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Frequently Bought Together
Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. Love Song |
| 2. Vegas |
| 3. Bottle It Up |
| 4. One Sweet Love |
| 5. Come Round Soon |
| 6. Morningside |
| 7. Between The Lines |
| 8. Love On The Rocks |
| 9. City |
| 10. Many the Miles |
| 11. Fairytale |
| 12. Gravity |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
For many listeners, Little Voice will be their first exposure to this soulful singer/songwriter, but it's actually Sara Bareilles' second record. Her first, the self-released Careful Confessions, led to a deal with Epic. Since then, Bareilles has opened for Marc Broussard and Maroon 5. She's also become a bonafide soundtrack queen with tracks featured in female-centric films Girl Play, Loving Annabelle, and Monster-in-Law. As with her out-of-print debut, the UCLA grad wrote every song on her first major label recording (Little Voice features re-worked versions of several demo numbers). Like the portrait on the back of the CD--Bareilles in strappy black dress and lace-free high-tops--the piano-playing chanteuse combines the sweet with the scruffy. While her jazzy pop melodies are radio-ready, her relationship-oriented lyrics can be unexpectedly salty ("Bottle Up" and "Come Round Soon" wouldn't pass FCC muster). A little profanity here and there, however, doesn't indicate tough-girl attitude--Amy Winehouse can rest easy--so much as a desire to express herself freely. As Bareilles explains in "Love Song", "I'm trying to let you hear me as I am." (Not surprisingly, her degree is in communications). Fans of Sarah McLachlan and Alicia Keyes will find much to like here. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Review
Sara Bareilles is a 28-year-old singer songwriter whose career trajectory has been carefully nurtured following the signing of a major label deal three years ago. Before this she'd already recorded a self-produced album, Careful Confessions (2003). Already doing sterling business in the US, it's taken a year for this album to be finally released in the UK, possibly for fear that her album would be lost in the flood of female singer songwriters currently filling up the AOR airwaves. But Epic needn't have worried. Little Voice displays a more than competent grasp of pop dynamics, and Bareilles' voice balances sultry with strident impressively. While it'll leave the youth market cold, Bareilles' tough-but-tender confessionals and jaunty, multi-layered beatle-esque pop for grown ups (a la Jellyfish or Aimee Mann) should easily find a home in the hearts of more seasoned ears.
It's this aspect of Sara Bareilles' work - especially on Fairytale, Bottle It Up or Love Song - that will draw older listeners. The lush backing vocals, upbeat cynicism and clever, slightly psychedelic, loping arrangements hit the mark with ease. There are other odious comparisons to make of course - someone this new on the scene can't escape them - Fiona Apple for downers maybe, or Tori Amos without the irritating quirkiness? But the latter reference is probably more down to the fact that Little Voice is produced by Eric Rosse who helmed several of Amos' albums. The fact is that Bareilles is still finding her true vocabulary; the sonic pallette on display here is wiggling its behind and getting comfortable in one place. So apart from the worryingly mainstream fare like Between The Lines which has seen her matched in a support role to acts like Ben Folds, Maroon 5 or even Counting Crows there's the far more interesting r 'n' b twist that surfaces on tracks like Come Round Soon or the Benny And The Jets-meets-Hall and Oates blue-eyed confection, Love On The Rocks. Elsewhere Many The Miles demonstrates that she's best when being upfront about her own experiences with a slinky beat to coax her more distinctive vocal side.
There is a slight caveat emptor clause for faithful followers, as several of the tracks on offer here are re-recorded tracks that were on Careful Confessions (albeit vastly improved), plus the piano ballads like City or Gravity simply drag the pace too much, even though they never lapse into excessively maudlin introspection. Whether this kind of very American music will find an audience beyond the parameters of a Radio 2 audience remains to be seen. But for lovers of quality pop with a brain this is no little achievement. --Chris Jones
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Sara Bareilles is a breath of fresh air in the pop scene, and seems to have come from nowhere just when we needed an injection of hooky, melodic piano pop. Little Voice is full of catchy tunes, not least the chart success "Love Song". Stylistically there's a lot of variety here, from the bluesy "Vegas" to the edgier pop rock of "Morningside" and the sensitive, reflective ballad "Between the Lines". The clean-cut mix of piano and bass are ever-present, though, giving the album an honest approach - a bit like Maroon 5 meets Ben Folds Five, with Sara's expert vocal on top. As for Sara herself, she really has something special which defies a single comparison - at times she has a bit of Sandi Thom about her, at others she's a little Natasha Bedingfield, and then there's a bit of Gabriella Cilmi - her voice is really multifaceted.
All in all, well recommended - a great listen and every track worth revisiting.
All in all, well recommended - a great listen and every track worth revisiting.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
When I first downloaded this album, it has to be said, initially, it was from no great love for Sara Bareilles' music or singing voice. Instead, it was simply because of the fact that I couldn't get that infernal "Love Song" out of my head after hearing again and again on the music channels. So I downloaded it, listened to the track a few times, got bored of it, and there it sat, unlistened to, on my iPod for some time(partially due to the fact Vegas was the following track, which I never took to and is still my least favourite song on the album.)
Some months later I found myself listening to it again through shuffle,a pure accident, and was surprised to find myself actually enjoying listening to "Morningside." That led me onto the other tracks and a growing realisation that the album was nothing short of brilliant. Bareilles has something that I had never realised I'd been missing until I happened upon it. A beautiful, clear, awesome clarity of voice, tone, feeling; something, in short, of making the hearer feel privileged to listen to her. The words are clear(not screamed or distorted by sound technology),the instrumentals crisp and the message clear.
