Laura Nyro - Angel in the Dark
List Price:
Our Price: $12.36
You Save: $6.62 (35%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.95 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Artist: Laura NyroBrand: NYRO,LAURA
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2001-03-27
Music Label: Rounder / Umgd
Soundtracks:
- Angel In The Dark
- Triple Godess Twilight
- Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow
- He Was Too Good To Me
- Sweet Dream Fade
- Serious Playground
- Be Aware
- Let It Be Me
- Gardenia Talk
- Ooh Baby, Baby
- Embraceable You
- La La Means I Love You
- Walk On By
- Animal Grace
- Don't Hurt Child
- Coda
Music reviews of Angel in the Dark
Music Review: Haunting, evocative: Nyro's 'Muse' takes one last bow
Rating: 5 Stars
In retrospect, the late Laura Nyro's final recording, "Angel in the Dark" is full of haunting summons to mortality: The title track with its pleading, repeated line, "Come back to me, come back; answer my prayer," beckons the spirits of Nyro's mother (who, eerily, succumbed to ovarian cancer at age 49, as her daughter would in 1997); and her maternal grandfather, among others, who Nyro claimed had primary influences on her life (this according to the eloquent liner notes penned by poet Elaine Silver-Lillywhite, Nyro's friend and business partner on their Luna Mist record label). Likewise, Nyro's self-penned "Triple Goddess Twilight" directly summons these familial spirits, as Nyro sings: "Mother you died young and left me; Your twilight colors/Rose/Ah burgundy/Coral mist/What are the shades of loneliness."
She also addresses her grandfather in the lines: "My grandfather painted houses/On a ladder in the sky/He was working class/Urbane/Street-wise/Said-'We can change the world, girl/Love will inspire,'/Told me this through whiskey/And revolutinary fire."
She summons Heaven with: "He left a war/To walk in peace now/Said life was for/Our dream/Our dream of progress."
The song itself ends by not really resolving itself-in that a piano chord is repeated over and over, sounding like the cadence of footsteps walking into some unknown terrain, gradually fading.
Not all is heavy and haunting, though--the cover songs showcase a youthful joy and obvious reverence for these songs' influence on Nyro as a youth; listen to "Let It Be Me," "Walk On By" and "Embraceable You" to hear examples of her myriad musical influences.
I contend, though, that her most striking recordings on this set remain her self-penned compositions such as those listed previously ("Angel in the Dark," "Triple Goddess Twilight); as well as the mystical "Serious Playground," where Nyro sings, without a hint of irony, "My boss is The Muse" and so describes the songwriting process; "Sweet Dream Fade," an almost 'accidental' groove, given Nyro apparently was not going to record it, but Lillywhite insisted it was ready and Nyro picked it out on the piano, and her band quickly established the charts and set down a groove. It ended up, according to the liner notes, as her last in-studio recording: a sort of off-the-cuff, joyful, jazzy, breezy song and one of the most upbeat songs on the album.
Another Nyro original, "Gardenia Talk," describes spring with relation to new or rediscovered love --it's a song brimming with hope and optimism, seductive and richly visual.
The truly haunting closing song is Nyro's original "Don't Hurt Child" (perhaps written with her teen-age son in mind?). Something like a soulful lullaby, she implores, 'Don't hurt child/I took my stand/But the key is in your hand/Heal your wild wing/And fly." The song, which came to Nyro all in one day, was also among the last songs she recorded.
Other reveiwers have suggested this album is perhaps Nyro's most intimate, a assertion with which I agree. While some critics and reviewers dismissed Nyro's later work is less evocative than her earlier, 'advant-garde' 60s and 70s albums (and it is true that many of her songs in the 80s and 90s stressed topical earth-mother-animal rights-feminist leanings and perhaps only resonated with a handful of fans) "Angel in the Dark" finds Nyro in a seemingly different creative place: Though slightly pushing the edges of darkness and mortality themes with the title track and others, the attendant mystical spirituality that always set Nyro's work apart is firmly in place and flows through this album--it is pure soul. While knowing this was Nyro's last recorded effort might add to this feeling among listeners now, it is plain that the lyrics address spirits come and gone, implore understanding and celebrate happiness, new seasons. It's something like a cycle of life, this album--evoking spirits at the beginning, giving advice to a child on the threshold of life by the end. This album seems at once to be celebrating newfound creativity on the part of Nyro (this again according to the liner notes) while hinting at the sorrow just over the horizon.
