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Post by lapayin on Jun 17, 2006 14:07:02 GMT -5
Coenraad awesome review. I especially liked your thoughts on Walk Away. I have changed my mind of who it was about from Partick to Rick. Everyone's review has helped me see things in a different light.
So let's discuss.
One of the things I appreciate and admire about Lara is her ability to write or chose songs that are her story. In AWL she let's you into her life, like you are her best friend, taking about intimate things only best friends do. Her honesty and openess in her lyrics (don't forget the voice and charisma) are absorbed deep into my very soul. I found just that theme in what everyone wrote.
Leona - "are you ready to let yourself into the lyrics and let Lara reveal her heart to you. The intimacy of this album can blow you away and strengthen you if you let it into you heart."
Mark - "This is a song that to me is so revealingly and intimately written that I feel as if I should ’look away’ blushingly."
Coenraad - "If you look even deeper into the songs of this album you see that she did not only write about her own life struggles these songs are universal, telling a stories most of us experience in our lives all of the time: pain, struggle, love, sorrow, frustration, the list is never ending."
I think A Wonderful Life means so much to all of us, not because of a blockbuster song that we love or a catchy melody that we constantly hum, but because of what we all said in our reviews, the songs touch us, we can relate to them, they personally mean something to us and they were sung with Lara's trademark - passion and emotion.
Everyone gave AWL an extremely high rating. Not bad for an album that was only sparingly released.
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Post by achebeautiful on Jun 18, 2006 1:23:00 GMT -5
Paula, I want to commend you for putting all of these reviews into perpective and creating enough discussion points to last us a good long while!
As you say so well.....
"So let's discuss."
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Post by S.C. on Jun 18, 2006 16:21:37 GMT -5
Coenraad, that was a very good review. How long did it take you to finish it?...lol
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cppgenius
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Post by cppgenius on Jun 19, 2006 15:19:49 GMT -5
Shavon it took me almost a whole day to complete, but this is what I said after the 9 reveiw, there is no other artist I can write so passionately about and like I also said at the beginning of the review, this album meant so much to me that I could not go through it roughly. It was worth every second of the time. And most importantly I enjoyed it very much. If it wasn't for your great forum, I would not have had this much fun.
And because I'm a bit of a writer and a huge fan of Lara, when I start writing about her I can't stop.
Please excuse me when I take things overboard sometimes, I just can't help it.
;D
Looking forward to an enlightening discussion.
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Post by S.C. on Jun 19, 2006 18:56:18 GMT -5
I am a writer myself so, feel free to write as much as you want about Lara or anything that's on your mind. We won't bite...much....lol...just kidding.
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cppgenius
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Post by cppgenius on Jun 23, 2006 14:24:06 GMT -5
Shavon when you say you're just kidding, you mean that you bite a lot OK it's weekend and it is time for me to add some discussion to this thread. Each of Lara's albums are unique and AWL is no exception. We all love to compare one album with a previous one, and there is nothing wrong with it because both albums were made by the same artist. But an artist does not create a new album because it has something to do with a previous one (yes it may be possible, but I don't think this is something that happens very often). This may be a personal prefference but I am willing to say that I can listen to any of Lara's albums without any knowledge of any of her other albums and still like it very much. Lara said in her promotional interview she had a better idea of what to do when working on an English album and her confidence in AWL is very visible in each and every song. One may feel that the songs portrays Lara's frustrations, yes they do, but each song speaks of a woman with total confidence in what she does. She said that she constantly doubts and this contrasts with what I just said, but this doubt is the doubt of pleasing her audience. When an artist writes a song there is no doubt, you can't doubt something that comes straight from the heart, you can't doubt passion. I say, if the audience doesn't appreciate that passion, that sincerity, then so be it, but it is a very irresponsible way of doing things in a multi million dollar industry. But Lara knew that the vast majority of her market at that time were total musical zombies, not used to interpretation and appreciation of real music. That made her doubtful if her music will have the desired effect on her audience. And maybe that doubt became reality, but if Sony never released AWL in the U.S. (please correct me if I have my facts wrong) it simply means that Lara did not get a fair chance to reach her audience. Would people still have been this negative about this album if Sony approached AWL the same way as Lara Fabian (2000)? My personal opinion: I really don't know. But it has to be said that if more people responded to AWL in a more positive way, you would have been the odd one out if you badmouthed the album, so I think people would have given AWL a second thought before talking bad about it. I feel Lara has put a lot of work into this album. I can just think what she must have gone trough when things did not work out. Why does our best artists have to be at the fate of record companies?
