John Stevens - Red (U.S. Release)
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CD Details
Artist: John StevensEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2009-10-27
Music Label: Maverick
Soundtracks:
- Come Fly With Me
- My Blue Heaven
- Someone To Watch Over Me
- Here, There And Everywhere
- All Of Me
- This Love
- I Only Have Eyes For You
- Let's Fall In Love
- It Had To Be You
- The Shadow Of Your Smile
- Don't Get Around Much Anymore
Music reviews of Red (U.S. Release)
Music Review: REVISED REVIEW: Engaging first effort - and even better than I thought - FIVE STARS!
Rating: 4 Stars
8/3/05: REVISED REVIEW: For some reason, I can't change my four stars to five here, so just imagine five...
ALL reservations I previously had about John's debut CD have been laid to rest. The album has really grown on me with repeated listenings. But I think the real test was when I mixed the cuts from this album in with the other "Standards" on my iPod; John was thrown right in there with the likes of Michael Buble, Harry Connick, Ella Fitzgerald, and, yes, Frank Sinatra, and I set the iPod to "shuffle" within my "Standards" playlist. I was delighted and amazed to hear how very, very well John holds his own amongst such daunting company. He really has a very good voice - even now, at 17. And his phrasing is absolutely spot-on, very assured, very relaxed. BRAVO! And keep it coming! I take it back: this album is NOT "sleep-inducing" AT ALL!
My original review appears below.
If I have any reservations about John Stevens' debut album, Red, it's that it may be just a touch...soporific. Which is puzzling, since I really do like this recording, and even more, I find myself instinctively liking John and rooting for his success. Yet there's a nagging sense that there may be - just maybe - a little bit less than meets the ear in this first effort.
In my comments on John's earlier single, I mentioned that I applaud any young artist with the taste (and courage) to take a crack at the standards and present this music to a new generation; it's pleasing to think the genre may not be headed for imminent extinction. And it's delightful to read the various "Kid's Reviews" here and note their writers' almost unanimous enthusiasm. (One would hope these young people will be inspired to explore the genre more thoroughly and discover the classic, superlative interpreters - Sinatra, Ella, Bennett; the legends and some of the contemporary singers - but that's really up to them.)
The "package" is terrific: the absolutely top-notch arrangements merit special mention, the production is impeccable, the band superb, and John's delivery is relaxed, smooth, and seems very confident, rather astonishing in a performer of his mere seventeen years. His phrasing is also quite competent. But if I'm being honest, I have to admit that under this very pleasant exterior, there's a dismaying whiff of blandness, a certain regrettable sameness to the cuts, and a lack of real excitement. Oddly, John's most assured, comfortable vocals are on the two NON-standards, "This Love" and "Here, There and Everywhere," which is rather sad for a champion of big-band-era pop. I didn't want to; I tried very hard not to - but I found myself losing interest from time to time.
But maybe that's just the problem: maybe this music is still just a little beyond the grasp of someone so very, very young, with a voice which frankly has not yet reached maturity. John sounds like the kid he is - of course. (I think his producers understand this, and I suspect he may have received some wise advice on song choice: can you imagine an adolescent singing, say, "One For My Baby" or "It Never Entered My Mind"? No, the selections are, wisely, within the bounds of the reasonable for a young singer; to give him his due, it could well be that John himself recognizes his current limits, and chose accordingly.)
All that said, I don't think it's the complete turn-around it may seem for me to add that I wholeheartedly welcome John to the entertainment scene, and recommend Red as an enjoyable, if very mellow, listen. Actually, there really isn't a single bad cut on the album, and a few others besides the two mentioned above - "All of Me" and "Don't Get Around Much," notably - come close to being quite good indeed.
And bear in mind that even Sinatra's vocals on his earliest recordings - the pre-Capitol, Columbia Records sides - only hint at the power and greatness to come years later in the 1950s and 60s, when he was in his forties and fifties - many decades older than seventeen; the yet-to-be-"Chairman of the Board" himself sounded more like, perhaps, the junior clerk: a little bland, his voice a little thin and unsure, when he was a young vocalist, whose fans - like John's now - were largely dreamy-eyed teenaged girls. I almost never listen to Sinatra's early recordings, but hardly a month goes by when I don't savor some of the classic 1950s cuts.
Again as I mentioned for John's single, if his ease, confidence, and undeniable artistry are any indication, I think there's an excellent chance John will eventually lose his "green-ness" and that his vocals will increasingly satisfy as his voice matures, and a better-than-even one that he will in his time become the truly first-class pop singer he very obviously wants to be. In some ways, he's well along the road already.
Welcome, John, and success to you; I hope the CD sells, and I very much look forward to hearing what you'll send our way next.
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