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Track Listings
| 1. There's A Rugged Road |
| 2. The Kiss |
| 3. The Pearl |
| 4. Down Where The Valleys Are Low |
| 5. The Vigilante |
| 6. Soldier Of The Heart |
| 7. The Phoenix |
| 8. When The Bridegroom Comes |
| 9. The Donor |
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Vinyl
Heart Food is the second of two albums Judee Sill recorded in the early 1970,s. It was actually released in 1973 but suffered from poor sales and during the recording to it's follow up Sill abandoned the recording sessions and disappeared. A long tine drug user, news eventually surfaced in 1979 of her death from a cocaine and codeine overdose. A collection of those long lost recordings is to be released under the ironic title, considering her fate, "Dreams Come True". But when you listen to her music you can understand the title, for this is some of the most beautiful, pure, dare I say it spiritual music you will ever hear.
The spiritual thing isn't as hokey as you might think as Sill,s lyrics obsess over alchemy , philosophy and theosophy but it's the wonderful melodies and Sill,s unaffected untainted singing that really make this album so special. The songs arrangements have been compared to Joni Mitchell twinned with Bach but a song like "Soldier of Our Heart" has a gospel feel while "When the Bridegroom Comes" is Laura Nyro with an added melodic edge. "The Donor", an audacious multi harmonic epic backed by sparse piano, wouldn't sound out of place on Gene Clark's wondrous "No other". "There's a Rugged Road" has gliding pedal steel and see sawing fiddle. "The Kiss" is a piano led ballad of such exquisite poise and melodic delicacy that every time Sill sings the songs killer dipping hook your stomach flip flops and the goose bumps on your arms start weeping. It's backed by a string arrangement worthy of Nick Drake which is nice because that's someone else she's been compared to. If you ever do a compilation tape for an object of affection, put "The Kiss" next to "Northern Sky" and they will be yours for ever....if you want them to be. Actually "The Pearl "wouldn't go amiss either, another supremely lovely song which though fuller of tempo has a wonderful swooping string arrangement. There is a soulful aura about "Down Where the Valleys Are Low" with the gospel atmosphere of its backing vocals while "The Vigilante" sees Sill really let her voice go, her vocals pirouetting seamlessly along the pedal steel and harmonica. Why aren't contemporary singers capable of singing with this level of unbridled clarity? Instead of warbling like they've got the hiccups or a tape worms head butting their tonsils.
This is some of the most scorching brilliant music ever recorded. When it's playing you want to rush round forcing other people to listen to it and it makes just about everything else you've heard seem irrelevant. (Yes....even "Hats" or "Abbey Road") I can understand how Sill ended up like she did as it must have been heartbreaking to be making music as sublime as this and getting ignored. Judee Sill obviously never got the food her heart desired. Luckily we get her music. As Jim O, Rourke who has mixed "Dreams Come True" said: "If people sang this stuff in Church, a lot of us might still be there."
The spiritual thing isn't as hokey as you might think as Sill,s lyrics obsess over alchemy , philosophy and theosophy but it's the wonderful melodies and Sill,s unaffected untainted singing that really make this album so special. The songs arrangements have been compared to Joni Mitchell twinned with Bach but a song like "Soldier of Our Heart" has a gospel feel while "When the Bridegroom Comes" is Laura Nyro with an added melodic edge. "The Donor", an audacious multi harmonic epic backed by sparse piano, wouldn't sound out of place on Gene Clark's wondrous "No other". "There's a Rugged Road" has gliding pedal steel and see sawing fiddle. "The Kiss" is a piano led ballad of such exquisite poise and melodic delicacy that every time Sill sings the songs killer dipping hook your stomach flip flops and the goose bumps on your arms start weeping. It's backed by a string arrangement worthy of Nick Drake which is nice because that's someone else she's been compared to. If you ever do a compilation tape for an object of affection, put "The Kiss" next to "Northern Sky" and they will be yours for ever....if you want them to be. Actually "The Pearl "wouldn't go amiss either, another supremely lovely song which though fuller of tempo has a wonderful swooping string arrangement. There is a soulful aura about "Down Where the Valleys Are Low" with the gospel atmosphere of its backing vocals while "The Vigilante" sees Sill really let her voice go, her vocals pirouetting seamlessly along the pedal steel and harmonica. Why aren't contemporary singers capable of singing with this level of unbridled clarity? Instead of warbling like they've got the hiccups or a tape worms head butting their tonsils.
This is some of the most scorching brilliant music ever recorded. When it's playing you want to rush round forcing other people to listen to it and it makes just about everything else you've heard seem irrelevant. (Yes....even "Hats" or "Abbey Road") I can understand how Sill ended up like she did as it must have been heartbreaking to be making music as sublime as this and getting ignored. Judee Sill obviously never got the food her heart desired. Luckily we get her music. As Jim O, Rourke who has mixed "Dreams Come True" said: "If people sang this stuff in Church, a lot of us might still be there."
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
OK, so I've heard Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Laura Nyro, whom Ms Sill was compared to during her brief career, and whilst none of them are without merit,in my mind her legacy tops all three of them.
