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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Love Throw A Line |
| 2. Cold As It Gets |
| 3. Kite Song |
| 4. Standing |
| 5. Useless Desires |
| 6. Top Of The Creation |
| 7. Rowing Song |
| 8. When It Don't Come Easy |
| 9. Florida |
| 10. Mother Of God |
| 11. Icicles |
| 12. Chief (Live Bonus Tracks) |
| 13. Truth (Live Bonus Tracks) |
| 14. Rain (Live Bonus Tracks) |
Product Description
Review
There's a certain grace about Patty Griffin that sets her apart from fellow coffee-house singer-songwriters like Eliza Gilkyson, Lucy Kaplansky and Catie Curtis. It could be in her delicate, melodic picking, the poetry of her lyrics or her yearning vocal; whatever it is, there were fisticuffs between Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and Daniel Lanois over who would produce her 1996 debut Living With Ghosts (she eventually released the demo version instead). Quickly taken to the heart of the wider country and Americana community, her songs have been taken on by Reba McEntire, Emmylou Harris, Buddy and Julie Miller and the Dixie Chicks, who chose two for their all-killer-no-filler album Home.
Her last album,1000 Kisses shunned the rock sound of 2000's Flaming Red - on which she had built such a firm fanbase - for something altogether more gentle. Produced again by Craig Ross, Impossible Dream continues with the acoustic mood.
Nostalgia is in plentiful supply, from the woman taking one last look around before fleeing town in ''Useless Desires'', to the echoing piano and Emmlyou Harris drifting harmonies in ''Kite Song'' adding weight to the childish memories already hanging heavy in the air. An old man mulling over a life of opportunities wasted is to be found in ''Top of The World''; here Griffin's breathy vocal and Lisa Germano's violin offer a more subtle and intimate atmosphere than in Natalie Maine's version on Home.
The semi-autobiographical ''Florida''tells of two girls cheerfully heading down to the Sunshine State, only to become faces in the crowd. With simple words she hones in on that feeling of isolation; 'Isn't it hard sometimes, isn't it lonely?/ how I still hang around here/ and there's nothing to hold me'.
It's a grower, this album. But to ease you in gently, the UK version includes some great live versions of old tracks ''Chief'', ''Rain'' and ''Truth #2'', recorded in Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. Just the thing to get you in the mood for her live performances in the UK this summer. --Sue Keogh
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Impossible talent,
By
This review is from: Impossible Dream (Audio CD)
It's the half-surprised vulnerability in Patty Griffin's voice and songs which startles you and implores you to listen to her writing again and again. There are singers, great singers, who you love because of the sounds of their voice and the emotions they impart to other people's lyrics. And there are writers who know how to sing, how to take a song and bless it - a writer with a voice can impart just that much more, can convey a personal intimacy to a track, and, though you know a million others have heard it, the message sounds as if it's delivered only to you. I shall end this analogy now, before I start sounding like a stalker."Impossible Dream" is Patty Griffin's fourth album to see the inside of a CD player - she's recorded a couple of others which have never been released. It's a contemplative piece, the variety of styles unified by the quality of her voice and worth of her words. Griffin is a singer-songwriter who knows how to deliver a narrative poem. Her most political work - it picks up on the theme of censorship, after her friends the Dixie Chicks had suffered a backlash, and she offers a commentary on what it means to be rejected and downtrodden. Griffin is no overnight success - she's worked at her craft, so she can write about human pain with authority and insight. Griffin creates a real sense of intimacy, a sense that she is communicating directly to your own experience and emotion. This is artistry, not commercialism. The personal is the political and everyday emotions and experience have political relevance, especially when they are the product of abuses of power. Griffin's songs demonstrate the power of communication, demonstrate that well crafted words will rivet your attention and grip your emotions in precisely the way a mechanical beat cannot. Individual, intimate, and inimical, and a lesson in the art and artistry of the songwriter.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worthy successor to '1000 Kisses',
By DR DRM (London) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Impossible Dream [Us Import] (Audio CD)
Songs are uniformly more in the slower style of '1000 Kisses' than in the upbeat/rock style of some of the songs on 'Flaming Red' - and the backing is lighter than on the latter: this helps to reveal Patty's amazing voice to the best perfection. 'Love throws a line' and perhaps 'Standing' could be regarded as being in a jazz/blues style somewhat reminiscent of some of Eva Cassidy's work. Other songs are in Patty's familiar 'folk ballad' style. Stand-outs for me (difficult to narrow down to a few) are perhaps 'Kite', 'Useless Desires', 'Rowing Song' and of course 'Top of the World'. The latter must be regarded as the definitive version though the Dixie Chicks' cover version is also excellent. I think this album is outstanding and a very worthy successor to the '1000 Kisses'.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The dark side of Patty Griffin,
By
This review is from: Impossible Dream [Us Import] (Audio CD)
Patty Griffin is one of those artists who seem to discover songs rather than write them; her music has a magical, eternal quality that is not easy to identify. Is it her arrangements, which combine delicate, understated acoustic tones with a refreshingly tasteful use of electronic and synthesised sounds? Or her lyrics, which mercilessly lay bare our hidden fears and useless desires? Whatever it is, Patty Griffin has created a sound that is entirely her own, and never has this been more beautifully clear than in Impossible Dream. Darker and more inward looking than 1000 Kisses, there is a recurring theme of frustration and inability to find contentment, indicated by the title of both the album and the fifth track, Useless Desires. Lyrically Patty is still on form, with her unique ability to wrap up such simple sentiments with wonderful charm and clarity: "We're just like anyone else/We just want a little bit of sun for ourselves/And a little bit of rain to make it all grow/maybe a minute or two to get lost in the glow of love". Her foray into the blues, as in Love Throw a Line and Standing, should be seen as a sunny spell in this otherwise exquisitely melancholic collection. Highlights are, as ever, the most simple and moving songs, such as Icicles and Kite Song. This album is a celebration of beauty, love and emotion; if any of those things interest you, Impossible Dream won't be leaving your CD player any time soon.
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