From Amazon.com
get it back out again.
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: when i first bought this album i was disappointed - like many others, I'd heard one track and expected this to be a bluesy, somewhat upbeat album. As is typical with many musicians' following releases after "the big entry", this one was different and I had a hard time with it.
It wasn't what i expected or needed at the time. I put it aside for several years.
Recently, depressed about the state of the world, even in my little pocket of wild paradise, I decided to listen to some Tracy Chapman again and I put this album on.
Heaven's Here on Earth is the first song, and oh did it hit home - straight to the heart it went, reminding me that prayer and hope and positive thinking are tools we have to keep going, to keep finding beauty in the world even when it seems the world is going to hell in a handbasket.
Indeed, a New Beginning - for Tracy, too, after such an album where she stood at the crossroads, trying to decide whether to be happy and start over, or not. and for me, too, years later.
lovethisartist
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: Delighted to have found this item. Misplaced my original,and thrilled to have found replacement at Amazon!
A wonderful CD
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: This is one of my favorite cds by this singer. I love her voice and the cd is a wonderful addition to any collection.
new beginning
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: the cd was in excellent condition i gave it to a friend and he loved it.
Got Tracy?
Album Rating: (5 of 5 stars)
Review Comments: With so many other reviews of this album already posted, to post yet another may seem superfluous. Nevertheless, here is what I have to say for anyone who cares to read it.
I purchased Ms. Chapman's debut album in 1988 whence it was first released, and may I say of that one that it was really hard for me to believe that it was a first effort. Very often one is able to conclude from a singer/song writer's first album that s/he is going to be around for a long, long time, and this was the conclusion I reached in 1988 about the young Ms. Chapman. Happily, I was correct. There are a goodly number of names that come to all our minds whence we think of the singer/song writer genre, and although Ms. Chapman falls under the heading of singer/song writer, I think there should be a subcategory entitled Legendary or Spectacular where her name and a couple of others may be listed. Ms. Chapman is obviously a highly intelligent woman who writes incredible lyrics and music, and her voice, well, all I can say is WOW. There is nothing less than genuine about everyhing she does.
I bought the "New Beginning" album in 1995, and I was also extremely impressed with the quality of the lyrics, the music, and once again, with Chapman's voice on this album as well. I cannot think of anyone else with her sound. Even whence you hear the voice all alone, you know right away you are hearing Chapman. As she was only 24 whence her first album was released, and as it was so stunningly good, I wondered what, if anything, might have changed seven years into her professional recording career, and I found that nothing had changed except the industry's ability to improve the sound quality of cds in general. As for Chapman, she is still writing profound, moving, intelligent, and truly articulate lyrics and beautiful, beautifully played music. If anything about Ms. Chapman has changed, perhaps it is that her voice has gotten even better, more confident, more sonorous, more rich, like a fine wine.
If I had to choose just one song from this album as my favorite, it would probably have to be "Smoke and Ashes." It is crystal clear that whence Tracy gives her heart, she gives it all, but she is no one's fool, as is proven by this song which is a moving love song that leaves no doubt of the love she had for her lover but also tells so intelligently and beautifully of the lover's betrayal not so much of Tracy but of the lover's own self. The music is so great, too. It "rocks," as they say. At more than six and half minutes long, I have literally listened to this track repeat for well over an hour at a time, and I have never grown tired of it. A very close second is "The Promise." It is so sensitive, so loving, so gentle, so hopeful, so Tracy. You will just have to hear for yourself.
Whence I listen to Ms. Chapman's music, I feel so proud of my own sex, and of being a human being, something that not many of today's female performers cause me to feel. I was curious to know more about Ms. Chapman, but as she is a quiet, shy, and very diginfied woman, there is not much information about her on the Internet. I did read that she began playing guitar and writing songs at eleven years of age. She was one of a very few students chosen each year to participate in "A Better Chance," program for gifted young persons of colour who come from disadvantaged backgrounds. This allowed her to attend a prepartory school in Connecticutt, after which she attended and graduated from Tufts University. By the time she graduated, she recorded her debut album, and the rest, as they say is history. Tufts has since given her an honourary doctrate in recognition of her achievement in music.
If you enjoy profoundly intelligent, as well as emotionally intelligent, and socially concious lyrics, if you enjoy beautiful, unique, clear, soulful, voices, and if you enjoy beautifully written and played guitar centric music, you should give Ms. Chapman's albums a listen. You have precious little to lose in doing so, and you have a lot to gain in my opinion. In Ms. Chapman, we have a true humanist, a gifted and dignified woman. I purchased her earliest albums on cassette, and I recently upgraded them to cd. It is a testiment to the value of an album, I think, whence one is willing to upgrade from LP to cassette, to cd, to whatever format will come next. So, what more can I tell you? Get Tracy.
Purchases
1 Heaven's Here on Earth
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