From: owner-navy-soup-digest@smoe.org (navy-soup-digest) To: navy-soup-digest@smoe.org Subject: navy-soup-digest V2 #154 Reply-To: navy-soup@smoe.org Sender: owner-navy-soup-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-navy-soup-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk navy-soup-digest Sunday, October 31 1999 Volume 02 : Number 154 In This Digest: ----------------- Blue Parade review in the Star... ["Tab Siddiqui" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 14:30:56 PDT From: "Tab Siddiqui" Subject: Blue Parade review in the Star... Hey, all... There's a review of "Blue Parade" in today's Toronto Star by their rock critic Ben Rayner. It's a very well-written, generally positive review, although I could do without the snide opener and ubiquitous Sarah/Tori references... ;-P And the *hidden track* is the best?! Uhhh... *okayyy*. I mean, it's gorgeous, but I wouldn't necessarily call it the *best* track. Anyways. ;) It's a bit of a feat to even *get* a review in the Star, though, as they don't run many, and rarely ever feature indie CDs. Go, Sarah! :) - - Tab :) - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Toronto singer-songwriter Sarah Slean is an escapee from the 'Women and Songs' ghetto (Volume 2, to be exact), but don't hold that against her - there's enough ambition coursing through 'Blue Parade', her first full-length recording that it largely sidesteps the cliches associated with sensitive gals seated at their pianos. Comparisons to another Sarah, of the McLachlan variety, and Tori Amos are inevitable on both the vocal and songwriting fronts, although Slean's stream-of-consciousness lyrics lack the syrupy romanticism of the former's and the outright flakiness of the latter's. She lands in the middle, casting everyday observations in a fog of surrealism and elemental imagery, and setting it all to moody arrangements that coil langurously and rear up to an almost classical grandeur. Slean, a student of musical theory, arranges and conducts her own string section backing on several tracks, even accompanying herself in a multi-tracked choral on the hymnal a cappella number "Awake Soon". The results are complex enough to require a few listens to really sink in, and if there's fault to be found with 'Blue Parade', it's for the same reasons that make it commendable: Most of the time it painstakingly avoids a simple path from A to B. In fact, when Slean lays it bare over pal Hayden's acoustic guitar and a roomful of background noises on the hidden closing track, "I Want to Be Brave," she leaves the disc's most lasting impression. In any case, 'Blue Parade' bodes well for Slean's pending major-label debut. Catch her live at The Rivoli this Thursday night. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ End of navy-soup-digest V2 #154 *******************************