Speaking With the Angel - Mary Black, Sexsmith, Ron
Big Trip to Portland - Mary Black, Brazil, Noel
I Live Not Where I Love - Mary Black, Public Domain [1]
Fields of Gold [*] - Mary Black, Sting [1]
Ever since she left De Dannan to begin her solo career in 1987, Mary Black has experimented with finding the proper balance of folk and pop to best suit her magnificent voice. Speaking with the Angel, which includes songs ... more »by Dougie MacLean, John Gorka, Sting, Ron Sexsmith, and the folkie's favorite songwriter Anonymous, gets the ratio just about right. The CD includes uptempo pop ditties such as "Message of Love" and "Big Trip to Portland"; smoky, jazz-inflected songs like "Fall at Your Feet"; and of course a good sampling of folk songs like "Turning Away" and "I Live Not Where I Love." On her late-'90s albums Black abandoned her familiar folk-inspired arrangements in favor of a slick, pop sound, but here she has enlisted the help of famed Celtic music producer Donal Lunny, who worked on five songs, to help keep her music from straying too far from its roots. Speaking with the Angel is a CD full of strong performances, but perhaps the most moving is "Moments," a tribute to Sandy Denny, a singer Black still turns to for inspiration more than two decades after her untimely death. --Michael Simmons« less
Ever since she left De Dannan to begin her solo career in 1987, Mary Black has experimented with finding the proper balance of folk and pop to best suit her magnificent voice. Speaking with the Angel, which includes songs by Dougie MacLean, John Gorka, Sting, Ron Sexsmith, and the folkie's favorite songwriter Anonymous, gets the ratio just about right. The CD includes uptempo pop ditties such as "Message of Love" and "Big Trip to Portland"; smoky, jazz-inflected songs like "Fall at Your Feet"; and of course a good sampling of folk songs like "Turning Away" and "I Live Not Where I Love." On her late-'90s albums Black abandoned her familiar folk-inspired arrangements in favor of a slick, pop sound, but here she has enlisted the help of famed Celtic music producer Donal Lunny, who worked on five songs, to help keep her music from straying too far from its roots. Speaking with the Angel is a CD full of strong performances, but perhaps the most moving is "Moments," a tribute to Sandy Denny, a singer Black still turns to for inspiration more than two decades after her untimely death. --Michael Simmons
"This one is better than Shine, but only slightly. There are some good songs... "speaking with the angels", "I live not where I love", "Bless the road". Some are terrible... "Message of love", "Fields of gold". All in all a mediocre cd. If you loved Babes in the woods, Circus, No frontiers, Holy ground, By the time it gets dark, even... Without the fanfare, as I have and still listen to always, you'll be very disappointed. I'm slowly losing my interest in Mary because of the last two cds, but I'll keep buying because I know she'll be back!"
Forgetable
Ginette SHEEHY | 02/03/2001
(1 out of 5 stars)
"Her worst album. Much of the material has been done better by others (Eva Cassidy singing Fields of Gold; Dougie Maclean doing Turning Away and Broken Wings; Cry, Cry, Cry doing Speaking with the Angel) or isn't worth doing once (Message of Love is irritating). This seems like something she just slopped together for the sake of having a new album. I own all of her recordings and have played holes through them all, but I can't even remember the names of the songs on this one."
Mary Black: at last! back to her old self!
Ginette SHEEHY | Montreal, Canada | 03/06/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I usually buy Mary Black's CDs as soon as I can get them. It was not quite the same for this CD. When I purchased her CD Shine, I was so deceived and when I read the reviews about it, I thought that I had finished buying Black CDs. So I waited very long to even consider listening to this new album. When I heard some of the songs I decided to try again. I have had the CD for no more than a week and I already know the lyrics by heart. It is a wonderful CD. Different but as beautiful as the former ones except Shine."
Bad Connection
kjenfan | United States | 08/11/2004
(1 out of 5 stars)
"As a big fan of Mary Black's earlier traditional work, and this CD being hyped as such, I bought this CD with much anticipation. Unfortunately, after giving it several "chances" I donated it to my local libary. If ever a beautiful voice was wasted on mediocrity, this is it. The best song on here is remake of "Fields of Gold" which takes absolutely nothing away from Sting's original version. "Big Train to Portland" is embarassingly bad as is the irritatingly sappy "Don't Say Okay."
It is pretty unusual for me not to like even one song on a CD by one of my favorite singers and I actually can't remember that ever having happened to me before. Honestly, Mary, if you're going to be speaking with the angels, you need a better connection!"