Easy Listening > EMI Easy Listening

Pour another Martini and kick back

Advantages: Top sounds of swing, country and vegas high rollers
Disadvantages: Shows Mr Sinatra up for the fraud that he was

The Rat Pack. Vegas. Fun and laughs at the Sands Casino. Frank and Sammy. Who really wants to forgt a crew of guys who epitomise the whole ethos of cool? Certainly not me. But of that group one man stood head and shoulders above the others. He was rugged, strong and could sing songs so effortlessly that it sounded like he could do it in his sleep. Dean Martin was not only as enigmatic as Frank Sinatra, and as funny as Sammy Davis Jr, but he had ...
...the British invasion of the American charts in the Sixties, he as one of the few who managed to fend off the Beatles from the top positions. This "Very Best of" album is certainly that as for the first time it gathered together the hits from his stint with both Capitol Records and Reprise Records. Dean managed to move across a few genres in his career, and all are represented here on this album. He has hits from swooning Big Band ballads (The ...

Shaoon 01.11.2004 · Read full review
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Review of Very Best Of Dean Martin Vol.1, The (The Capitol And Reprise Years) - Dean Martin

Read it and laugh! Vintage comedy genius!

Advantages: Funny comedy, not dated as much as you'd think...
Disadvantages: ...but some of the music IS rather dated.

Who was Al Read? He was the owner of a processed meat company from Salford (Strange but true. Shades of '...Big Night Out' era Reeves & Mortimer there...) who made an entrance into show biz at a relatively late age (around 40, I believe). He was very popular on BBC radio throughout most of the 50's and 60's, although he never really took to televison. I remember loving to listen to his stuff as a kid, in the mid to late 60's, as did my dad. He has ...
...style was rather radical for it's time, being what we would now call 'observational comedy', and very accurately and finely observed comedy it was too, very much a prototype for people such as Billy Connolly, Jasper Carrott and even (taken to it's logical surreal conclusion) Eddie Izzard. I can also hear some kinship to Les Dawson's slightly glum style here too. His style was to perform monologues, about life, the world, tradesmen, his wife, small ...

blankfrank 21.06.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Right Monkey - Al Read

Keren Ann Keren Ann

Advantages: Atmospheric, different
Disadvantages: Needs the right time of day and mood

...and English language compositions reflecting Keren Ann's cosmopolitan background - Israeli-born of Dutch and Russian heritage, currently residing in New York and Paris - "Keren Ann" is sung only in English). Opening track "It's all a lie" sets the tone: Keren Ann's sultry voice half singing, half talking over very slow and sparse but vaguely bluesy music. (Other tracks such as "'Harder ships of the world" have similar sparse sound). Track two "Lay ...
...hand claps and harmonica and Keren Ann sounding like she should really be with the Velvet Underground. "Where no endings end" is also good - like the opener, it's sparse but this time with a plcked guitar and a feel of a Parisian comes across as almost medieval in its austerity. Other times it sounds like bands such as Logh or even Mogwai, but without the noisy bits (except "It ain't no crime", which features howling guitars, a heavy very slow blues ...

JeroBear 15.06.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Keren Ann - Keren Ann

Platinum Collection, The - Frank Sinatra

Advantages: It isn't another low budget set of reissues by some cheap no mark label
Disadvantages: Does there have to be any!?

This fantastic collection tracks Frank Sinatra from 1953 up until 1961. These were the years he spent with Captiol Records, the label that picked Sinatra up after he was unashamedly dumped by his previous label. Capitol played a big role in turning Sinatra into what we all know as one of the biggest and most successful recording artists of the 20th Century. This set shows you the pairings of Frank and the likes of arrangers such as Axel Stordahl ...
...men partly responsible for the brilliance of songs such as "I'm Walking Behind You" (originally a hit for Eddie Fisher) and "South Of The Border". These CDs take you on a chronological journey through classic tracks such as Come Fly With Me, I've Got You Under My Skin, The Lady Is A Tramp and Pennies From Heaven. Also includes a 20 page booklet! ...

Ward1981 28.12.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Platinum Collection, The - Frank Sinatra

Cantamus

Advantages: Great songs
Disadvantages: None

...recently have discovered this choir, Cantamus Girls Choir - but im glad that I have. I was sitting watching TV one day and flicked over to Classic FM TV in the break between programs and happened to see Cantamus singing the song 'Fix You'. This song is wonderful, totally different to the same song sung by Coldplay but in my opinion it is equally as good. Later on that day I saw an advert on TV that was advertising this CD, and after recovering from ...
...and then seeing them mentioned twice in one day, I went and looked up the CD in amazon and then bought it a few days later (it cost £10.97 which I didnt think was too expensive for a CD) - and I'm glad I did buy it. Most of the tracks on the CD are wonderful, and although there are a few that arent as good as the others they arent common enough to ruin the CD and make it generally bad. The tracks on the CD include: 1. - I still haven't found what ...

SScott764 28.04.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Cantamus - Cantamus