Alison Moyet Album: “Singles”

SINGLES is a great way to get acquainted (or reacquainted) with Alison's work. She has an amazing voice, bluesy and wailing, that is infinitely more powerful live than on any record. This import version is actually 2 discs - the first disc is her greatest hits collection; the second disc is an 11 song live concert, recorded towards the end of 1995. DISC 1 collects the singles and most accessible tracks from her 4 solo CDs and the 2 Yazoo CDs. The 20 cuts are sequenced in chronological order, pulling the hits and most accessible songs from each CD, including the now-out-of-print "Hoodoo" and "Essex" CDs. (Sadly, these were her best CDs.) Each track is strong, melodic, radio friendly pop. With each album, Alison got more experimental, mixing rock and blues arrangements to create an edgier sound. Later cuts, like "It Won't Be Long", "Ode to Boy", and "Wishing You Were Here" are great examples. This disc also features two non-album tracks, "Love Letters" (a cover of the old Presley tune) and "That Ole Devil Called Love", plus 2 new songs. DISC 2 is a great concert disc which showcases just how powerful her voice can be when not encumbered with studio production. It includes many of her hits, plus great covers of "Chain of Fools" and "There Are Worse Things I Could Do". I wish they had included her live versions of "Rock and Roll" (the Led Zeppelin track) and "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" (In 1994, I saw her perform live, and when she belted "First Time" acapella, it was so strong and pure that it made everyone's jaw drop in the concert hall). As a package, it's worth the extra money you'll spend.

Alison Moyet is a singer and songwriter of rare talent and has graced several genres in her career to date. Using her voice almost as an instrument, Alison adds real warmth to three Yaz tracks. Velvety smooth on the Vince Clarke-penned pop gem 'Only You' and her own compostion, 'Nobody's Diary'. Zesty and feisty on 'Situation', a song she co-wrote. Few singers were able to humanise eletronic music in quite the same way.

The middle section of the album covers Alison's first two solo albums ('Alf' and 'Raindancing'). Commercially, this was her heyday and, in the UK, she was feted as the best pop singer around and rightly ruled the UK charts. Artistically, her best work was yet to come and the 90's singles really show the woman off. Her refusal to compromise may have slowed her chart performances a bit but the quality is there. Listen to 'It Won't Be Long', 'Ode To Boy', 'Falling'.... Gritty, powerhouse vocals over genuinely intelligent lyrics. None of your two-bit Morrissette angst. We're talking color, verve and imagination. The gorgeous ache of her own composition, 'This House'... The real-world romance of 'Wishing You Were Here'.... Then the campy Broadway disco of 'Whispering Your Name'.... The power in her guitar-led version of 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' will lift your soul. I'm telling you, this is great stuff!

Make sure you get the special edition with the 11-track live CD. Subtitled 'No Overdubs', this bonus collection showcases a REAL singer who can pull an audience along with her no matter what. The sheer beauty of 'Dorothy' and the earthiness of 'Getting Into Something' really deliver the goods. Moyet also takes a smattering of cover versions and makes them utterly her own: the smokey late-night jazz of 'Love Letters'... The down-home blues of 'Chain of Fools'... And listen to how she commandeers 'There Are Worse Things I Could Do'.

The great news is that a new album is scheduled for release in January 2001. Hopefully its success will prompt the re-release of her two finest albums to date, 'Hoodoo' and 'Essex'. This 2CD set should tide you over nicely until then.

Alison Moyet proves she is a great singer in any style she chooses.

I really like that this collection includes songs from her Yazoo period as I am a huge Erasure/Vince Clarke fan too. It is a very good colletion of a wide variety of songs and song types, but I think this CD could have benefited by mixing up the sequence more. Other than the first song, The First Time Ever I saw Your Face, they seem to go from oldest to most current, which generally works well, but by the time tracks 9-11 come, I sometimes end up skipping those three as they are less compelling and distinct than the rest of the songs. I think if they were mixed in between some of the other tracks, the CD would flow much better. Over all though, I really like tis CD and have played it a lot! I have become a big fan and will buy more of her CDs soon. I am looking forward to hearing some of her music that was produced after this collection.