Tidings

by

Allison Crowe

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wonderful album. pretty much her voice + a piano producing great music. throws a little pop/jazz into classics, yet she doesn't totally profane the music such as so many modern renditions of old favorites do. (i mean, some of staci orrico's covers seem like they took the old songs, ripped em apart, set em to a bunch of synthesizers, drums, and guitars. not so with allison crowe) she has an incredibly powerful voice, and the piano parts are also well arranged. sometimes, however, she does fall into the pit of going overboard with the "remake" part of remaking the classics. anyway, it is a wonderful album, moving, peaceful, sublime, a fresh breath of good ol' christmas time air, and a should-be classic.

This is an odd collection of Christian carols, one secular Christmastime song (Joni Mitchell's much-covered "River"), and several other songs with potentially religious references, not necessarily used in the service of religious themes. There's the Rolling Stones' "Shine a Light," and Sarah McLachlan's "Angel," both about addiction. There's "Let It Be" by the Beatles, whose reference to "Mother Mary" is about Paul McCartney's actual mother, not Jesus' mom. Again from the Beatles is "In My Life," which I suppose could be taken as a "God/girl" song with a referent which could be either religious or romantic, though the Beatles surely meant the latter. No such ambiguity in Leonard Cohen's popular "Hallelujah," which despite its title is sexual through and through. Crowe's rendition doesn't displace Jeff Buckley's definitive version, but it is quite nice.

"Nice" makes for a good overall descriptor of this album, which is almost exclusively unadorned piano and vocal. Crowe is an adequate pianist and a belter with a confident and pretty voice, but she would benefit from training in dynamics; there's very little emotional range within each song, or from one to the next.

Not an album you'd play at a Christmas party, not an album that sounds right in July, it serves best as a resource to mine for a playlist intended for some specific occasion, whether "Good Cohen covers" or "Twenty versions of O Holy Night."