Search - Karen Akers :: If We Only Have Love

Passionate theatre songs sung by extraordinary cabaret artis

Mary Whipple | New England | 09/03/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Karen Akers has more power in her little finger than many stars have in their whole bodies and a rich, full alto which she can manipulate from a whisper to a wail. In this album of passionate theater songs, all of them star turns, she exerts enormous control over her music, often deliberately reining in her power in favor of more subtle interpretations and some great acting.



"Patterns," from Baby, is a song which showcases these qualities, as she modulates her voice and varies her interpretations of this unusual melody to match the subject matter, her piano accompaniment by Don Rebic enhancing her vocal patterns. In "A Sleepin' Bee," with its lyrics by Truman Capote and music by Harold Arlen, Akers is breathless with happiness, creating a dreamy, romantic mood. Both of these songs are "story songs" in which Akers communicates intimate thoughts to her audience in story-like fashion.



Three songs which she made her own during her appearance in the Broadway show Nine are among the best in the album. In "My Husband Makes Movies" she is a wife of twenty years whose marriage to a movie maker has palled, after she has, regretfully, given up her dreams of becoming an actress "long ago, someone else ago." "Be On Your Own" a song of liberation from the same moviemaker is her most passionate song, while "In a Very Unusual Way," a song of reconciliation is her most tender and heartfelt, filled with variations in tempo and volume.



The album is uneven, however. "Try to Remember" and "Send in the Clowns," while fine songs, are standards by now, and Akers's treatment of them is not unique. Two from West Side Story--"Somewhere" and "I Have a Love"--are similarly old and overly familiar. The conclusion, Jacques Brel's "If We Only Have Love," however, sung in her perfectly accented French (a second language for her), is gorgeous, a fine ending to this passionate album.



The biggest surprise here is that the piano by Don Rebic overpowers Akers (a seeming impossibility, given the power of her voice) on several tracks--"My Childhood" and "My Husband Makes Movies" are two--and I can't tell if this is a problem with mixing or with the arrangements themselves. Overall, this is an album of beautiful and varied cabaret songs, showcasing Akers's fine acting ability and interpretative skill, often quite intimate and confessional, with a few overly familiar standards added to the mix. n Mary Whipple

"

Absolutely superb

notmesodonoteventhinkso | new york, new york USA | 06/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is Karen Akers at her most stark, sincere and stunning. She has never sounded better, or affected the listener more."

Great pipes, somewhat ordinary interpretations

Ms. Antoinette P. Burnham | Washington, DC USA | 06/20/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Karen Akers has earned and deserved the respect of the Broadway fan, and this is an honorable though not groundbreaking release with a 100% theater sensibility.The songs are selected on the basis of their emotional intensity, and she does fine delivering them. It is, in fact, a pleasure to indulge in an audio CD where the talent is not all in the mixing board. But her delivery is straight ahead, and the arrangements are the conventional ones. I don't get a sense of a personal interpretation of these songs -- one much different than would be delivered center stage, fitting in with the rest of the original cast production."