Search - Jane Olivor :: First Night

A darkly and enchanting evening with a songbird

Thomas Lapins | Orlando, Florida USA | 10/11/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I went to several Jane Oliver concerts in the 70's. For this young man she was a totally new kind of experience. She did music in a way that I had not heard before but somehow knew of. "First Night" and "Turn Away" are two powerful and poignant ballads. I'll not play a Jane Oliver CD for months and then get into the mood to hear her. All the intensity of hearing Jane for the first time comes back instantly, and I wonder why I haven't been playing her music all along. I'm not as thrilled by Jane's "up" songs as I am by her ballads. Her re-make of "Better Days" is terrible. This song was so beautifully done by Melissa, and had so much potential here. Of course "Vincent" and "Some Enchanted Evening" are blistering in lyrics, vocals and arrangements. Here she becomes that eternal, elusive songbird one cannot get enough of. These two songs came from deep within a hungry, hurting soul with great capacity and in need of great expression. Jane has been said to be the American "Piaf". I don't like either Piaf's voice or style. When Jane is trying to be "French" and "light" she reminds me of Piaf. However, when she becomes that darkly and enchanting songbird of "Vincent" she soars on her own wings, and needs no comparisons to Piaf. If Jane is the American "Piaf", then she is the Piaf I hear in Elaine Paige's studio "Piaf" (Jane should do this kind of recording). I so wish she would record again."

Thrilling Pop Singing of the Highest Calibre

Greg | New York City | 06/16/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There is more than enough room to argue that Jane Olivor's First Night is the finest pop album ever made by a female singer. Olivor may be too dark/intense for some, but for those who love divas in the lineage of Piaf, Garland and Streisand, there can be no better choice than she. It's obvious that Olivor is thrilled to be singing and this comes across in every song. Her rendition of "Some Enchanted Evening" totally reworks the song and makes it her own, forever, spinning you off into the heavens. I wish Columbia had done a better job of mastering this superb, astonishing album, which, by the way, won Stereo Review's Album of the Year in 1976."

A truly special album from a truly special artist.

Boz | 07/06/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A wonderful album...perhaps her best work. "Some Enchanted Evening" will move you to tears."