Awenydd

When Andrea sings . . . my heart melts. How could it not?

I discovered Andrea Ross rather by accident. I believe Amazon recommended her album to me several months ago after I had viewed something by Hayley Westenra. Andrea’s album had just been released exclusively in the UK, and the Amazon price tag was $45. I took a pass on it in spite of the intriguing samples I heard on her website. I saved a link, however.

Last week I was cleaning out my computer and ran across the link. Who is Andrea Ross? I wondered, and why had I bookmarked her link? That took me to her website for the second time, where I rediscovered her. This time, with the price of the album half of what it used to be, I couldn’t pass it up.

I found her voice entirely captivating, and she has a great story to go along with her sparkling persona. Andrea played the title role in Annie at age 11; at age 14 she was “16 going on 17” in The Sound of Music. When she was 13 she sent a karaoke demo tape to Andrew Lloyd Webber. That led directly to her first record contract with Universal at age 15 and a starring role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s latest musical, Whistle Down the Wind.

Listening to her sing, one can hear immediately what Andrew Lloyd Webber recognized in her. She has a very mature vocal style for her age (or any age). Her diction is perfect, her voice has depth and richness, while losing none of its innocence. She draws on her stage acting experience, giving her delivery a varied spectrum of emotion and expression.

That would be more than enough to seal the deal as a singer, but beyond all that, Andrea also happens to be a remarkably beautiful girl. Visually, her performance absolutely glows with a tender and effortless grace. It’s a stunning combination that one doesn’t often find. I could go on about it, but I won’t. See for yourself. Check out my sidebar media player (I have 9 of her songs on the playlist) and the linked YouTube videos.

Unfortunately, Andrea’s album Moon River suffers from inconsistent recording quality and lackluster mixing and mastering. It ranges from “quite good” to “what were they thinking?”

Andrea’s voice sometimes gets lost in the mix, with the orchestra or the background choir drowning her out—not because her voice is too quiet or weak, but because the levels on her track have been inexplicably dropped relative to the other tracks. This is especially apparent in “You Raise Me Up.”

Sometimes the processing on her vocal track is tastefully subtle, allowing the listener to hear her voice as it really is (as in “Learn To Be Lonely”), and at other times a rather ugly and artificial-sounding reverb plate DSP has been applied (as in “You Raise Me Up”), which is a shame, since her voice does not need to be covered by any processing. The most I would apply to it is perhaps a very light convolution reverb DSP just to add some “real” space.

Despite its many flaws, Moon River is a more-than-worthwhile album simply because of Andrea. It is still a UK exclusive album (even though Andrea is a Boston resident), but hopefully she’ll be brought to the attention US audiences soon, especially after her US tour with Whistle Down the Wind, which finished last September.

I’ll comment on what I think about this later, and what exactly might be the implications of such a reading, but just wanted to throw the material out for preliminary reference:

Eurepides’ Medea:

“Ah, me! a wretched suffering woman I! O would that I could die!”

“Oh, oh! Would that Heaven’s levin bolt would cleave this head in twain! What gain is life to me? Woe, woe is me! O, to die and win release, quitting this loathed existence!”

“This one brief day forget thy children dear, and after that lament; for though thou wilt slay them yet they were thy darlings still, and I am a lady of sorrows.”

Seneca’s Medea:

“Why, soul, dost hesitate? Why are my cheeks wet with tears? Why do anger and love now hither, now thither draw my changeful heart? A double tide tosses me, uncertain of my course; as when rushing winds wage mad warfare, and from both sides conflicting floods lash the seas and the fluctuating waters boil, even so is my heart tossed. Anger puts love to flight, and love, anger. O wrath, yield thee to love.”

“Why dost thou delay now, O soul? Why hesitate, though thou canst do it? Now has my wrath died within me. I am sorry for my act, ashamed.”

“What, wretched woman, have I done? wretched, say I? Though I repent, yet have I done it!”

Romans 7

“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate . . . So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.”

“For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.”

“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”