Marc Almond – Shadows And Reflections (2017) [FLAC]

Marc Almond - Shadows And Reflections (2017) [FLAC] Download

Artist: Marc Almond
Title: Shadows And Reflections
Genre: Pop
Release Date: 2017
Duration: 00:44:53
Quality: FLAC Stereo 16bit/44,1kHz
Size: 246.94 MB
Tracks: 15
Source: Marc_Almond-Shadows_and_Reflections-CD-FLAC-2017-FORSAKEN

Musically, this deep dive into ’60s-era mood music, with its lush strings, lilting and twanging guitars, muted brass, and imaginative percussion, sounds timeless. Almond imbues these songs without a trace of nostalgia or irony. The orchestrations are complex and imaginative, and reinforce the notion of isolation, loneliness, and the desire for intimate connection. After the relatively restrained “Overture,” the listener is jolted for a moment by the jaunty yet somehow forlorn use of harpsichord in the reading of the Action’s title track. Almond sticks close to its melody, but puts his indelible handprint on it through his phrasing, which both illuminates and deepens the lyrics. The reading of Julie Driscoll’s “I Know You Love Me Not” possesses the aching drama Dusty Springfield’s mid-’60s material did, as well as evoking Driscoll’s sense of indictment — Duane Eddy-esque guitars and all. The set’s first single is a reading of the Young Rascals’ “How Can I Be Sure.” This version, like the original, is innocent, but this blue-eyed soul can’t help but make its question existential. It’s followed by Timi Yuro’s “Something Bad on My Mind,” where its teen pleading is replaced by a heartbreak and disbelief so profound it breaks free of the boundaries in its lyrics. The Baroque string charts in “From the Underworld” are bridged to electric guitars and drums by no more — and certainly no less — than the passion and pathos in Almond’s singing — as if he knew what its writer (Peter Frampton) was predicting all along. Finally, his versions of the Mandel and Darin tunes smoke, smolder, and burn, earning their place in the hierarchy of interpretations. At the age 60, Almond delivers Shadows and Reflections with absolute commitment. On its surface, it is an exotic encounter with the sound of another era, but this is not merely an homage, but a work of tremendous musical vision and emotional depth.

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