rockavlon
03-01-2005, 14:00
THE CORRS – “Borrowed Heaven”
(Atlantic/Lava)
Running Time : 45:19
http://images.play.com/bc/499170m.jpg
What’s not to like about the Corrs? 3 cute sisters and their brother, playing some cool Celtic flavored pop. Not bad! They never quite reach the dizzying heights of other rock acts, as far as solely volume is concerned, but coming from such a beautiful place as the emerald isle, with it’s rich musical heritage and numerous big rock acts of the past couple of decades, they do a very decent job all around and their numerous charms make up for being less noisy. This is the 4th in an unbroken line of excellent studio albums and as they took a few years in preparing it, it has darn well paid off. Almost every song is a diamond, every chorus gold. The music is really tame, nice little themes that merge into each other, without any surprises, unless Mrs Sharon, decides to add a jiggy element with her violin. Well the main focus is beautiful singer, Andrea’s angelic voice. With a voice as sexy as her looks, if not even more, she just makes you fall in love. (oh the looks help too) It’s one of those voices that once you‘ve heard you cannot get out of your mind. She glides from sighs and whispers to a sassy pop/soulful voice , to some sexy blissful girly vocals every now and again and everywhere in between. Some of the lyrics, are just so downright sensuous, that I was seriously pondering about putting my arms around the speakers and start blowing kisses to them, hoping my girlfriend doesn’t notice. Haha. The rest of the siblings, are pretty cool too, not virtuosos, at least their performances don’t grant something to that effect, but they ‘re more than adequate and most importantly they all together write some helluva catchy songies. Borrowed heaven, must be their best album, taking the best points from “Talk on corners” and “in blue” and raising them to the power of ten. “Summer sunshine” is an up tempo opener, much like “breathless”, with the obvious lyrical content about summer love. Well guess what! It’s a pop, record, so all of the songs are about love. Love between lovers, a couple of touching tributes to their departed ma, love and lust for life. Uplifting stuff really. No mention of horny devils (hm….), or pointy pitchforks, so all you black metal folks, might opt out, now. But I pry that you stay. “Angel” was the main single, one of the tributes to mommy, with a rousing chorus and all. It’s easy to see why they choose it. Rightfully so. “Hideaway” is a cool, self empowerment song. Weirdly so, it reminded me a bit of the good ol’lizzy’s “Do anything you wanna do”, “Long night” is a beautiful ballad, that just hits the nail on the head. Not too soapy, not too over the top. Heartfelt, beautifully sung, if you ever break up, it’s one of the best things I would recommend. (Well told from a girls standpoint) but that’s beside the point. Oh and the violin solo is just SO nice. “Goodbye”, is a rather jiggy number, about the dearly departed. It’s almost happy, yet it’s sad in a way. Awesome violin leads. Beautiful lyrics. Asking for proof that love conquers death, gosh, it brought tears (and memories) even to this old metal heads eyes (hey I ‘m not that old!) which must be a proof that either I m going all soft, or that the song is really good. I ‘d put my money on the latter. Life’s short. Live it! Well it’s cool that in this life time I got to listen to this song. “Time enough for tears” is a piano laden ballad. (I think that what I just wrote contradicts, the term ballad, I ‘m under the impression ballads are meant to be string orchestrated songs, hey but a piano has strings internally, that’s cheating! Yeah!), very soft vocals, breezy la la la’s. Very nice. “Humdrum”, must describe the life of a (bored ?) housewife, it goes all contemporary, with samples and very playful vocals. While it’s jiggy before the violin kicks in, because of the beat, there’s another cute little violin lead, that is very well placed. “Even if” is another up tempo, love song, talking about companionship. Has some of the sultrier vox on the record. I like it. A lot. Oh and probably if it wasn’t for the cool instrumental, hands down, the BEST violin lead on the album. Too damn short though. “Borrowed heaven” is a song about how short and sweet life is and how people should live it to the max. Andrea’s delivery on this song, is laid back, but soooo appropriate and some African vocal ensemble jumps in towards the end, thickening up the conclusion to the song. The song is just perfect. The peculiarly titled “Confidence for the quiet” is quite good, really. Couldn’t quite figure it out, but hey it’s highly enjoyable. Must be something personal. Another spot on violin solo. Which leads us to “Baby be brave” probably one of the songs with huge single potential. About having to solder on and face the hardships of life, no matter who you are. Weird electronics, violins, a rather dark mood, for a Corrs song, but the vocal melodies are so very well thought out, almost avant garde (not really). Thumbs and toes up. And to round up this “ heavenly” collection of songs we have an awesome, intricate instrumental in the shape of the majestic “Silver strand”. It’s just like standing at the beautiful shore of Inishmore and gazing at the big wide ocean. It’s bliss.
As you might expect, from a release of this magnitude, everything is crystal clear and perfect.
Along with Guinness, the mythology, Thin Lizzy, Dare, U2, some cute lasses that I ‘ve known and a few other things, I m forgetting, the Corrs are one of the best things to come out of Ireland, ever.
