Review: Andrea Ross, ‘Moon River’

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.

Why don’t they make movies like this anymore?

I have been rediscovering an old favorite of mine, the first epic film I can remember watching. And I mean REALLY epic. How The West Was Won was filmed and released in Cinerama format in 1962. I first watched it when it was on TV. It has been years since I last saw it, but I’m eagerly awaiting a completely remastered and restored release later this year. And that one just might push me over to get Blu-Ray . . . just as soon as Sony finalizes the format.

But enough of that. I am rediscovering the film through its magnificent score by Alfred Newman. From the opening titles, the score conveys powerfully, over the course of the film running the emotional gammut of fun, adventure, struggle, loss, grief, and sorrow. It is truly an overlooked classic. It was my first favorite film score, even before I knew what a film score was.

Listening through the score and remembering scenes from the film reminds me of the incredible scope that the film had, tracing the saga of an American family through three generations. While the song featured in the film bears echoes of manifest destiny, I think the film is careful not to stereo-type the struggle between the Native American and the pioneer of the move West, portraying both sides rather fairly, if a little idealistically.

HOW THE WEST WAS WON
Lyrics by Ken Darby

Promised land the land of plenty rich with gold
Here came dreamers with Bible, fist, and gun
Bound for land across the plains their wagons rolled
Hell bent for leather that’s how the West was won

Stride by stride they tamed the savage prairie land
Nothing stopped them no wind nor rain nor sun
Side by side these pioneers from every land
All pulled together that’s how the West was won

And they sang of the day when they would rest their boots
In a land where the still waters flow
Where the dreams of a man and wife could put down roots
And their love and the seeds of love would grow
(And grow and grow)

Dream by dream they built a nation from this land
Forged in freedom for every mother’s son
Here it is the beautiful the promised land
We won’t forget them and how the West was won

Please sample a few tracks from the score in my player and then go buy the 2-Disc set if you’re impressed with it as I have always been. If you’ve already listened, check the player again. I’ve added a new track.

Main Title

First Meeting

Come Share My Life

No Goodbye

Finale

Some additional notes on the score:

How The West Was Won was awarded an Academy Award for “Best Recording,” which had a great deal to do with how Alfred Newman produced the score. It was apparently one of the first (if not the first) score recorded by close-mic’ing each individual section of the orchestra, which gives the orchestra that sense of presence, increases the scope of the recording, and allows the listener to easily distinguish between the various parts of the orchestra. Since 1962 this recording method has become commonplace for film score recording, it was very innovative at the time.

Happy Feet Review

I saw Happy Feet this weekend! And I have a thing or two to say about it.

Happy Feet is a wonder of filmmaking, really. The animation is incredible. All the wonder and beauty of Antarctica is captured in each frame. From the grand expansive scenes of (I guess it would be) the Southern Lights to the monstrous arctic blizzards, every detail is beautifully rendered.

The music of the film, for the most part, is a thoroughly enjoyable experience. John Powell’s score does a good job of capturing the mood and accenting the action with exciting and interesting cues. The songs are well performed. Especially Robin Williams’ Spanish rendition of “My Way.” Speaking of which, Robin Williams’ performance is pretty funny all around.

So. From an artistic and technical standpoint, it was worth seeing. Because of the wonderful views, it was worth seeing on the big screen.

It’s too bad the story is a blatantly anti-Christian allegory. Here. I’ll break it down.

Anti-Ecclesiastical

Besides the nasty indifferent humans (aliens) who are polluting the environment and stealing all the fish from the cute little penguins, the villain of the whole set piece is the group of penguin “elders,” and particularly the oldest penguin elder, who speaks with a thick Scottish brogue and uses archaic English in his admonitions like “the Great Wind is that which giveth and taketh away.” No, I’m not kidding. He actually says that.

It seems that there has been a fish shortage recently, and the elders are baffled as to what to do about it. They conclude that rigid conformity to a religious sort of singing ritual is the answer. The Great Wind (which giveth and taketh away) must be displeased with them, so they should sing better, louder, and more religiously.

The main character, Mumbles, dropped as an egg and unable to sing, does not quite fit in. Instead of singing, he dances. This does not fit into the religious practice as prescribed by the great penguin church, and so when his influence grows he is promptly excommunicated.

