| CD-Review: The Look of Love | by Leon Kerkstra | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
After selling more than two million copies of her fabulous album WHEN I LOOK IN YOUR EYES, we had to wait almost three years for her next CD release. It's quite clear that with the release of "The Look of Love", Verve is heading for a larger audience beyond the jazz scene. The album contains a few more popular songs, some nice pictures of Diana Krall and a note from ELTON JOHN on the cover. Off course, in theory there is nothing wrong with aiming for an even larger audience beyond the jazz scene. Unfortunately after hearing just a few seconds of music, it's obvious that the sound quality of the initial release (I certainly hope there will be a reissue soon) is extremely poor. The dynamics have been reduced significantly by compressing the sound and the recording-level is way too high which results in a distorted sound. It's truly unbelievable that a renowned label like Verve releases an album of such a BAD SOUND QUALITY. When paying no attention to the above, you will hear some nice arrangements like we're used to, however the performance is not as elegant and stylish as we would expect. LOVE LETTERS and THE NIGHT WE CALLED IT A DAY are highlights. Burt Bacharach's THE LOOK OF LOVE sounds very fresh, with a beautiful piano solo. Musically a nice album, but maybe the overall commercial influence is just a little too much. It's a pity, because she does not need this. She clearly is already getting all the attention she needs. (Comment: December, 2001: Verve indeed suffered technical problems with the initial release of this album. All copies had to be returned. The recording quality of the new issue is far better. May be the sound is still a little too compressed, but all other flaws aren't present anymore.)
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