TANITA TIKARAM: "Eveybody's Angel"

Original released on CD EastWest 9031-73341-2

(GERMANY, 1991)

Album number three for Tikaram finds her working with the same core of musicians as her first two releases. However, instead of exhibiting diminishing returns like some Hollywood sequel, "Everybody's Angel" is her most interesting work to date. It might be partly due to Tikaram aiding in the production. There seems to be more of a focus and maturity in the melodies and her performance seems more impassioned. The record also is given some kick by the extensive use of horns, including Mark Isham. It's easy to imagine that songs like "Deliver Me" and "This Stranger" are actually Van Morrison covers. Rod Argent's organ playing adds some muscle to "Mud in Water" and "Never Known" is a nifty reggae-inflected number. There's a jauntiness to songs like the shuffling "Hot Pork Sandwiches" that is infectious. Tikaram's voice, always the focal point, never disappoints and is simply gorgeous on the lovely opening track, " Only the Ones We Love." (Tom Demalon in AllMusic)

The 24 Nights of CLAPTON

Original released on Double CD Reprise 9 26420-2

(US 1991, October 8)

Eric Clapton, who had not released a live album since 1980, had several good reasons to release one in the early '90s. For one thing, his spare backup band of keyboardist Greg Phillinganes, bassist Nathan East, and drummer Steve Ferrone was his best live unit ever, and its powerful live versions of Cream classics like "White Room" and "Sunshine of Your Love" deserved to be documented. For another, since 1987 Clapton had been playing an annual series of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London, putting together various special shows (blues nights, orchestral nights, etc.). "24 Nights", a double album, was culled from two years of such shows, 1990 and 1991, and it demonstrated the breadth of Clapton's work, from his hot regular band to assemblages of bluesmen like Buddy Guy and Robert Cray to examples of his soundtrack work with an orchestra led by Michael Kamen. The result was an album that came across as a lavishly constructed retrospective and a testament to Clapton's musical stature. But it made little impact upon release (though it quickly went gold), perhaps because events overcame it - three months later, Clapton's elegy for his baby son, "Tears in Heaven," was all over the radio, and a few months after that he was redefining himself on MTV Unplugged - a live show as austere as "24 Nights" was grand. Still, it would be hard to find a more thorough demonstration of Clapton's abilities than the one presented here. (William Ruhlmann in AllMusic)

SINÉAD O'CONNOR: "Sacrifice" (1987>>>1997)

"Movie Love Themes"

Original released on CD Telarc 80243

(US, January 1991)

THE CHIEFTAINS & DUBLIN FRIENDS

Original released on CD RCA Victor RD 60824

(UK, 1991)

“The Bells of Dublin” features The Chieftains with guest vocalists – Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, Marianne Faithfull, Nanci Griffith, Rickie Lee Jones and Kate & Anna McGarrigle. And The Penguin does some narration! (that is Burgess Meredith). But the album is very much about The Chieftains who were – at the time – Derek Bell, Martin Fay, Sean Keane, Kevin Conneff, Matt Molloy and of course Paddy Moloney. Sadly, Derek Bell and Martin Fay are no longer with us but I see from Wikipedia that the others are still working and long may they continue. “The Bells of Dublin” features traditional Christmas tunes and more contemporary songs. For example the excellent “St Stephen’s Day Murders” sung by Elvis Costello was written by him & Paddy Moloney while Marianne Faithfull sings “I Saw Three Ships A-Sailing” and very well. The McGarrigles sing, wonderfully, of course, “Il Est Né/ Ca Berger” and there is also “Once In Royal David’s City”, “Ding Dong Merrily On High” & “O Come All You Faithful” among many traditional carols. And I see that the great Kathryn Tickell appears on the track “Brafferton Village/ Walsh’s Hornpipe” – she would have been in her early twenties then. Far too many highlights and wonderful performances to mention here – although Nanci Griffith sings “The Wexford Carol" beautifully. The album runs for about 63 minutes and every second is terrific. It is, I think, a “proper” Christmas album and stands alongside “The Holly Bears The Crown” by The Collins sisters and The Young Tradition as one of the great Folk Music Christmas albums. (in RateYourMusic)

DONOVAN: THE CLASSICS LIVE

Original released on CD Great Northern Arts Lda
(UK, 1991)

This record was orginally released as "Donovan Rising" (label Permanent, 1990) and was recorded live from several concerts from 1982 to 1986, but it was put together so beautifully that you'd never know. It's been released under several different names and on several different labels. But no matter what label, no matter what cover, no matter what they call it, this is still one fine recording. Listening to this CD, and I'm calling this a CD and not a record, because this was the first Donovan recording to come out on CD (everything before was put out on black vinyl first), you remember those big discs that played on turntables, whoops, I'm digressing, like I was saying, when you play this CD you can almost imagine Donovan as that eighteen-year-old teenager who burst upon the scene with "Catch the Wind" back in 1965. He sounds as young on these songs as he did then. And you can tell that whoever put this together really cared, really understood Don's music, really went for quality of not only sound, but performance as well. Boy, what I wouldn't have given to be able to spend the hundreds of hours pouring through all the songs and performances, being there through all of that must have been glorious. Donovan's recording of "Catch the Wind" here sends chills up your spine. His rendition of "Hurdy Gurdy Man" with George Harrison's missing verse is equally chilling. The acoustic versions of "Sunshine Superman" and "Cosmic Wheels" are stunning. The version of "Young Girl Blues" takes me right back to the "Mellow Yellow" period. It has always been one of my favorite songs. I could go on, keep gushing about this fine live record, but I'll stop now. Oh wait! I forget to tell you that this is a must own Donovan disc for anybody who is even remotely interested in his music. You gotta get this one, you really do! (in Amazon)

Unforgettable Natalie (6/2/1950 - 31/12/2015)

Original released on CD Elektra 9 61049-2

(US, 1991, May 14)

A major change of direction for Natalie Cole, "Unforgettable" found the singer abandoning the type of R&B/pop she'd been recording since 1975 in favor of jazz-influenced pre-rock pop along the lines of Nat King Cole's music. It was a surprising risk that paid off handsomely - both commercially and artistically. Naysayers who thought that so radical a change would be commercial suicide were proven wrong when the outstanding "Unforgettable" sold a shocking five million units. Quite clearly, this was an album Cole was dying to make. Paying tribute to her late father on "Mona Lisa," "Nature Boy," "Route 66," and other gems that had been major hits for him in the 1940s and early '50s, the 41-year-old Cole sounds more inspired than she had in well over a decade. On the title song, overdubbing was used to make it sound as though she were singing a duet with her father - dishonest perhaps, but certainly enjoyable. Thankfully, standards and pre-rock pop turned out to be a primary direction for Cole, who was a baby when the title song became a hit for her father in 1951.