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Artist: Irene Sage
Label: Louisiana Red Hot Category: Music Average customer rating: Media: Audio CD Number Of Discs: 1 UPC: 608691114329 EAN: 0608691114329 ASIN: B00005NNIY Release Date: 2001-09-11 |
Come on In
Tracks:
Customer Reviews:
It's hard to be the naysayer.......2003-08-07
However, the unfortunate truth is that this CD is weighed down with songs that are mediocre at best. Like many New Orleans rockers, Sage is overfond of dramatic vocal gestures, and relies far too much on standard rock and funk cliches musically. There is also a good bit of overproduction on this CD, making it sound far more slick - in a bad, '90's way - than it really should.
Like a lot of New Orleans artists, Irene is still in search of a definitive identity. Is she a belting balladeer? A white soul/funk chanteuse? A rock singer? She tries all of them here. Any or all approaches might work if (a) she stuck with one consistently and (b) the songwriting wasn't so uninspiring. I'm all for artists being diverse, but simply taking a bunch of songs and throwing them against the wall to see which ones stick is never a good idea. Very few artists can pull that off successfully, and I'm sorry to say that Irene is not one of them.
Finally - and this may be nitpicking - the CD cover combined with the title is really a little disturbing.
I wish I liked this CD better than I did. I've lived in New Orleans for a long time and I've followed Irene's career for a while, and she has always struck me as an inspired performer with a great voice, no matter what she did. But the scattershot musical approach, the over-reliance on cliches, and the subpar songwriting sinks "Come On In."
Music Album:
Music CD
At Disneyland ~ Firehouse Five Plus Two
Southern Exposure ~ Ken Watters Group
History of Jazz: Swing Era ~ Various Artists
The Linda Presgrave Quartet - Live
Revelation ~ Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Novo Brasil: Nova ~ Various Artists