6/6
(Atlantic/Lava)
Running Time : 45:19
http://images.play.com/bc/499170m.jpg
What’s not to like about the Corrs? 3 cute sisters and their brother, playing some cool Celtic flavored pop. Not bad! They never quite reach the dizzying heights of other rock acts, as far as solely volume is concerned, but coming from such a beautiful place as the emerald isle, with it’s rich musical heritage and numerous big rock acts of the past couple of decades, they do a very decent job all around and their numerous charms make up for being less noisy. This is the 4th in an unbroken line of excellent studio albums and as they took a few years in preparing it, it has darn well paid off. Almost every song is a diamond, every chorus gold. The music is really tame, nice little themes that merge into each other, without any surprises, unless Mrs Sharon, decides to add a jiggy element with her violin. Well the main focus is beautiful singer, Andrea’s angelic voice. With a voice as sexy as her looks, if not even more, she just makes you fall in love. (oh the looks help too) It’s one of those voices that once you‘ve heard you cannot get out of your mind. She glides from sighs and whispers to a sassy pop/soulful voice , to some sexy blissful girly vocals every now and again and everywhere in between. Some of the lyrics, are just so downright sensuous, that I was seriously pondering about putting my arms around the speakers and start blowing kisses to them, hoping my girlfriend doesn’t notice. Haha. The rest of the siblings, are pretty cool too, not virtuosos, at least their performances don’t grant something to that effect, but they ‘re more than adequate and most importantly they all together write some helluva catchy songies. Borrowed heaven, must be their best album, taking the best points from “Talk on corners” and “in blue” and raising them to the power of ten. “Summer sunshine” is an up tempo opener, much like “breathless”, with the obvious lyrical content about summer love. Well guess what! It’s a pop, record, so all of the songs are about love. Love between lovers, a couple of touching tributes to their departed ma, love and lust for life. Uplifting stuff really. No mention of horny devils (hm….), or pointy pitchforks, so all you black metal folks, might opt out, now. But I pry that you stay. “Angel” was the main single, one of the tributes to mommy, with a rousing chorus and all. It’s easy to see why they choose it. Rightfully so. “Hideaway” is a cool, self empowerment song. Weirdly so, it reminded me a bit of the good ol’lizzy’s “Do anything you wanna do”, “Long night” is a beautiful ballad, that just hits the nail on the head. Not too soapy, not too over the top. Heartfelt, beautifully sung, if you ever break up, it’s one of the best things I would recommend. (Well told from a girls standpoint) but that’s beside the point. Oh and the violin solo is just SO nice. “Goodbye”, is a rather jiggy number, about the dearly departed. It’s almost happy, yet it’s sad in a way. Awesome violin leads. Beautiful lyrics. Asking for proof that love conquers death, gosh, it brought tears (and memories) even to this old metal heads eyes (hey I ‘m not that old!) which must be a proof that either I m going all soft, or that the song is really good. I ‘d put my money on the latter. Life’s short. Live it! Well it’s cool that in this life time I got to listen to this song. “Time enough for tears” is a piano laden ballad. (I think that what I just wrote contradicts, the term ballad, I ‘m under the impression ballads are meant to be string orchestrated songs, hey but a piano has strings internally, that’s cheating! Yeah!), very soft vocals, breezy la la la’s. Very nice. “Humdrum”, must describe the life of a (bored ?) housewife, it goes all contemporary, with samples and very playful vocals. While it’s jiggy before the violin kicks in, because of the beat, there’s another cute little violin lead, that is very well placed. “Even if” is another up tempo, love song, talking about companionship. Has some of the sultrier vox on the record. I like it. A lot. Oh and probably if it wasn’t for the cool instrumental, hands down, the BEST violin lead on the album. Too damn short though. “Borrowed heaven” is a song about how short and sweet life is and how people should live it to the max. Andrea’s delivery on this song, is laid back, but soooo appropriate and some African vocal ensemble jumps in towards the end, thickening up the conclusion to the song. The song is just perfect. The peculiarly titled “Confidence for the quiet” is quite good, really. Couldn’t quite figure it out, but hey it’s highly enjoyable. Must be something personal. Another spot on violin solo. Which leads us to “Baby be brave” probably one of the songs with huge single potential. About having to solder on and face the hardships of life, no matter who you are. Weird electronics, violins, a rather dark mood, for a Corrs song, but the vocal melodies are so very well thought out, almost avant garde (not really). Thumbs and toes up. And to round up this “ heavenly” collection of songs we have an awesome, intricate instrumental in the shape of the majestic “Silver strand”. It’s just like standing at the beautiful shore of Inishmore and gazing at the big wide ocean. It’s bliss.
As you might expect, from a release of this magnitude, everything is crystal clear and perfect.
Along with Guinness, the mythology, Thin Lizzy, Dare, U2, some cute lasses that I ‘ve known and a few other things, I m forgetting, the Corrs are one of the best things to come out of Ireland, ever.
6/6