50 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS!!
Buy A Wonderful World here (Amazon UK)
Read my review of Susan's Christmas album, Home For Christmas, here
It has been far too long since I wrote about the music of Susan Boyle. One of the more enduring (and globally adored) stars to emerge from Britain's Got Talent, she is not known for music that bends to fads or trends. No Chainsmokers remix or rapping guest star will you see on her tunes. Rather, she focuses on using her expressive voice to bring life to enduring, classic songs that have a new sense of vitality under her command. On her new album, A Wonderful World, she demonstrates once again why she is a vocalist for the ages. Teamed with ace producers, Steve Anderson & Cliff Masterson, the album feels like a musical successor to her festive collection, Home For Christmas, and a spiritual successor to her last album, Hope. Not only that, it feels like a gift to each person seeking some comfort and solace in this crazy, mixed up world of ours. Not a Christmas album in the strictest sense, but one that feels like it takes every day songs and places them in a seasonal setting - using the lyrics to unveil hitherto hidden nuances of the music so indelibly ingrained on our musical psyche. The cover art is stunning - simplistic but really shows Susan in a wonderful light, looking so happy (almost as if basking in the honour of singing these songs). It is beautifully produced, exquisitely sung - an essential addition to your winter playlist, but also one that should be used to uplift all year round.
It begins with the elegant lullaby of What A Wonderful World. The a cappella opening allows Susan's voice to be re-introduced in a way that seems to stop time, as if just for a second with it's hypnotic grace. Then a lullaby score of swooning strings gently shimmer into view, and cocoon her soaring performance with a dignity that also accentuates the hope of the lyrics. Cascading chimes and glistening tambourine does serve to add a warming festive aura to the track, as if Susan was walking through a snowy winter wonderland and marveling at the radiant majesty of mother Nature. Note that Susan doesn't need to belt out the words for them to have a searing impact - her quiet understanding of the song makes it much more powerful. In years gone by, before the charts all went a bit screwy thanks to streaming, a song like this would have gained traction and been in the running for the coveted UK Christmas number one. A stellar start to the album. Next up is the Nat King Cole evergreen, When I Fall In Love. Susan sings it like she is doing a theatrical moment in a heartwarming musical, small on the enormous stage but compelling in how she shares her romantic emotions with the world. So intimate and personal is she with her delivery that her voice does a perfect choreographed dance with Nat's vocal. Swathed in a grandiose, orchestral score, Susan encapsulates every sentiment of the lyrics and imbues them with her own sense of aching yearning. It is just a marvel to behold. Choral backing vocals usher in the Robbie Williams song, Angels. It gives the effect of guardians from on high looking down on Susan and offering comfort. This more literal musical interpretation of the lyrics works stunningly. The way elements of traditional Christmas music are weaved into the tapestry of the song creates a more certain feeling that better days are ahead - for doesn't melancholy and pathos always feel more heightened at the most jolly time of year? Susan takes the words into her soul and projects them as a woman emerging with a a mission to use the sorrow felt to make her a better, stronger person, secure in the fact that help will be there when she needs it. You know those moments when you stare at something but nothing in particular, so transfixed are you in a thought or memory? This is the aural equivalent of that and it is absolutely breathtaking.
If anyone needs proof that these songs now work perfectly as the new alternative soundtrack to Christmas, Somewhere Out There (sung with Michael Bolton) should easily allay those doubts. A gradually crescendoing instrumental brings a swelling sense of confidence to Susan and Michael's tentative exploration of their own individual wishes. It is almost like they are looking up at the star that acted as a guide for the wise men on their way to visit the baby Jesus. Once again, the backing vocalists insert themselves into the fabric of the song with an elevating effect becoming angelic guides who are there to help soul mates find each other. I love that these arrangements eschew a bombastic approach for the more subtle effect. Just like I've said with Susan's vocal, it really does make for a more lasting impression. Next up is the Abba classic, I Have A Dream. US fans of Susan might not know but songs like Angels and I Have A Dream are not traditional Christmas songs but are associated with Yuletide music in England because that is when they dominated the charts. Each stroke of the bow across the string instruments feels like the gently flowing river from the lyrics; the glittering jingle bells the sound of the sleigh moving across the trodden snow. Susan is emphatic in how she conveys every single word, a willing duet partner to the choir accompanying her. That key change coming out of the middle 8 sends shivers of ecstasy down your spine. If you didn't believe in angels before this song, you absolutely will once it is done. A fragile, delicate piano refrain brings us Always On My Mind (another UK Christmas song, thanks to the Pet Shop Boys cover in 1987). This piano-vocal masterclass elicits every sorrowful memory of lost lovers, people who have departed from our lives. Susan sings, not because singing will make her feel better but because singing is the only way to understand the feelings she is having. It is devastating to hear this doleful confession yet out of sadness and hurt comes exceptional creative salvation and that, my friends now in need of a hug, is exactly what we have here. Placed with thought after this is the song to raise your spirits again, May You Never Be Alone. A message of how Christmas may make negative emotions seem all the more vivid, but also how the most wonderful time of the year can bring succor and comfort just from allowing the seasonal goodwill to wash over you. I often get criticised for celebrating Christmas too early each year, but this glorious song is telling the world exactly why I do. Susan is lovely on this languorous ballad and the addition of bagpipes in the middle 8 is a nice touch before the convivial backing vocalists join in. It feels like a communal singalong, on a cold Christmas eve in a stark cathedral courtyard - strangers uniting in song and bringing each other a semblance of companionship. Pretty, magical and absolutely necessary.
The bagpipes play on throughout the Scottish anthem, Mull of Kintyre. Susan brings a sense of longing and personal insight to the music. On her travels of the world it is only natural that she longs for home - and there is a very human need there. Who hasn't been away from home on business or even holiday but then longed for that familiar, safe surrounding. There is a stately dignity to how the song is sung, an earnest reverence to Scottish musical culture in how the instruments are played. It all coalesces to create a warming glow for anyone listening. And then there is the song that has created a lot of buzz around this album - the innovative, ingenius, evocative cover of Madonna's Like A Prayer. Transformed from audacious pop stomper to humble prayer, it is clear that there is an innate understanding of the lyrics that has helped strip this song to the foundation and re-build it as something completely different. In the context of the Christmas story, this could be Mary singing to Joseph through any moments of doubt. Susan embodies the strength and humility required to sing this kind of invocation, her mellifluous tonality wrapped in sonorous salvation of the choir. It becomes it's own type of religious experience and is able to stand shoulder to shoulder with Madonna's version because of it. I'd write more about it but I'm genuinely speechless at how magnificent this actually is! So it is with some sadness that we come to the end of the album. It is the Disney classic When You Wish Upon A Star that brings this magical journey to an end. Susan is a wise fairy godmother in her role of spreading joy and happiness - and this proclamation is the culmination of all the songs that come before it on the album. Her timeless rendition will last for many years to come, enduring like your favourite decoration on the Christmas tree or much loved recipe for seasonal snacks. This is an album that explores the magic of the season in songs not oft-associated with this time of year, does so with deft understanding and leaves you with a smile on your face and glow in your heart. A Wonderful World? Truly celestial.
**Ghosts of Christmas Past**
Wow, I'm speechless after reading this. I adore Susan boyle for many reasons, and her voice is so perfect that it is almost, at times, to take it anymore, but you still crave it and follow it. I have ordered this cd, but not heard it. You are a rat writer. God bless you all.
ReplyDeleteThank you for enumerating all of the feelings that this album evoke in me. You have clearly listened to and understand the artistry that is Susan Boyle!
ReplyDeleteI genuinely had no interest in checking this out until reading this. You fixed that!
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