Heigh Ho, dear adorable Rainbow Tribe, Bobby Patrick, your Rainbow Critic is back on CD-Land to deliver another detailed breakdown of a new music release. So buckle up and get ready, as Bobby continues on the ABOUT record.
This week’s album entry in the BobbyFiles comes from one of the most gifted and beautiful film stars to come out of Jolly Old England (well, Wales) since Olivier himself. Luke Evans (his face and physique wrapped around a bushel of talent), along with everything else, is a most accomplished singer, as the world discovered in turn as Gaston in the live-action remake from Disney’s BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. It turns out, though, dear Bobby readers, that those B&B voices may have told half the story of Luke’s blowjobs. Listening to his latest album, A SONG FOR YOU (his second, in fact, after AT LAST in 2019), we take the full measure of what the man can do, and what he likes to do are ballads…POWER ballads …many of them. With a crisp, clear voice that moves quickly and easily from powerful rock tenor to heartfelt soulful vocals on his soul songs, then to 90s pop love songs with bell tones and emotional aims, occasionally pausing to sing singing Lyric and legato, this man’s voice seems to suit many styles. You may be a fan or you may have only heard his voice in BEAST, but in any case, you will have very nice surprises. In fact, we were surprised right off the bat with its title track, A SONG FOR YOU, where he stretched himself to a voice so high and brilliant that he rivaled just about any other great rock tenor you can think of, and although we found him a little too ornate in its vocalizations near the end, it has been a start shot. Cut number two, YOU RAISE ME UP is definitely NOT one of Bobby’s favorite songs, but Luke’s IS our favorite version of this song that we don’t really like. The sap inherent in the lyrics is dampened by his direct rendition, though the fact that he keeps his SO vocal range high throughout the last 32 bars gives him an excessively “ecclesiastical” sound. However, HORIZONS BLUE (song #3) is so beautifully light and airy…a very nice use of his lead voice throughout.
A word or two needs to be said about Luke’s wonderful taste for guest stars for A SONG FOR YOU. On cut number 5, SAY SOMETHING, Luke is joined by one of our all-time favorite actresses, Oscar winner Nicole Kidman. With this loving farewell duo, we have 2 passionate lovers standing at the crossroads of their sadly inevitable goodbye, begging each other to find a way back, but knowing they can’t. The longing for this one is palpable and bears witness to two of our best actors, singing their desperate emotions from the heart. Luke balances his powerful pipes in response to Nicole’s softer, dreamier choices. However, with song number 10, COME WHAT MAY, featuring Charlotte Church, the balance doesn’t seem to be there too. Now, you never know how recording sessions go, in terms of more than one singer – each artist can record their tracks several days and even thousands of miles apart. In fact, singers entering the studio at the same time to sing with, to, or against each other can be a rare luxury. On SAY SOMETHING, Nicole and Luke seem to be close, as their performances certainly are, but that’s not necessarily the case. With this track, Luke and La Church feel miles apart, but, again, that’s not necessarily the case… His initial instincts at the top are perfect, but then the button power button is pressed by default, and BOOOOOM! – here’s another Power Ballad to accompany the previous four, and the mix of their vocals here just doesn’t sit well with us. Both sing well, and both sing wonderfully on this song, but together it lacks chemistry and ultimately is a struggle for dominance. The final regular track on the album (there are 2 bonus tracks which we’ll talk about in a minute) is EVERYBODY HURTS. Here, the wonderful opening strings give off a tremendous sense of nostalgia, and Luke’s softer vocal tone throughout is he at his most controlled and meaningful, making his final lines one of most beautiful sounds of the album. “But what’s your favorite song from this album, Bobby?” we hear you screaming out there in the desert. Well, my darlings, it may surprise you, but it is his version of an old Welsh song, CALON LÂN (A Pure Heart), a beautiful, melodious and haunting hymn to his native Wales that he sings beautifully. , in Welsh. We don’t know what he says here, but we like the way he says it.
Now on to those bonus tracks – clearly Luke needed a little Christmas, so he’s delivering it with LAST CHRISTMAS and SILENT NIGHT. For LAST, he adopts a slower ballad tempo, but rather than going all out, he switches from his chest voice to his head voice production, filling in the latter, from start to finish, with even more meaning. SILENT is so beautiful in its simplicity and no-frills beauty that it could very well have become Bobby’s favorite version of this song. Those last two songs might feel a bit out of place on this love song album, but it leaves us wanting more for the holidays and made Bobby want to ask Santa for a CD where Luke does his Yule. Either way, whether these songs are incongruous or not, this is the right time of year for them and you should schedule them all into your holiday playlist.
And so, despite the little raindrops that Bobby dropped on this rainbow review, where we added a touch of criticism to this review, LUKE EVANS A SONG FOR YOU, gave a lot of beauty, and c is a singer for whom we have become a real fan and so on…
This one gets 3 ¾ Rainbows Out Of 5 – Put it in your collection today.
You can see and hear everything about A SONG FOR YOU on Luke’s website: HERE
Or put it in your Spotify: HERE
