| Etta James - The Dreamer |
| Written by Camelia Rafik | |||
| Tuesday, 22 November 2011 09:51 | |||
 The iconic American singer, Etta James came out this year with her 30th and last album called The Dreamer. It was Co-produced by James, Josh Sklair, and her sons Danto and Sametto. The dreamer speaks of a subjet in particular, one that James has chosen for most of her career and it is, love. Lost and painful. This soul, r&b and rock and roll singer has been through ups and downs during her 50 something years in the music business. Although she has had a difficult yet, full life, the 73 year old singer decided to retire after this album due to an unfortunate ill heatlh, she suffers from dementia and leukemia. She covers artists from Otis Redding to Ray Charles, to Bobby 'Blue' bland and even Gun's & Roses. She opted for a meld of soul, blues, rhythm & blues, rock, and country in this album which works perfectly since during her career she alternated from genres and often mixed more then one together, creating a genre of her own. The first song, a remake of "Groove Me" is one of the most upbeat songs on the album. I can't say it did much for me. It was not as good as the original version and didn't really suit her. After finding one of her 1981 version, I realised that, that one was far better. On the other hand,she does a great tribute to Otis Redding's Champagne and wine & Coffee and cigarettes. Although her voice has gotten deeper with time, the darkness and dept of it works beautifully on slower sadder soulful tunes such as the second to last song "That's the chance you take". The song starts off with 'Once I had a love, that I thought was true, but now he's gone with somebody, somebody new' it seems like someone is ripping your heart out from your cheast when she sings those words and it brings you back to a time when you had those same emotions. On her coverage of "Too tired" we can hear pain in her voice, and wonder if it is the pain she has vis-a-vis her illness 'I'm too tired to walk, too tired run.' Her cover of "Welcome to the jungle" was quite deceving and unecessary. I don 't think it needed a slow version. It loses it's impact and is frankly boring. It's as if it was forced on the album and sticks out like a sore thumb. In my opinion, it should not have made the cut. The last song and the longest is "Let me down easy" it last 7:04 minutes but is probably one of my favorite ones. The song is about a boy who left a girl and the girl knows its over but asks him to please be gentle with her heart. Perhaps Etta is sending this message to life in regards to her health. This album is a great way of saying goodbye and even with the couple odd songs, Etta James will bow down to her loving fans proudly.
|