This is Nryo in magnificent, final bloom. A must-have for fans, it's best listened to after taking in the fiery music of her youth ("The First Songs," "Eli," "New York Tendaberry,"Christmas and the Beads of Sweat"); her homage album, "Gonna Take A Miracle;" her content, relaxed vocals on "Smile" and "Nested" (as she moved to rural Connecticut and 'settled'); "Mother's Spiritual," "Walk the Dog and Light the Light" (her later albums focusing on the topical natural world-feminist-animal rights-earth mother angles that were important to her). Taken in this career-spanning context, "Angel" seems the perfect end-note: Whether pleading for much-missed spirits to return, or seductively reminding the listener, "It's spring," the emotions of this recording, the warmth with which Nyro sings and accompanies herself or the grooves that seem to leap out at the listener at the songs were the band locks into a jazzy groove, this album seems, more than anything, a testament to the power and affirmation inherent in an artist for whom "The Muse" allows her to exclaim, "I'm here for the music/Of my life."
So are we, and we are all the better for it.
Description of Angel in the Dark
No Description Available.Genre: Popular Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 27-MAR-2001
Folk CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in Folk CDs
Margie Adam - Another PlaceRelease date: 1994-07-26; Music CD
Best price: $16.99
Ann Reed - Road of the HeartRelease date: 1994-06-29; Music CD
Best price: $29.99
Ann Reed - Back & ForthRelease date: 1994-07-26; Music CD
Best price: $2.00
Price in other shops:
Kay Gardner - Rainbow PathRelease date: 1994-07-26; Music CD
Best price: $15.05
Price in other shops:
Joanne Rand - Grant Me EyesRelease date: 2001-08-02; Music CD
Best price: $9.96
Price in other shops:
Betty - Hello Betty!Release date: 1994-03-21; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Kay Gardner - AmazonRelease date: 1994-07-26; Music CD
Price in other shops:
Stage 2: Human HeartRelease date: 1997-04-11; Music CD
Best price: $14.95
Price in other shops:
Cyntia Smith, Ruth Barrett - Heart Is the Only NationRelease date: 1996-07-17; Music CD
Best price: $3.99
Price in other shops:
Giants! A Colossal Collection of Tales and TunesGreathall Productions, Inc.; Release date: 2000-04-05; Published: 1996; Music CD
Best price: $8.68
Price in other shops:
Similar CDs
Laura Nyro - Mother's SpiritualRelease date: 2009-06-23; Music CD
Best price: $12.44
Price in other shops:
Laura Nyro - Live: The Loom's DesireNYRO,LAURA; Release date: 2002-05-07; Music CD
Best price: $19.88
Price in other shops:
Laura Nyro - Time & Love: Essential MastersRelease date: 2000-10-10; Music CD
Best price: $4.70
Price in other shops:
Laura Nyro - NestedRelease date: 2008-08-12; Published: 2008; Music CD
Best price: $12.78
Price in other shops:
Laura Nyro - Christmas & Beads of SweatRelease date: 2008-03-01; Music CD
Best price: $3.98
Price in other shops:
Laura Nyro - Spread Your Wings & Fly: Filmore East May 30 1971Release date: 2008-03-01; Music CD
Best price: $2.64
Price in other shops:
Laura Nyro - First SongsRelease date: 2008-02-01; Music CD
Best price: $2.59
Price in other shops:
Labelle, Laura Nyro - Gonna Take a MiracleRelease date: 2002-06-25; Music CD
Best price: $2.87
Price in other shops:
Laura Nyro - Eli & The Thirteenth ConfessionRelease date: 2002-06-25; Music CD
Best price: $2.87
Price in other shops:
Laura Nyro - New York Tendaberry (Exp)Release date: 2008-02-01; Music CD
Best price: $2.69
Price in other shops: