Classical Editor: Rob Barnett
 

Music Webmaster
Len Mullenger: Len@musicweb-international.com

Save around 22%
with these retailers



UTE LEMPER - Punishing Kiss
Songs by Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, The Divine Comedy, Philip Glass, Tom Waits, Scott Walker, Kurt Weill

DECCA 466 473-2 [59.63]


Set aside the striking leather-clad Lemper-photo-fest that is the booklet (heavens - reminds me of Karajan's posed photos dominating his late 1970s DG Beethoven symphonies box) and you are left with a populist cross-over album with some (achieved) aspirations towards the cabaret. The songs anthologise a boundary-less song landscape and use texts which sidle up to intellectual satisfaction. Lemper is great at sardonic, furious and bitter - sounding (and looking) a little like Annie Lennox. The bland multi-tracked Passionate Flight - soft of heart and soft of head - can be skipped. Essential Lemper is to be found in Tango Ballad (Weill) as well as the sullen suffering of The Case Continues (Neil Hannon and Joby Talbot - best track). The accompaniment is orchestral with electronics, synthesisers, organ and guitar depending on the song. They are quite varied from the boozey back streets of some Argentine bar (The Part You Throw Away) to Scott Walker's Scope J is minimalist and drifts Ophelia-like in a cooling hashish dream. In Split and Tango Ballad Lemper is joined by the tobacco auburn voice of Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy). There are quite a few tracks that are heavily seventies (Split for example). Elvis Costello's Punishing Kiss smokes and drifts drowsily in an alcoholic haze and then goes for 1960s metropolitan commercial jazz. This is the sort of album that anyone who has the classic recordings of Marion Montgomery (remember her cabaret recitals with Richard Rodney Bennett at the Maltings, Snape?) and Cleo Laine (strong recall of this singer in Tom Waits' Purple Avenue) will appreciate strongly. The tango and bandoleon are the spiritual begetters of You Were Meant For Me nicely introduced by Lemper singing as if from an ancient scratched LP and sliding into the full modern sound. Full texts provided as well as Ute Lemper's introduction.

Reviewer

Rob Barnett


Reviewer

Rob Barnett


Reviews from previous months


Reviews carry sales links but you can also purchase from:

Return to Index