Tracy Chapman - Our Bright Future reviews
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
| Billboard |
 Twenty years after her self-titled debut, Tracy Chapman remains true to her musical calling: soul-rich folk melodies around a voice of honesty and nuance that nails ambivalence like no other. Chorusless opener "Sing for You" is one of Chapman's signature sad yet sunny tunes of love gone by, building straight from a hooky verse to a strong, marching bridge. "I Did It All," a sweet, shuffling saloon ballad, reflects the slide guitar-heavy country leanings of the set, and "Thinking of You" is a sexy, noisy cry about the pain of obsessing over a lover. "A Theory" is a charming peek at Tracy with a crush, while the title track suggests that along the broad range of emotions that Chapman has deftly expressed with her music, she is today most closely aligned with cautious optimism.—Evie Nagy...full text |
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| Boston |
| What has marked Tracy Chapman's work over the course of her two-decade career is her emotional intensity and clarity of vision, and both are in evidence on this fine new disc, her first in three years. Chapman's early success positioned her as a straight-up pop singer, but at heart she's a true, determined folkie capable of combining the secular with the spiritual, as she often does here ("Save Us All" and the title track). The songs are short and focused; only a couple, especially "Thinking of You," meander without resolving. Coproduced by veteran Larry Klein, the production is so crisp it makes your eyes sting. The songs revolve around love, commitment, and faith, all popular staples in her canon. The best, like "Sing for You," are tuneful and soul-baring, a rare and beautiful combination. There's a lovely curveball in the cabaret-tinged piano-based beauty "I Did It All," a remembrance of decadent days with sweet instrumental embellishments. A folk singer with genuine soul, Chapman proves over and over again that she's also an artist of the first order. (Out tomorrow) KEN CAPOBIANCO...full text |
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| Slantmagazin |
| Offering no real surprises, Tracy Chapman's eighth album, Our Bright Future, finds the acclaimed singer-songwriter tempering the social conscience that has been her trademark with guarded, cautious optimism. Though she's written and performed countless songs with a similar sound and message as "Thinking of You" and "Something to See (No War)," it's hard to fault Chapman for staying within her comfort zone: She knows exactly what her strengths are, and her late-career work shows a more consistent tone and is more subtle, graceful and insightful than that of similar acts like Shawn Colvin and Mary Chapin Carpenter. Though Future rarely rises above the volume of coffee-shop conversation or kicks with anything harder than a slight midtempo shuffle, it's never less than a lovely, pleasant listen. Chapman satirizes modern celebrity culture in the jazz-inflected phrasings of the witty "I Did It All," while "Save Us All" subverts dogmatic religious groupthink in the form of a low-key gospel number. The hopefulness of the album's political songs carries over into its songs about personal relationships, with Chapman impressively capturing multiple emotional shades in the wordless chorus of opener "Sing for You" and keeping her fingers crossed that a prospective lover will find her worth it even as she discloses that "there are strings attached" on standout "Conditional." Chapman's songwriting is as sharp as ever, which makes it all the more unfortunate that the album's production is so lifeless. Still, the fundamental sense of hope that informs the record gives Our Bright Future an of-the-moment timeliness that works to overcome its other shortcomings....full text |
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