| Various Artists - Lilith Fair: A Celebration of Women in Music |
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| Music Disc Reviews Audio CD | |
| Written by Jason Karsh | |
| Tuesday, 28 April 1998 | |
Arista Records | Performance 5.5 | Sound 6.5 | Sifting through the hours and hours of recordings in an effort to produce this album must have been almost overwhelming. Perhaps this is the reason why this is what was finally released. Yes, there is a song featuring Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, and the Indigo Girls, but other than that these are two CD's which never feature the same artist twice. Personally, I think I see why the choice to do this was made. Sure, you could fill CD 1 with all the big names (Paul Cole, Lisa Loeb, Suzanne Vega, Joan Osborne, Sarah McLachlan, Shawn Colvin, Tracy Bonham, Emmylou Harris, Meredith Brooks), perhaps you could even give them each more than one track. But if you do this and leave CD 2 to the unknown artists, don't you run the risk of no one listening to that second CD? Sure you do, but my theory is if you're going to take the chance and put all these virtual unknowns on the album anyway, why hedge your bet and wedge them in between the big names? Why make them share a podium? Well, hindsight's always 20-20, and since I'm not getting even half a point on the sales from this thing, my opinion probably doesn't matter much to the big wigs in charge of this baby. What does matter is that some of the recording on this album is horrible (The Cardigans' 'Been It' sounds particularly bad, but it isn't alone). In general, there is surprisingly little to rave about from this album, even the normally brilliant Sarah McLachlan is underwhelming on the over-saturated 'Building A Mystery.' The only noticeable stand out is Lisa Loeb's 'Falling In Love,' but as impressive and moving as this song is, but it is desperately out numbered by the mundane and the uninspired. Like this article? Bookmark and share with any of the sites below.        |
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