Rather than an instant sensation, this album is an insidious slow-burner which, on the first two or three listens, can sound pretty but rather insubstantial. Persevere with it, however, and "Heart Food" quickly reveals itself as the richly-layered classic it is.
Perhaps the reason why both "Heart Food" and Sill's eponymous debut have aged better than a good deal of her Laurel Canyon contemporaries' output is the downbeat, fatalistic edge to the music which is occasionally present in Nyro's muse bad largely absent from both Mitchell's and King's. There's something lurking here which is just too dark for most of the 70s suburban post-collegiate crowd that their albums largely appealed to. For sure, Judee may have had the cocaine habit but the fact that she carried far more emotional baggage than most troubadours is evident from the desperate redemption-seeking lyrics of "Down Where The Valleys Are Low". Although "Heart Food album is pleasant, even celestial to the ears it's still way too intense to qualify as easy listening.
Stand-out tracks are "There's A Ragged Road", "The Pearl", "The Donor" and especially "When The Bridegroom Comes" which is just one of the most gloriously indelible pieces of soft-rock perfection to emerge from it's era, and a song that could easily have been a huge radio hit in a world where justice prevailed (or had Sill been career-oriented enought to play the game by the iindustry's rules). Highlights aside though, there isn't a single disposable moment on "Heart Food" or "Judee Sill", but if funds are tight and you can only afford one or the other "Heart Food" most likely the one to go for as it sounds fuller and more realised in many ways than it's predecessor.
Currently available affordably from Water Records, for those of you whom (like me) missed out on those expensive Rhino Handmade editions last year. However, although cheaper and easiere to find, this version does have the downside of not including any of the demos that came with the Rhino release.
Rather than an instant sensation, this album is an insidious slow-burner which, on the first two or three listens, can sound pretty but rather insubstantial. Persevere with it, however, and "Heart Food" quickly reveals itself as the richly-layered classic it is.
Perhaps the reason why both "Heart Food" and Sill's eponymous debut have aged better than a good deal of her Laurel Canyon contemporaries' output is the downbeat, fatalistic edge to the music which is occasionally present in Nyro's muse bad largely absent from both Mitchell's and King's. There's something lurking here which is just too dark for most of the 70s suburban post-collegiate crowd that their albums largely appealed to. For sure, Judee may have had the cocaine habit but the fact that she carried far more emotional baggage than most troubadours is evident from the desperate redemption-seeking lyrics of "Down Where The Valleys Are Low". Although "Heart Food album is pleasant, even celestial to the ears it's still way too intense to qualify as easy listening.
Stand-out tracks are "There's A Ragged Road", "The Pearl", "The Donor" and especially "When The Bridegroom Comes" which is just one of the most gloriously indelible pieces of soft-rock perfection to emerge from it's era, and a song that could easily have been a huge radio hit in a world where justice prevailed (or had Sill been career-oriented enought to play the game by the iindustry's rules). Highlights aside though, there isn't a single disposable moment on "Heart Food" or "Judee Sill", but if funds are tight and you can only afford one or the other "Heart Food" most likely the one to go for as it sounds fuller and more realised in many ways than it's predecessor.
Currently available affordably from Water Records, for those of you whom (like me) missed out on those expensive Rhino Handmade editions last year. However, although cheaper and easiere to find, this version does have the downside of not including any of the demos that came with the Rhino release.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Having worked my way through several "lost" albums and "over-looked classics" with varying results I am happy to report that this is as good as the best of its era and still sounds fresh today.
I would recommend this as the first purchase for any one unfamiliar with Judee Sill as the demos and extras that you get on Abracadabra are more useful to fans desperate for more.This version also comes with well written liner notes from Andy Partridge which I preferred to those on Abracadabra.
If you are already familiar with the albums( say looking to replace an old vinyl or lost copy)then Abracadabra represents better value for money.
Which ever you end up choosing I would suggest you can't really go wrong because you'll be getting a fabulous album either way.
I would recommend this as the first purchase for any one unfamiliar with Judee Sill as the demos and extras that you get on Abracadabra are more useful to fans desperate for more.This version also comes with well written liner notes from Andy Partridge which I preferred to those on Abracadabra.
If you are already familiar with the albums( say looking to replace an old vinyl or lost copy)then Abracadabra represents better value for money.
Which ever you end up choosing I would suggest you can't really go wrong because you'll be getting a fabulous album either way.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
absolute wonder
i'd go for the "asylum years" compilation, if only because of the alternative remix of "the Donor".
This is one of the best albums ever made. Read more
This is one of the best albums ever made. Read more
Published on 3 July 2009 by N. Black
Judee Sill expands on the promise of her debut
Despite garnering favourable reviews and even though the artist performed doggedly as an opening act for a number of established artists, Judee Sill's eponymous 1971 debut album... Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2008 by M.B.
Food for the Heart
If I had to take ten albums to a desert island, the two albums by Judee Sill would be among them. Sill's music came from the right source: her soul. Read more
Published on 8 Jun 2007 by A. G. Keeling
A flawless gem!
I first heard Judee Sill in 1973 and bought her LPs on Asylum. A few years later, while browsing through a music reference book, I was distraught to find that she'd died of a... Read more
Published on 17 Jun 2004 by Malcolm Ostermeyer
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