Lara’s first English album is the best English one she’s made so far. But showing no disrespect to A Wonderful Life, her English debut is one of a kind. It is really sad when I see all the promotion videos, all the live performances and all the effort that went into this album and at the end it did not realize for her English career as Lara would have liked. Still I believe that she gained an enormous amount of experience with this album, something that’s only good for her future releases and you can already see that maturity in her second English release A Wonderful Life. There is a lot of high expectations for her next album due early next year, but I’m sure Lara will not disappoint her fans, she is a world class artist. Now a song-by-song analysis.
AdagioIt is really hard to do a review on a song this great. The melody for this song was composed more than 300 years ago by Tomaso Albinoni, born in 1671 in Venice. This specific melody was lost during World War II with the bombing of the Dresden and the Dresden State Library. In 1945, Remo Giazotto, a Milanese musicologist traveled to Dresden to complete his biography of Albinoni and his listing of Albinoni's music. Among the ruins, he discovered a fragment of manuscript. Only the bass line and six bars of melody had survived, possibly from the slow movement of a Trio Sonata or Sonata da Chiesa. It was from this fragment that Giazotto reconstructed the now-famous Adagio, a piece which is instantly associated with Albinoni today, yet which ironically Albinoni would doubtless hardly recognize.
You can read more about this at the following link.
www.baroquemusic.org/bqxalb.html. It was always hard for me to understand why this song has always been so powerful to me. It has so much passion and now it makes even mores sense that the song delivers more power in Italian because the melody was composed by an Italian, performed 3 centuries later by one of the world’s best vocalists also with Italian blood running through her veins. The most impressive for me about this song is that a 300-year old melody sounds so modern and is so appealing to modern people.
If you listen close to Lara’s lyrics you will find pieces of the history of the melody, this is so amazing.
“Nothing more to explain, I know all that remain is a piano that plays”. I’m not a musician, but I guess the little piano part that plays when she sings this lyrical line is the six bars of melody that were found by Giazotto. If you look at the video you also understand why they used an opera stage, ancient statues and paintings. These statues and paintings come to life because people like Giazotto and Lara gave life to an old lost song.
But this is not the only meaning Adagio has. To be honest, the meaning of the lyrics can be never ending. There are two meanings that are portrayed very graphical by the lyrics. The first one is a desire for that special person in life that you still have to meet. You don’t know where to find that person, you don’t know how to reach that person, but you know that person exists you hear the person’s voice in the wind, you feel that person under your skin within your heart and your soul you wait for that person, you wait for an Adagio. I’m not sure when Lara and Rick started to have problems, but we all know how much Rick meant to her. I’m not going to go into Lara’s personal life, I have no right to, but the following lines might give us a clue:
“Be the only man to say
That you believe, make me believe
You won’t let go”The second meaning relates to Lara’s desire to become a mother. When she sings “You’ll be in my arms “ on the video she holds her arms like when you would hold a baby. This song can also portray a mother’s desire to have or to see her son again.
I don’t know if any of you saw Lara’s performance on the Tout Lara Fabian Concert where she performed Adagio backed by a huge orchestra, I love orchestral music and this performance of Adagio is so beautiful that it really drives me to tears when I hear and see this performance. Magical music.
