“Singer. Famous in the Eighties. Not been within spitting distance of the singles chart in almost twenty years. Records live performance DVD. Avoids all her hits in the set list.” Does this sound appealing? Before you pass on it, Alison Moyet’s One Blue Voice DVD is an utterly eloquent response to those who think flogging the retro bandwagon and living off past glories is the only way to go.
One Blue Voice is a studio recording of the highlights of Moyet’s recent sell-out UK tour. Drawing mainly upon her last two albums, the critically-acclaimed Hometime and her elegant standards album Voice, Moyet presents an astonishing and passionate collection of romantic and dramatic material.
Performed in front of an enthusiastic audience, One Blue Voice resembles an extended Later With Jools Holland special. Dressed in her trademark black, with her hair gently tousled, Alison looks fantastic and certainly more comfortable in her own skin than her 80s reincarnation we remember.
From the stately opening song ‘Satellite’, her voice is rich, expressive and enticing. Backed by an attractive string quartet, two guitarists, piano and percussion, there is an immediate intimacy that draws you into Moyet’s dark milieu of destructive love, frustrated desires and impassioned longings.
Taking standards such as ‘Windmills of Your Mind’ could be seen as the easy option for less self-challenging artists – but there is nothing safe about Moyet. She imbues the interpretation with her own icy intensity. Often acclaimed for her ability to belt out big ballads, Alison is mightily impressive by the poignancy she gleans by the restraint in her version of the potentially-slushy ‘What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?’
This breathtaking ability to interpret and communicate other writers’ work is convincing asserted with Brel’s ‘La Chanson des Vieux Amants’: despite singing in French, we live every Gallic sigh and feel the Autumnal sadness of the singer.
This is not a live show full of glitzy costume changes, showbiz patter or naff choreography – it is a charged recital from a singer on the top of her game performing a serious collection of classic songs in a seriously affecting way. If Alison’s heartfelt delivery of her self-penned ‘If You Don’t Come Back To Me’ does not suggest she is the finest singer of her generation, then her wistful, jazzy take on ‘Cry Me A River’ will.
Indulging her penchant for Elvis Costello as a writer of modern classics twice, it is the second of his songs featured here, ‘God Give Me Strength’, that demonstrates everything that Moyet is about: she appropriates the song as if it were specially written for her, occupying the emotions of the song so fully, a tear will be wiped away from many a viewer’s eye. It is a jaw dropping “That is what singing is about” moment.
A powerful, soulful cover of Melanie’s’ Momma Momma’, a funked-up ‘Ski’ from her Hometime album and the incandescent drama of the torch song ‘This House’ all continue the vivid, emotional richness of One Blue Voice. Anyone watching Alison’s live performance here, the arena where she belongs, will agree with the sentiments of the final song: ‘You Don’t Have To Go’.
Alison Moyet came to the public’s attention in the early eighties and is still here. Of the contemporaries who have stayed the course, Alison relied on the beauty of her one blue voice while Annie Lennox had the ambiguity of image to sustain her and Kate Bush cornered the ethereal end of the market.
There is no other voice like it and her One Blue Voice DVD is the perfect showcase for an astonishing talent.
Originally published 26th September 2005
No bias then...it is a fantastic showcase to that voice. Highly recommended (obviously)
No comments:
Post a Comment