Allison Crowe - Spiral

A collection of music from Allison Crowe is like a feast where "all hearts open and all wines flow" - to lift from the poet Rimbaud. Over a decade of reviews, the word most often used to describe the voice of Allison Crowe is "gorgeous". The word that testifies more than any other to her musical performance is "amazing". This month, the much-loved and acclaimed singer-songwriter releases "Spiral", her seventh album/CD. It is both of these things. And plenty more. U.S.-based entertainment blog 'Muruch' earlier this year named it as an album most highly anticipated, and, now, UK music blog 'We Write Lists' includes 'Spiral' as one of 'The Twelve Most Exciting Albums of 2010', remarking: 'Crowe's speciality is startlingly beautiful piano-based songs that sort of make you wonder why you bother with anything else.' (Joining Crowe on the list are new recordings from: Fleet Foxes, Fyfe Dangerfield, Girls Aloud, Goldfrapp, Gorillaz, Joanna Newsom, Marina and the Diamonds, Massive Attack, MGMT, Music Go Music and She and Him.) For Allison Crowe, a peerless live performer, and a singer-songwriter of the thrilling calibre known in the 1960s, Spiral is the seventh release from her label, Rubenesque Records, in as many years. Musical production wrapped on Valentine's Day. Spiral contains eight of Crowe's original songs, ranging from the tender and playful country/roots of "Dearly", to the upbeat pop of "Double-Edged Swords", 'cross the loving "Oceans", and darker terrain of "I Don't Know" and the hard rocking title track. Raw, natural, emotion is embraced passionately with elegiac beauty and melody in these, and such joy-filled tunes as "Going Home Tonight" and "No Matter the Battle". With the live track, "Wake Up", Crowe, again, renders the personal universal, and the global, human. Uniquely known not just as one of the most exciting songwriters of a new generation, Crowe is also one of our finest interpreters of popular song. Spiral's mix of light and shadow includes a trio of fresh covers - revisiting music of Annie Lennox ("Why"), Leonard Cohen ("Chelsea Hotel No. 2"), and Hunters and Collectors' Antipodean anthem, "Throw Your Arms Around Me". On this new song collection, the bi-coastal Canadian, (she calls Corner Brook, Newfoundland and Nanaimo, British Columbia, home), is joined by ideally-skilled and sympathetic west-coast musicians Billie Rocha-Woods (acoustic guitar, backing vocals), Dave Baird (bass, backing vocals), Laurent Boucher (percussion), Brendan Millbank (cello) and Larry Anschell (electric guitar, and, also, Engineer/Producer at Turtle Studios in White Rock, B.C.) Kayla Schmah, Los Angeles-based, Canadian-born, composer and film scorer, orchestrates and produces the album with, yes, 'gorgeous' musical textures, and cinematic ideas artfully brought to life. Concert capturings by Engineers B.R.N. (aka Condor) and John MacMillan complete this diverse mix of music made in Corner Brook, Nanaimo, as well as Chilliwack, White Rock, Denman Island and Salt Spring Island, Canada, Vienna, Austria, and Hollywood, USA. The visual art of Spiral matches it's aural beauty - with cover paintings by Netherlands-based Tara Thelen, photographs by Canada's Billie Rocha-Woods, and California's Dan Goldwasser, fontage from Brazil's Billy Argel and graphic design by Florida's Alix Whitmire. *** Here's what reviewers say about Allison Crowe's 'Spiral': April 14, 2010 Muruch (USA) ALLISON CROWE: Spiral Allison Crowe's new CD Spiral finally arrived! I posted mp3s from it last November and last month, and the entire album was released digitally on March 17th. But the physical release was delayed due to printing issues, so I didn't receive my copy until this week. It was well worth the wait. Spiral is Allison Crowe's best album since Live at Wood Hall (one of my Best of the Decade picks), and is possibly her best studio album ever. Spiral is a prime example of why I will always prefer physical albums over digital ones. The beautiful gold and silver embossed cover has a lovely peacock painting by Tara Thelen. Cover art and liner notes enhance the listening experience, and mp3s can never capture a moment in time the way holding an album in your hands does. An old album can conjure up the same sense of nostalgia as a photograph. Onto the music... Spiral opens on a somewhat lighter note. The twangy "Dearly" and "Double-Edged Sword" have a buoyant folk-pop style akin to Dar Williams. But the meat of the album is Allison's voice and piano, both of which take a more prominent position in the third track. Allison is probably best known for her astounding rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," which has become one of my favorite songs of all time. This time around, Allison tackles Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel No. 2." Her emotive vocal gives the usually sedate song a whole new sense of desperation. Yet it's the acoustic transformation of Annie Lennox's "Why" that proves to be the album's most captivating cover. Allison's heartfelt voice drives the song with some help by a lovely, subdued string arrangement. The album includes two bonus alternative versions of "Why" and the album's other cover of Hunters & Collectors' "Throw Your Arms Around Me." The stand out track "I Don't Know" is one of those Allison Crowe stunners. Her voice flawlessly flows between the most pristine soprano and gut-wrenching, full-bodied wails. Her intimate, emotional lyrics are layered over a soul-stirring piano melody. The album's title track is just as haunting, but has a more frenetic energy to the instrumentation. Allison's frenzied piano playing is juxtaposed with fiercely low vocals that give the song a murky, seething mood. I bet it's particularly chilling and spectacular live. I hear so much music these days, too much for one person really. I'm inundated with such a flood of sounds both good and bad that I sometimes forget what it feels like when a song literally produces chills on your arms. Then I hear Allison Crowe sing, and I remember the effect music is supposed to have on you. That awe-inspired rush, that indescribable feeling of communion between artist and audience. The gratitude that someone gifted has expressed through their art an emotion you personally lack the talent to articulate. To quote Allison: "Why music? Why breathing?" Allison and her manager are exceptionally generous when it comes to sharing mp3s, so I have three free, legal mp3s from Spiral for you. Please support this extraordinary artist by purchasing her album at the links below. ~~~ Joyfully Caught In Allison Crowe's 'Spiral' April 15th, 2010 · Music 1 Heck of a Guy (USA) "Spiral" - Great Music And More Having spent most of the past two days playing and replaying the Allison Crowe "Spiral" CD, I've come to certain conclusions: 1. "Spiral" is an outstanding album. That's hardly a surprise. The album features a great voice, great song selections, and great arrangements. What's not to like? 2. Listening to the CD renders an already obvious point unavoidable: newcomers to Allison Crowe should be granted access to her music only on the condition that their first experience is listening to an entire album. Don't get me wrong - there are several tracks that would, in the era of 45 rpm records, have qualified as hit singles. But, listening to a song or two from "Spiral" is impressive; listening to the entire album in one sitting is overwhelming - in a good way. 3. The "Spiral" CD not only sounds right, it looks right and feels right. Having owned too many of the same albums in too many conformations, including vinyl records, cassettes, 8-tracks, reel-to-reel recordings, CDs, and downloaded files with any number of suffixes (MP3, WAV, AIFF, AU, FLAC, AAC, MPEG-4, WMA, ...), I am rarely swayed by format nostalgia, but in this case, the physical CD itself seems a better fit to the album than invisible computer files. It is especially gratifying to discover that the art and the gatefold design evokes the the sense of those albums I bou