This song is so beautiful, filled with so much passion and glory, so much power and with such rich history that I can’t give it any other score than full marks. 10/10
Part Of MeThere is so much of Lara in this song. Part Of Me has a lot in common with Unbreakable from her album A Wonderful Life. What we see on the outside is not what exists on the inside. It will take a very special person to be able to see the little space in your heart and you will only allow that special person to do that. This song speaks of people who think they know somebody, but really don’t have a clue what’s going on inside of you. Adagio a song that shows Lara opening up to her audience is followed up by a song that warns us, don’t think you know me because you don’t. Is this maybe also a song of warning to record companies: “Don’t change me or portray me as someone who I’m not.” I think Paula mentioned a while ago Lara’s use of the line “These arms are my heart” which was really interesting to me that her heart is Lara’s arms (weapons) but you can also see her heart as her arms, opening up or concealing her heart. Now think of this how can Lara’s heart be her weapon. It is her heart of gold that’s winning audiences and fans all over the world. This very weapon also hit me in the heart because I’m now hooked on this woman’s music. Don’t you just love her use of metaphors? Lara seems to love repetition of lyrics and most of the times at the ending. A lot of her songs have this characteristic. This may not be appealing to everyone, but I believe this is Lara’s way of emphasizing a part of a song that’s very important to her. 8/10
Givin Up On YouThis is amazing. Three songs in a row that are all about love. This song was also featured in Dawson’s Creek I believe. Lara really rocked the world with her music, influencing both the music and movie industry. This song has some very striking lyrics and the central theme of the song I believe is something that we all want in our relationships, honesty. No one wants to be kept in the dark or being held on a thin line. Be honest from the start or I will give up on you. I’m not going to waste my time. I think this is the message Lara wants to bring home to her audience with this song. 8/10
You Are My HeartDid I say three. Lets make that four love songs. I love the use of the piano in this song. It sets the mood for the song beautifully. The song speaks of being hopelessly in love with someone, loosing your heart on someone else and being hopelessly lost when you loose that person. Lara’s songs are so relevant to our lives, it is so amazing to experience her music. Powerful lyrics combined with powerful musical excellence. I love her performance of this song with Dorian Sherwood on the stage of Baden Baden. I wish Lara and Dorian can make more duets together. 8/10
I Am Who I AmLike Lara said so many times. If this album wasn’t self titled then this would have been the title of the album. I love the Spanish sounds (especially the guitar) used in this song, Lara makes great Spanish songs. I also like Lara’s “bad-ass” attitude with this song. I’m glad Lara sticks to what she says and that she does not change just to make other people happy. This shows that Lara has true character and makes her music so much more authentic. She plays no games with her audience, what you see is what you get, nothing more nothing less. This song is a smashing hit, the anthem of this album, but also the anthem of Lara’s life and all her music. This was the message she wanted to send to the world when she made this album and I believe that message came through very good, I believe that if it didn’t she would have had several more English albums by now, but albums what would not have contained any Lara. Super score 10/10.
PS. Isn’t Lara just gorgeous in the music video?
To Love AgainI just love it when Lara ports her French music to English and sometimes she does a great job with the contents of the original song, translating it with almost the same meaning to English. It is always nice to see that my favorite musician also went trough the same pain and sorrow that I also went through in my life. When you long so much for someone, that person being in your thoughts the whole day, every moment but so far out of reach, framed against the sky and you are longing for the day to love again. A very powerful song. 9/10
You’re Not From HereThis is a song that is not from here. I love the use of the wider range of music instruments used in this song, Guitar, piano, violins, it sounds like there is a whole orchestra playing the music. This music is so beautiful when the song reaches its climax near the end, that it gives you goose bumps all over your body. The music is complemented by wonderful and powerful lyrics. It is amazing to see how much power and passion is present in this album. The songs are so strong so true so sincere and You’re Not From Here is no exception. Superb song 10/10.
Till I Get Over YouThe order of the songs on this album is very carefully selected. Just when you feel that you hade enough of serious and deep songs, Lara throws this funky song in between just to give you a little break from the ballads and powerful songs. If you listen to the lyrics you find it strange that Lara used a very up-beat melody for a song that portrays pain and hurt. But I guess Lara wants to show us with this that you need to stay strong during tough times like a love disappointment because you will make it. 9/10.
Love By GraceAfter the quick break of the previous song, we’re back the power ballads and passionate songs. Love By Grace also has so much classical elements to it, the piano and violins creating the right mood for a lovely song with superb lyrical contents. The song speaks of the guilt you most of the times have when you realize you made a mistake but that it is too late to repair the damage. The car that could not be turned around speaks of the doubt but also speaks of your own pride being too important instead of swallowing your pride and saving something that is worth it. The phone booth that could not be found portrays the guilty feelings and the disappointment when you realize that it is all too late to turn around now.
“I didn’t come here to lose”This lyrical line can be interpreted in two ways, losing the person in question or your pride being the most important again and you don’t want to be the one to give in. And this is the attitude sometimes of both parties. It is so useless to be like this, if people just can learn to be to least at times we will have less problems in this world. So some love, love by grace. 10/10.