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Post by achebeautiful on Jun 27, 2006 18:54:00 GMT -5
I'm not sure that I know enough about the whole situation to be able to comment on any of this. I agree with you Coenraad that had the the record industry supported this album better it may have had more success.
What I do not know for sure is why the record company chose not to give it stronger support. Lara may have had just as much to do with it as anybody.
She seems to be a very determined woman, with a vision for exactly the way she thinks things ought to be. If there is any suggestion of stepping outside the lines of that vision, it is unthinkable!
I am not putting her down for this. Actually, I like that quality about her. I could really care less about her superstar status, and will gladly take her just the way she is for the rest of her career.
A lot of things change when you reach big time success and overwelming popularity, and more times than not it isn't for the good.
Seems to me that the artists who are continuing to climb their way up stay the hungriest, while those that have reached the top of the mountain have forgotton where it is they came from.
When you listen to AWL, or any of Lara's albums for that matter, you are getting music at its very best. Those songs are coming from deep in the belly, and are sung with one of the most amazing and beautiful voices you will ever hear.
It's hard to ask for much more than that!
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cppgenius
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Post by cppgenius on Jun 30, 2006 15:16:02 GMT -5
Mark I could not have said it better myself. My sister and I discussed the very same thing yesterday. I mentioned that I believe (speculate) that Lara could have been forced by Sony to do things that would have affected her integrity as an artist or even as a person. I also mentioned that most of the superstars get ridden by scandals and become so full of themselves that they do things that is totally out of character (and most of the times immoral things) and it always comes down to three things money, fame and power. Lara's failure with Sony brought her closer to her fans and out of the claws of Sony. Thank goodness she got rid of them.
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cppgenius
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Post by cppgenius on Jun 30, 2006 15:25:43 GMT -5
Another thing that lacked this album (and I know Mark does not care much about it) is music videos. Only one were made and that of No Big Deal. I would certainly have loved to see videos of The Last Goodbye, A Wonderful Life. Conquered and Intoxicated would have made great videos too. I do not long for music videos for this album for interpretation purposes but purely because Lara emotes a song so beautifully. Being able to see her sing these songs would be very special. I've seen her perform The Last Goodbye and does she look stunning during that performance!
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Post by achebeautiful on Jul 1, 2006 10:44:55 GMT -5
I certainly do not want to give the impression that I am against music videos. I enjoy them them as much as anyone.
I also love sports, and as a young child I can remember standing outside with a baseball bat in my hand with the radio beside me listening to the ballgame. Back then they didn't televise many games, and the only way you could stay in touch was either to go to the ballpark or listen on radio.
I used to stand there with my baseball bat and act out in imagination the plays that were being broadcast over the airwaves. A young boy pretending to be his heros!
It is the same way with music videos. I can remember very well how exciting it was to witness the very beginning of MTV! As a music fan, I was so excited for this!
But as time would prove for me, music video began to change the industry as a whole. Before MTV and music video, music was about music.....sounds to fill the sense of hearing, and excite all kinds of passions in the limitless world of imagination and interpretation. Now, Pop and Rock Stars were much more than singers, songwriters, and musicians. Now they were actors as well! The effort to appear in front of a camera somewhat took away from the effort to make great music for many of these artists, in my opinion.
Albums before MTV and music video were always much more conceptual, and made as a whole body of work. All of a sudden, albums were being made for the express purpose of supporting one or two songs released as a music video! Albums suffered greatly in quality.
Everything is so geared to the visual anymore.
