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Music > Reviews > Natalie Walker By James BassettThe first thing to say about Without You is that Natalie Walker has a beautiful voice. That might be the second thing to say as well, just to emphasise the point, and also because there is precious little else to mention about this dreary, instantly forgettable album. Walker’s debut album, Urban Angel, rightly garnered some heavy duty critical acclaim. Aside from an ill-advised and frankly pointless cover version of Counting Crows’ “Colorblind”, it was a sexy and poignant album that deserved the heavy radio rotation it received. Walker’s tracks turned up on Entourage, Ugly Betty and Grey’s Anatomy, and Sofia Coppola used the Thievery Corporation remix of “Quicksand” for the trailer of her film Marie Antoinette. For her second album, Walker reunites with Brooklyn production duo Stuhr (the pair of Dan Chen and Nate Greenberg, who have worked with, amongst others, Mya and Bebel Gilberto). But something is missing. Walker’s lyrics, once elegant, sad, and lovely, are now saccharine and dull. Stuhr’s production is now lightweight and torpid. The clever, glitchy beats and graceful string arrangements from Urban Angel are no more, replaced instead by weak drum machines and monotonous circular rhythms. Much of With You wanders aimlessly along a path of mediocrity, with even Walker’s gorgeous voice not able to drag “By and By”, “Only Love”, and “Monarch” out of the bland wilderness they each inhabit. When Stuhr take some risks, as they do on first single “Over and Under”, the results are infinitely more interesting. Pet Shop Boys synth burbles and spirals around Walker’s graceful vocal delivery. On the title track, Chen and Greenberg use more synth, guitar, and a muffled drum as the merest accompaniments. When she’s unencumbered and centre stage, Walker’s voice is still tremendous. It’s a shame that she uses it to sing such low-grade, sixth form poetry (“You came into my life and then everything changed / Love this strong never fades… This world is a better place with you”). But despite the cloying sentimentality, the track “With You” is beautifully produced and more than a little bit lovely. Taken in isolation, the dreamy soundscapes on “Over and Under” and “With You” aren’t dissimilar to David Sitek’s work on Scarlett Johansson’s Anywhere I Lay My Head. Sadly, though, those two tracks stand alone. There is nothing else on With You that comes close to replicating the austere electronica of Daughter Darling or the clear, welcoming sweetness of Urban Angel. In fact, given Walker’s previously stellar work, With You would be depressing if it were capable of invoking any emotion whatsoever.
29 September 2008Related Articles
Natalie Walker: Urban AngelBy Edward Xia31.Oct.06 From a maturing artist, an album that is at times both all-consuming and brilliant. |
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Comments
Hello dear Ladies and Gentlemen!
I would like inform you that Scarlett Johansson (actress) actually is a clone from original person Scarlett Galabekian, who has nothing with acting career. That clone was created illegally by using stolen biological material. Original person is very nice (not d**n sexy),most important - CHRISTIAN young lady! I’ll tell you more,those clones (it’s not only one) made in GERMANY - world leader manufacturer of humans clones, it is in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, North Bavaria, Mr. Helmut Kohl home town. You can not even imaging the scale of the cloning activity. But warning! Helmut Kohl clone staff 100% controlling all their clones (at least they trying) spreading around the world, they are very accurate with that, some of them are still NAZI type disciplined and mind controlled clones, so be careful get close with clones you will be controlled as well. Original person is not happy with those movies, images, video, rumors and etc. spreading on media in that way it would be really nice if we all will try slow down that ‘‘actress’’ career development, original Scarlett will really appreciated that. Please remember that original Scarlett’s family did not authorize any activity with stolen biological materials, no matter what form it was created in it was stolen and it is stolen. It all need to be delivered to authorized personals control in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Original Scarlett was not engage, by the way!
Her close friend Serge G.
P.S. P.S.CONTROLLING ACTIVITY OF ANY CLONES IS US MILITARY OPERATION.
H.R. 534, the Human Cloning Prohibition Act of 2003, was introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives on February 5, 2003. After discussion, it was passed on February 27 by a vote of 241-155. It now moves on to the Senate for consideration. This bill makes it unlawful for any person or entity to perform or participate in human cloning, or to ship or receive embryos produced by human cloning. The penalties are imprisonment of up to 10 years and fines of $1 million or more. These now join other nations as diverse as Norway, Australia, and Germany, which had already added cloning for any purpose to their criminal code. And in Germany where it carries a penalty of five years imprisonment they know a thing or two about unethical science.
Comment by Serge from LA — September 29, 2008 @ 2:10 am
I must agree with you James. This sophomore release was all over the place. Nothing like the quality work done in Daughter Darling or even some of Urban Angel. I feel as though it’s missing “music” arrangement. It’s very weak on the musical side and the lyrics aren’t as strong as her previous work. It’s frustrating because as a fan of her earlier work, I keep hoping that she will make it big, but this was definitely a set back. I don’t think Stuhr is helping out. Yeah, it may have given her a contract, not a “real” noticeable one though. She was better off with the Fogelman brothers who atleast could back her up musically. Natalie does not have a “strong” voice. It’s very falsetto and airy, but pretty and described as “angelic” by most fans; however, there is no range, no peaks of great lengths to get to, pretty much talking through a song. And if you pick up on it like I do, she sings off key quite a bit. Again, you would think that her production company would pick up on that and correct it before final release or that her band members would say something because that’s just embarrassing. Don’t get me wrong, there are some musicians that sometimes go a little off key, but the emotion is so high already in the song, in the meaning of the lyrics, in the arrangement of the music, that it brings out the rawness of the singer. But this is not the case with Natalie. She needs to go back to the drawing board. She needs to do what she wants to do, sing what she wants to sing, and if that means solo with a piano, then so be it. She needs to bring back “feeling” into her music, Urban, Trip Hop, Pop, Indie, Alternative, what ever the genre, it just needs some feeling.
And she needs to not forget to be humble, that is what made her so likable and endearing. Now, she seems as if she is too good and kind of stuck up which I’m greatly sad over. It’s not how I knew her to be, but even her youtube video on her myspace talking about her CD “With You” is quite the turn off. Someone like that you want to shake hard and say “what happened to the old Natalie. I know she’s still in there. Bring her back!” But maybe that’s what happens when you think you have made it big, but the harsh reality is that fans don’t go for that when you’re that way, not for too long. There is too many starving artist out there to be heard just like you who are more attractive without losing their dignity of where they’ve come from. So to end my spill, I still support buying her CDs, going to her shows, but this last CD was not impressive at all. I’ve tried to listen to it through, but find myself forwarding partly through each song. Sorry for the honesty, but hopefully she’s listening to someone on this one. It may not be me, it might be the sales.
Comment by Death of a Fan — October 4, 2008 @ 9:19 pm