Search - Charlotte Church :: Prelude: The Best of Charlotte Church

April B. from COLORADO SPGS, CO
Reviewed on 12/29/2009...

She is an amazing singer.

Tommy N. (tommy) from MONTEBELLO, CA
Reviewed on 10/23/2009...

Even in the youth-conscious era of the turn of the 21st century, there couldn't have been too many best-of compilations issued by 16-year-olds. But Charlotte Church had been recording regularly since she was 12, with a reported ten million albums sold worldwide (including one gold and three platinum certifications in the U.S.), which seems to justify this hour-long stock-taking effort, when you throw in "All That Love Can Be," from the soundtrack to A Beautiful Mind, and, inevitably, four new recordings. Talking sales may be crass when discussing a classical artist, but not a classical crossover artist, and Church (or her advisors) made the decision early that she was going to pursue a career in the popular market that would make use of her voice in public long before some opera company might have gotten around to featuring her. It's a compromised posture, of course, resulting in music that is classical lite leaning toward adult contemporary, the musical niche carved out by Sarah Brightman. No surprise, then, that this set begins with Church's version of "Pie Jesu" by Brightman's old flame, Andrew Lloyd Webber. opera excerpts, celtic airs, spirituals, pop songs, and ersatz classical numbers (e.g., the Josh Groban duet "The Prayer," penned by David Foster and translated into Italian) follow, and Church brings her even-handed, lovely approach to each. Has there ever been a Carmen as calm as hers on "Haba񥲡"? Ordinarily, one might say this is classical music for people who don't like classical music, but it is actually grown-up-sounding music for children, sung, appropriately enough, by a child. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide

Sinead M. (bookworm) from SAN JOSE, CA
Reviewed on 10/17/2006...

great CD

0 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Prelude???? To What???

Pat Jones | USA | 11/27/2002

(1 out of 5 stars)

"The title of this album struck me as a contradiction so I thought I would check it out. A more appropriate name would be "Postcript" As an artist on the way down and out, I can't imagine what would be next other than a long lay-off to get her voice together. Another problem here is that Charlotte gives us too many songs which are from the most recent period when her voice was just a whisper of what it was as a pre-teen. We needed to hear more from her first two albums when she was something of a wunderkid, belting out big-time vocals with a little body. I see this CD as being coveted by only the most die-hard of Charlotte's fans. It really brings us nothing new and reminds us of what happened to her voice through abuse and overuse."

Whose Best??

Eloise Delong | Houston, Tx | 11/26/2002

(1 out of 5 stars)

"A review of the songs in Prelude suggests to me that most were someone elses best and not Miss Church's. Of particular note is the song Pie Jesu which Miss Church claims as her "theme song". In fact, the song was originally written for and became the theme song of Sarah Brightman. A listen to this piece done by Ms Brightman, which is here on Amazon[.com], will also demonstrate that Sarah Brightman's version is vastly superior. The majority of other songs fall into the same category including Bridge Over Troubled Water. Having heard all of Miss Church's CDs, I would have thought that she would have included some traditional Irish songs herein including Danny Boy and Carrickfergus which she performed reasonably well on her 1st and 4th CDs. But she opted to include those songs which others have done previously and in a manner which is vastly inferior to the originals or subsequent renditions.There certainly is a place in music for Miss Church, however you will not find it here in other than traditional Irish Folk."