Sometimes I love to just put on some favorite music of mine, turn off the lights and close my eyes so that I can just be completely absorbed in the experience of listening. It's a wonderful experience, and produces 'hidden worlds that shine.'
So, with all of that said, I do enjoy a good music video like eveyone else. But at its very best, music is meant for the sense of hearing.
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Post by bward on May 24, 2007 15:51:17 GMT -5
Let me just say that this has to be one of my most favourite albums of Lara's. Yes, I loved the 1st English album, but this one really hits a nerve with me. I find such songs as "I Guess I Loved You", "Intoxicated", "Review My Kisses" and "Walkaway" simply breathtaking and full of so much emotion and meaning.
I think it's a sin that this album was not pushed by Sony. There are many radio friendly songs on this album and I think with the proper promotion it would of done quite well. Again, though, Lara would have to remain in North America to get the recognition she needs.
I do wonder though, if Rick Alison was left as the producer on this album instead of JFL, would we have heard a different sound from Lara? Rick once claimed the songs on this album were to have more of a "rock" edge to them.
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Post by achebeautiful on May 24, 2007 20:14:36 GMT -5
Hey, I think that Bev has made a lot of very interesting discussion points, and I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts about any of the things she has written?
To begin, let's start with Bev's final observation:
"I do wonder though, if Rick Alison was left as the producer on this album instead of JFL, would we have heard a different sound from Lara? Rick once claimed the songs on this album were to have more of a "rock" edge to them."
Anybody have any thoughts about this?
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Post by lapayin on May 25, 2007 12:57:37 GMT -5
Very interesting statement. It's hard to say but my guess would be yes to a different sound if Rick was the producer. But is it what Lara would have wanted? I say no. Lara and Rick where not agreeing much by then. I think Lara wanted to go into a different direction.
Here is an observation. On the album "Nue", of the 13 songs Lara and Rick wrote 9, Lara and or Rick wrote with others 2, and 2 had they had no input. On "A Wonderful Life", of the 12 songs Lara And Rick wrote 2, Lara and or Rick wrote with others 6 and 4 in which they had no input. On "9" of the 11 songs, Lara and JFL wrote 10 and Lara, JFL and other wrote 1.
David has commented that the new Italian album is suppose to be more upbeat. If it's more like "Un Coure Malato" it will be. Personally I think Lara should be a bit more upbeat, but that said, I would like a nice mix of upbeat, power and heart wrenching.
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Post by achebeautiful on May 25, 2007 15:48:17 GMT -5
First of all, much thanks to Bev for starting a great discussion, and to Paula for keeping it going! You two have very interesting input!
I think it's a great possibility that the album would be very different if put into the hands of Rick Alison. What I am not so sure of is if it would be better or not. I love "A Wonderful Life" and am content with it just as it is, with no real need to suppose whether it would be somewhat better if it were made differently. And I'm also not so sure that "somewhat of a rock edge' to it would provide anything more than perhaps greater popularity to a wider audience than her very loyal fan base. All we would probably get is more 'radio friendly' songs, and there are a million albums on the market like that! But there is only one Lara Fabian, and only one "A Wonderful Life"!
Let's not dismiss the awesome songwriting on this album! That said, the less popular, not so 'rock edge' style of music is in my opinion much more complimentay of the content of the songs themselves.
I guess now that you have challenged me to think about it, Bev (and I thank you for it!) I would have to say that I wouldn't trade "A Wonderful Life" for anything else! Not a Rick Alison produced album, or a 'more rock edge sound', or even wider popularity. Like Lara is who she is, this album is what it is! Wonderful.
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Post by bward on Jun 4, 2007 10:34:01 GMT -5
I also love "A Wonderful Life" just the way it is, BUT I do hear the influence on this album of JFL. Especially in "Walk Away" and "Review My Kisses". Lara's beautiful voice just blends in harmony with the music and if you play "9" and you hear the same effect even more on that album, which is not a bad thing at all.
I'm curious to see what the new Italian album will be like since basically Lara no longer has JFL or Rick Allison as producers on this album.
Should prove quite interesting.
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