This subplot is a clear attack against the organized church and the ignorance and bigotry that the all-accepting liberal secular world accuses it of. In fact, the whole eldership of the penguins is a twisted caricature of the church. One might even be tempted to think that the Scottish penguin pastor is a personal slam against John Knox.

“Non-conformity” (revolt against morality) is glorified

Mumbles is different. He can’t sing. And he does this weird little tap dance. It’s different. It must be evil, the elders conclude. “But he’s not hurting anyone!” his defenders say. No matter, he must go. Sure, the particulars of Mumbles’ different-ness is basically innocent. I enjoy tap-dancing as much as anyone. But Happy Feet is no innocent Ugly Duckling story.

With the whole story context of the penguin church and the elders’ insistence that his tap dancing is immoral, Mumbles’ non-conformity is being used to attack any moral standard in society. As if to say, “See? It is all just a matter of being different. If it’s not hurting anyone, it must be okay. There is no moral standard beyond the comfort of your peers. All these ‘differences’ are as innocent as tap dancing.”

Religion vs Science

Mumbles believes that the aliens (humans) are causing the fish shortage. The elders dismiss this as nonsense. There are no such things as aliens, and that is that. After all, “it is the Great Wind that giveth and taketh away.” All use of empirical evidence is lost on the penguin elders, so Mumbles goes off to prove that his theory is true. In the end, science trumps religion, and the elders are exposed as the ignoramuses they are. In fact, they join Mumbles in dancing for the humans.

This is a clear assault against the Biblical account of natural history. “Those stupid Christians, they think God created the universe! When all the empirical evidence indicates evolution. Imagine that.” The implication, of course, is that anyone who believes in a supreme divine Creator is as stupid and blind as the penguin elders in the film.

EDIT: Paragraph on “adulterous penguins” removed. See comments.

Conclusion

So that’s the nature of Happy Feet. It packages a poisonous anti-Christian message into a dangerously cute candy coated form and markets it to children. The included props to environmentalism and illegal immigration are relatively benign compared to what the film is really telling us. Christians should exercise great caution and lots of instruction when allowing their children to view Happy Feet.

The New World (could we please go back to the old one now…?)

An hour and a half into the film, Tim, Matt, and I leaned forward to check the digital reading on the DVD player.  I looked at the back of the DVD case to see what the runtime was.

“Another hour and a half!”  Great.

One more hour and a half of Colin Farrell’s pointless, half-baked, and barely audible monologue interspersed between ridiculously random scenes of frollicking in the fields of Virginia with an unnamed American Indian princess of non-descript age.

Colin Farrell’s character, at least, has a name.  He’s Captain John Smith. So I assume we are meant to simply understand that the Indian princess (played by one Q’Orianka Kilcher) is Pocahantas. Her so-called character is obviously intended to be portrayed as innocent and at one with nature, but instead she comes across as painfully daft and just generally uninteresting.

John Smith gets himself lost in an early scene (and by ‘early’ I mean it only felt like we’d been watching for an hour), and maintains the deer-in-the-headlights look for the remainder of the film, even when he finally arrives back in England.

Christian Bale plays John Rolfe, who Pocahantas eventually marries.  When John Smith’s monologue exits with his return to England, Rolfe takes over.  He does seem to at least know what his own name is, though it would be nice if the viewer was clued in on that count…

But in all honesty, at this point one just wishes the whole thing were already over.

Instead of employing the usual devices of dialog and plot to drive the film forward, director Terrence Malick elects instead to use random shots of scenery, long silences, and unexplained, sometimes incomprehensible actions.  The result is a film that is not about its own story.  It has no emotional arc, and seems to consciously avoid creating one.  Rather than make the viewer feel for the characters of the story, Malick would rather his viewers feel numb.

This end would have certainly been achieved if not for the inexplicable jump cut editing and James Horner’s magnificently inhumane score.  Usually one knows what to expect from Horner.  And admittedly there are moments of the typical Horner self-plagiarism.  These are uncommonly welcome, since the alternative is a very subtle, very annoying theme of a single chord, which is sustained as it grows and grows in volume until you want clap your hands over your years and yell, “AHHHH!!!  Make it stop!”

Sort of like the movie in general, except for the volume part.

Well, I’ll spare you all.  Enough said.  If you are looking for a trial in patience and endurance, this film might be for you.  But I would recommend you try Chinese water torture instead.