Yeliel (My Angel)Lara spoke about this song on her PBS special. An angel materialized through another human being who tells you this isn’t right or you should not be doing that. She mentioned in a biographical interview that Rick Allison has been like a big brother to her telling her when she does something wrong or when something isn’t right. I guess that this song is dedicated to Rick, Lara’s angel in life, that person who protected her through her life and her career.
“Why do I love
Why do I hate and die
Where do these things all lie
I don’t know why I cry”I never thought about these things because I know God is the provider of everything, but it is interesting to think why do we experience these emotions.
This is a very lovely song. A lot of truth contained within it. 8/10
I Will Love AgainAlthough it was The Last Goodbye that really introduced me to Lara’s music, it was this song that really pushed me to find out more about this lovely voice. I had songs like Humana and a couple of other songs, I can’t really remember before I discovered this one, but once I listened to this one I was totally hooked on Lara’s music, it is a nice song to use to introduce someone to Lara’s music, or just mention the artist who sings I Will Love Again to a non-fan and they will know who you are talking about. This is not my favorite song because it has been on the Top-10 music charts and because it is a true pop and dance song. It is not my favorite because it’s the only song they play on radio here in South Africa. To be honest, I can’t really explain why this song is my favorite song, it is more of a chemical thing than anything else. This song just pushes the right buttons, all the versions, remixes and ballads. I guess one of the reasons might be the fact that you can do so many things with this song like you can see with all the different versions of it. I love this song so much that I compiled my own remix version of the music video (the one with the elevator and music club). I even assigned an instrumental version of the song as the ring tone to my mobile phone.
Ok back to the song itself. I love it to watch Lara perform the song live, because she gives so much meaning to it when you see her dance all over the place while performing the song. She performs the song with so much joy and passion that you can’t help falling in love with her music. To Love Again, Till I Get Over You and I Will Love Again have all the same meaning. Loosing love but looking forward to find new love and not to look back. I love this song so much that I there is no score that can indicate its success for me, so I’ll give it 20/10
PS. Strange that my favorite song performed by Lara is one that she did not write herself. But that is maybe why I can say it is my favorite, because it is way too hard to choose a favorite from the songs written by her.
Broken VowWho heard Josh Groban perform this song? I wish that Josh and Lara can make some music together some time, they will make a good team. Every time Lara writes with Walter Alfanasieff we get a masterpiece. Broken Vow is one of them. I enjoyed the performance of Broken Vow on From Lara With Love very much. Again the orchestra and Lara’s magical voice makes a perfect combination. She should do more songs with choirs and orchestras in the background. Lara sums it up pretty nice when she says the song is about betrayal and forgiveness I once wondered where does the song speaks of forgiveness but then I found the following verse:
“I close my eyes
And dream of you and I
And then I realize
There is more to life than only bitterness and lies
I close my eyes
I’d give away my soul
To hold you once again
And never let this promise end”I believe Lara realizes what it means to give your soul away. Your soul belongs to God and to abandon that for someone else is the ultimate but a very dreadful price to pay. But this is just a way to illustrate how important this person was in her life.
This is a wonderful song to conclude a wonderful album 10/10.
There is so much more to say about this album and I will post my thoughts as I remember what I wanted to say, things had been a bit rough and I forgot most of my ideas by now. This is great album and I give it an overall 9/10. Lara started her music and European career with a self-titled album and see where that career is now. She started her English career with a smashing album. I’m sure there is still a great English future laying ahead for our wonder girl.
I’d like to conclude my review with a quote from her Thanks section in the album booklet that really moved me:
“TO RICK ALLISON: Vita, if I had to give a name to this story, I would call it “A Passion For Passion.” You are IT: you are my music forever. I love you. (Did you notice you come right after God?)”Lara said in one of her interviews that Rick told her when they did this record that they will go to Paris and just kick the Eiffel Tower and make this happen and they will go to the States and kick the Statue of Liberty and make this happen and that was the most important thing to Lara. Rick has been a great motivation and mentor in her career. Many people don’t feel the same but I’m really sad that their roads separated from each other.
I posted my review before I read any of your reviews. It is interesting to see now that I've read the other that we agree on a lot of things, but that I have very different views on some of the songs. This creates posibilities for many different discussions
