows her voice, and every breath, to shine out loud and clear. I thought this collection highlighted the sexy side of Julie, though with undeniable wholesomeness. "The Island" builds to a tumultuous climax just like....well...you know. And "Out of This World" has such a GREAT, bouncy groove! The simple fact is that Julie has blessed us with her music. This is some of it. It is PLENTY good enough for me! P.S. I saw Julie in concert at the time this album was released. So this is also kind of a "souvenir" of the tour she did at that time, and contains some of the music that was in her program. She is a QUEEN. Now WHEN are we gonna see some of the unreleased treasures of the past? Surely there is SOMETHING for us Julie lovers! I want a great, big, beautiful BOXED SET!!!!!"
Half a star.. if that..
E. Kingsley | Nashville | 03/09/2007
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I've heard some of the greatest stars stumble with albums, but I havent heard a "stumble" this bad before. When we think of Julie, we of course think of glorious arrangements featuring The London Symphony Orchestra or something wonderful like that. Love, Julie falls flat. Highly dated orchestrations featuring the really BAD '80s synth and drum machine almost to the point it makes you sick. The only worth while track on the album is "What are you doing the rest of your Life" Julie is perfection on that track. I bought this album thinking it might be worth listening to... but I cringe at "dated" music. Julie is superb, her voice is as it always was "Superb" but this album falls flat.
Dedication needs to be put into to reorchestrated this work and making it the gem it rightfully should have been."
Very sexy
PJ Samith | 04/25/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I was wary of buying this album based on the reviews here. At the same time I was anxious to hear something sung by Julie Andrews other than the Baubles, Bangles and Beads of her early career. So I did buy it, of curiosity, and am very glad I did.In fairness, some of the arrangements are pretty bad. Some of them are shockingly bad. For "Love", for instance, you do long for Lena Horne's original backup. Thank God we've grown out of the 80s button-pushing style of accompaniment.But there are some singers, and some voices, that defy the expiration date of their milieu, and I think this is the case here. The same quality makes The Sound of Music timelessly appealing.Little known, obivously, is that Andrews also defies the fructose facade she's been Von-Trapped in. This album's rendering of "The Island" is one of the sexiest recordings I've heard. It's not all that surprising to those of us who suspected that Mary Poppins was having a pretty hefty fling on her days off. Julie Andrews has always been sexy; here's your evidence that Maria would have made a disasterous nun.It is lamentable that there are not more, and better-produced, albums like this one from Andrews. I disagree that she's out of her element in singing popular standards. I think she's pretty well proven by now that she can do anything - and, though humbly, better than the rest."