Search - Karen Mal :: The Space Between

Beautiful, sweet-voiced Karen

Peter Reeve | Thousand Oaks, CA USA | 11/23/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Karen's second solo album - Dark Eyed Sailor - a collection of mostly traditional songs, was phenomenally good. I had been less impressed with her first album - Mercury's Wings - which featured contemporary songs. I felt that her songwriting abilities did not match her singing, which is achingly beautiful. Her third solo album has twelve tracks with no less than six songwriter credits, including Karen herself. The songs are new, although they incorporate a couple of traditional tunes and some have a distinctively Celtic flavor.



On the first two tracks, Falling and Surprise, she occasionally reaches a little above her range and so does not quite deliver her usual faultless performance. But Chris Gage provides a very fine piano accompaniment on track 2. The third track carries its childlike charm a mite too far for my taste, but Karen plays a mean mandolin here.



The remaining tracks include a song in Spanish - a traditional tune with lyrics by the multi-talented Karen - and one instrumental, Flavia, again featuring the mandolin.



A Sailor Returns to the Sea is the track closest in form to her second album and so not surprisingly, is my favorite -- in fact, I think it's a classic. The writing credit for this is hers alone, so she here proves herself a fine lyricist. But I realize that other listeners will prefer the more contemporary sound of other tracks. They are growing on me with repeated listening -- the excellent arrangement on Suitcase Full of Memories in particular. Whatever your preference, you must give beautiful, sweet-voiced Karen Mal a listen, if you haven't heard her yet. There are a few audio and video clips available online, so you can form an opinion before you buy. And whether you think you like traditional music or not, you absolutely must listen to Dark Eyed Sailor.

[PeterReeve]

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