Inamorata
Let's get one thing clear right away: Charlee Brooks has an
amazingly beautiful voice. She could probably read Facebook status updates and
make it sound gorgeous (and that would be quite the accomplishment). Inamorata is a fitting arena for
displaying her crystal clear tone, her impressive range, her pipes, and more
than anything else, her emotionally rich way with English lyrics. Paired as she
is here with both originals and covers, backed by consummate musicians under
the leadership of one of the true legends in New Age music, David Arkenstone,
and her singing soars to new heights of magnificence. Yeah, a bit hyperbolic,
but when she gets into the meat of a song such as "Did I Make the Most of
Loving You?" I get serious chills.
I am not always a fan of an operatic style of singing, and I
wouldn't describe Brooks' vocals that way, although I can imagine some will
hear them as such. I think her vocal motif is more along the lines of the classic
pop singers through the years who are/were accompanied by orchestras. She never
reaches for bombast, even when she was going full tilt on high notes. It's a
rare gift to be able to sing the way she does and performing these types of
songs and not come off as melodramatic or schmaltzy, yet she pulls it off in
grand fashion.
Now, when addressing David Arkenstone's role in this
wonderful album, one cannot overstate his talent on guitar and piano/keyboards,
but that is not the most important element he brings to the party. His
arrangements are fantastic (much like they were on my favorite album of his, Sketches from an American Journey). The
strings are never overblown, instead always serving as the perfect complement
to Brooks' singing. Each of the original's melodies are beautifully constructed
and I never heard anything that I would characterize as a musical cliché or
overwrought.
Moving on to the music itself, it needs to be stated that Inamorata is not at all a "new age
vocal" album, a la Enya, so if you are a long time fan of Arkentsone's
work on Narada and some of his later discs, you may find yourself scratching
your head. This is "classic" orchestral pop music, but you need to
understand what I refer to as "pop" is not lightweight
"pop/rock" but the kind of music that great "pop" singers
have performed through the years starting in the '40s and '50s (or, maybe a
better example would be to compare it to movie musicals or Broadway show
tunes). My problem with the latter comparison is that I think this is better
than a lot of recent show tunes in that it avoids being overly theatrical, i.e.
it achieves a "big" sound without sacrificing, for lack of a better
term, intimacy. I think this must be due to Brooks' voice and how it was
recorded. And please, let's not compare Brooks to Celine Dion (no offense to
the latter meant). While the back of the album reads "Music Style: Easy
Listening" (and perhaps for some folks, it is), that may chase some of you
away (your loss, trust me), I cringe at giving it that label. So, we're left
with referring to it as "orchestral cinematic pop vocal," which may
be a mouthful but at least it does the music and singing justice from my
perspective.
I'm no lyricist so I can't "review" the songs'
words (only two tracks are instrumentals), but for whatever it's worth, I think
they (i.e. the originals) are well written and, surprisingly (for pop music),
lacking in triteness. It should be obvious that the "theme" of the
album is love and romance (the album title means "…a person's female
lover…a woman with whom one is in love") and the songs capture the most
powerful emotion in a variety of ways. The covers are all well done, especially
Brooks' version of the theme from Downton
Abbey, titled "Did I Make The Most Of Loving You?" which also
features one of the album's best orchestral scores and arrangements by
Arkenstone. One of the two instrumentals is the theme to Game of Thrones so you know I am down with that (it's one of
my favorite TV shows of all time). Of the originals, I don't know that I can
single out a favorite, as that would take many playings to whittle it down.
Stunningly well-produced, flawlessly engineered and mixed, and
featuring superb orchestral performances and arrangements, as well as spotlighting
one of the finest female vocalists in the current genre of pop music—well, what
more could you want in an album? Inamorata
may not appeal to hardcore Arkenstone fans, since it lacks the fantasy
mysticism of the recent Arkenstone-Brooks collaboration Lovéren, and it bears little resemblance to his
instrumental discography (or at least his earlier works), but I imagine that
was the intent. Inamorata is an album
that allows one to fully appreciate Brooks' magnificent voice as well as
Arkenstone's many talents for arranging and performing. I can't think of a
better gift for a paramour than this ode to romantic love.
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