I got interested in this album after getting into Nyman's music generally through 9 songs - Unrated Full Uncut Version. Many of the pieces on this album, after comparing to Nyman's other performances are somewhat altered in a positive way on the whole. The performances are complex and nuanced and the sound quality is pretty good.
The structure of the album is very good, and the pieces are integrated into a coherent whole. The selection of pieces is very good.
I have two "complaints," both are so minor not to cause me to detract stars. The first is that I found the sound quality too muffled for my taste. I would have preferred a brighter, clearer sound from the piano, and I thought this particularly detracted from pieces like "Debbie" and "Franklyn" (both from the Winterbottom movie "Wonderland"). This is a fairly minor complaint, and one which is probably more taste-based than objective. Also it's worth noting that the more I listen to this CD, the less this bothers me.
The second is that the album is very heavily towards slower pieces which in some ways fails to show off the sort of diversity that Nyman is capable of bringing to the table as a composer. This isn't really a fault in an album this size, but it's worth noting that there is much more to his music than you will hear here.
Both these "complaints" are more along the lines of cautions about the album.
All in all, highly recommended.
