Charlotte Church Album: “Prelude...The Best of Charlotte Church [Limited]”

As others have noted, this CD brings nothing new to the table. The "new" songs have the same problem that Enchantment had and that is that she had lost most of her voice when they were recorded. I am very disappointed that something better than this could not have been released after such a disappointment as Enchantment. But maybe this is as good as she will ever be. If so, she needs to look for new musical genres. The ones included herein are not compatible with her voice any longer.

The most positive aspect of this album by Charlotte is that there are an abundance of songs. The most glaring negative aspect is that the song selection brings out the Worst of Charlotte Church. To include Habanera, a song which was written for a Mezzo, and on which Charlotte floundered badly, both on this CD and live, is insanity. Its the last song I thought I would ever see her associated with again. Secondly, to include "The Prayer", a beautiful song, with the brilliant Josh Groban joining for a duet, only serves to exacerbate the fact that Charlotte no longer has the power of voice she once had. The result sounds as if a middle-school vocal student is in a duet with her teacher.

I am also miffed by why Carrickfergus, the one bright spot on an otherwise dull 4th album was omitted from this collection. The inclusion of My Lagan Love serves as somewhat of an offset and the inclusion of the bouncy La Pastorella reminds us of just how far Charlotte dared to proceed down the road of Opera.

While Pie Jesu remains her theme song, I believe that she would be better off leaving it alone seeing that her voice is no longer able to generate that level of high-octave volume.

All things be considered,including her age at the time, in my opinion, she would have been better off, re-issuing Voice of an Angel with a few added tracks, as for all practical purposes, that was The Best Of Charlotte Church.

In most "Greatest Hits" type albums, you will see a progression from an artists raw beginnings to a hightened finish or point in their career. However, in the case of Charlotte Church, we see just the opposite. From an initial album where she showed so much promise as a 12-year-old, possessing the volume to sing un-amplified to an audience of 5000, we hear "progress" into her 2nd and 3rd albums where, despite better song selections, she demonstrates no improvement as her lack of emotion, vocal range, and vocal control become painfully conspicuous. Finally, in the album Enchantment, we find that she has lost that volume which made her so unique and now she is relegated to little more than a choir girl. The one song from that album, where she could still shine, Carrickfergus, is left out of this compilation, leaving only evidence of how far she has fallen.

The album is best described as a documentary of how a promising career was allowed to disintegrate and an artist who just doesn't seem to care. This CD is recommended for historical value only. Her first album, Voice of an Angel, is the only one which can justify any type of a positive rating.

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.

Having listened to all of Charlotte's albums and having read all of her reviews, I'm surprised that this mix of songs was compiled for release. Charlotte has many faults and few virtues now. And in this CD, we see too many of the faulted songs or genre's of music. She no longer has the power or volume to sing opera. She does not have the vocal control to sing classical properly and she does not have the range to sing pop. You need to be more of a mezzo to do that and she had demonstrated via Habanera that she cannot perform at those octaves. What this leaves is her ability to sing traditional folk songs; specifically Irish Folk, which may be attributed to the Irish in her. She did a great job with Danny Boy (where I first saw her sing on TV)and Carrickfergus was also well done. My Lagan Love is another example of how well she comes across in this area. However, both Carrickfergus and Danny Boy are left out of this album. Charlotte, her label, and the listening public would have been much better served by an album of Irish/Celtic Folk songs. To have us all look at again, songs which she is at best, marginally qualified to sing, are not in anyones best interest.