The lyrics are, as a bonus, refreshingly original and ring through heartfelt. So unlike some pop "music" of nowadays, where the same annoying sentiments are rehashed using the same annoying phrases and whining tones. They are also, to my suprise, funny, at times, thankfully not through their indeptness at conveying the sentiments behind them, but for the converse. One such example, that makes me chuckle every time, is in "Fairytale" -
"The tall blond lets out a sigh of despair,
says - "Would've cut it myself, if I knew men could climb hair"
Gotta find myself another tower somewhere,
Keep away from the window."
You can't fault her for not being original - that particular slant on Rapunzel amuses me to no end. That is but one example of this album's brilliance. There are many, reader. My recommendations as a favourite sad song (which, again, I was surprised by, as I loath sad songs) "Gravity" and as a happy one, aside from "Love Song", "Morningside." Both I loved, along with this entire album. Gravity remains my favourite.
I highly recommend this album, for not only all the above reasons, but also for the happy knowledge that it suprised me. I always think it's the best feeling in the world, being suprised by a piece of music. I was wrong about Sara Bareilles, and happily so. Her album has done more than prove me wrong, it has given me many hours of joy listening to it tell me how wrong I was.
I hope it will do the same for you.
Some months later I found myself listening to it again through shuffle,a pure accident, and was surprised to find myself actually enjoying listening to "Morningside." That led me onto the other tracks and a growing realisation that the album was nothing short of brilliant. Bareilles has something that I had never realised I'd been missing until I happened upon it. A beautiful, clear, awesome clarity of voice, tone, feeling; something, in short, of making the hearer feel privileged to listen to her. The words are clear(not screamed or distorted by sound technology),the instrumentals crisp and the message clear.
The lyrics are, as a bonus, refreshingly original and ring through heartfelt. So unlike some pop "music" of nowadays, where the same annoying sentiments are rehashed using the same annoying phrases and whining tones. They are also, to my suprise, funny, at times, thankfully not through their indeptness at conveying the sentiments behind them, but for the converse. One such example, that makes me chuckle every time, is in "Fairytale" -
"The tall blond lets out a sigh of despair,
says - "Would've cut it myself, if I knew men could climb hair"
Gotta find myself another tower somewhere,
Keep away from the window."
You can't fault her for not being original - that particular slant on Rapunzel amuses me to no end. That is but one example of this album's brilliance. There are many, reader. My recommendations as a favourite sad song (which, again, I was surprised by, as I loath sad songs) "Gravity" and as a happy one, aside from "Love Song", "Morningside." Both I loved, along with this entire album. Gravity remains my favourite.
I highly recommend this album, for not only all the above reasons, but also for the happy knowledge that it suprised me. I always think it's the best feeling in the world, being suprised by a piece of music. I was wrong about Sara Bareilles, and happily so. Her album has done more than prove me wrong, it has given me many hours of joy listening to it tell me how wrong I was.
I hope it will do the same for you.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
I have never written a review before but felt that this time, this gem of an album deserves all the credit it can get.'Love Song' is buzzing through my head all day long I think I even sing it in my sleep!! Every song is so different, a factor that is missing from a lot of albums these days, which makes it so endearing. 'Love on the Rocks' is amazing, I just adore it. Everyone should own a copy and promote this young maestro, she deserves all the fame and fortune of a Super Star. Certainly one to watch. I hope the second album is as great.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Sara Bareilles - Little Voice
Fantastic Album. Well worth buying. Her renditions of her songs live are far far better though, so be sure to check out those.
Published 5 months ago by d
A Few Great Songs
When Sara Bareilles is good she's very, very good. The quality of "Love song" alone is worth the price of the album. Read more
Published 7 months ago by J. Lafferty
AWESOME
Great songs, great voice, great album. saw her with Maroon 5 and she sounds like the album when singing live. A real musician, not auto-tune!
Published 10 months ago by BrightonBoy
Under the radar.
Saw the film,"she's out of my league"and heard this track which really appealed to me,so I watched all the credits to work out who she was. Read more
Published 13 months ago by David B
amazing!
Some of the songs on this album are so fantastic, I actually can't believe it! i'm addicted!
The song that got me into Sara Barielles in the first place was King of... Read more
The song that got me into Sara Barielles in the first place was King of... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Larewen Evenstar
little amazing album
when i heard love song , i never expected the album to be one of the best i've ever heard , an amazing album from one amazin singer - songwriter
Published 22 months ago by fall341
Gravity!!
Well, gravity alone is worth buying it for, which is what I did anyway. The rest of it isn't as memorable, but still some good tunes.
Published on 29 May 2010 by Mark Hughes
easy listening at it's best
nice easy to listen to tracks, if your feeling in not too good a mood then listen to this and let the sweet voice of sara take the troubles away
Published on 4 Aug 2009 by Mr. Mark Reid
Lovely
I only bought the album for one song but when it arrived i realised that it had so many good tunes (some i'd heard and not realised were by the same artist and some i'd never... Read more
Published on 17 July 2009 by F. M. Greetham
Little Voice
With all the singer-songwriters around right now Sara Bareilles is perhaps not as well-known as she should be, which is a shame as this album deserves some recognition. Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2009 by Kayleigh
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