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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk
Telling Stories is Chapman's first album in over four years. With this collection she has gone back to the spare, unsentimental feel of her early work, recapturing some of the urgency and simple melody lines that made her 1988 self-titled debut such a classic. There's maturity here, and strong sense of spiritual metaphor. On "Unsung Psalm", for instance, she imagines her funeral, singing: "I'd have a halo and flowing white robes / If I live right", while "Wedding Song" has the devotional line: "I reach out for your hand / For you I'd don a veil". The musical arrangements, too, are pared-down, with ghostly bluegrass banjo, silvery fiddle and guitar woven into subtle drum loops. Though not as immediate as her debut, it's Chapman's most focused work in a long time. --Lucy O'Brien
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
This is such an accomplished album on so many different levels, that it really should be bought by all music lovers. She writes the most poignant songs that are so acute to feelings innate to us all. The album has a very distinct chronolgy to it, that I would imagine, mirrors events in her life. "Telling Stories" the title track recounts a relationship where she was fictitiosly made out to be the 'one at fault' all the time. "Unsung Psalms" - truly one of the most beautiful songs you'll ever hear, is concerned with the ideas of redemption and salvation. She questions her life, the afterlife, and whether at her funeral, she would have had a fulfilled and generally 'proper' existence. My favourite song besides the two I've mentioned is "The Only One" which is Tracy's dirge for her mother who died last year. IT regards her losing centre, and finding that living without her mother is an experience that she is finding difficult to get used to. She almost reverts back into a child to reflect this point. "Does heaven have enough angels yet?" she continues to say. The line " sometimes I hear her calling straight from the house of God!" just sums up Tracy Chapman's considerable talents. She has a fantastic voice, full of emotion, and is able to relate complex feelings in a simple form, the mark of a true genius. I can not emphatically recommend this album enough!!
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
When I heard that Tracy Chapman had a new album out, I simply had to rush and buy it. I bought the album after only hearing the first single "Telling Stories" once. I enjoy every track on the album. "Unsung Psalm" tells a haunting tale of a person looking back on their life after they have died. Tracy proclaims "There would be psalms sung by a choir/If I'd lived right." I have always thought that Chapman is an underrated love song writer. "Devotion" from this album is a simple, yet very poignant song expressing the truth of love. It follows in the mode of "Baby Can I Hold You" and "For You" from her 1988 self-titled debut album. Tracy evokes a sense that we have no control over whom we love and the emotion in this song makes the listener feel as if she has felt these emotions before. "Less Than Strangers" speaks of the reality of a broken heart. Tracy sings "You and me had some history/Had a semblance of honesty/ All that has changed now/ We shared words only lovers speak/How can it be?/ We are less than strangers" Perhaps the most beautiful song on the album besides "Unsung Psalm" is "The Only One." This song features (hold onto your hats)the great Emmylou Harris shadowing Tracy on the chorus. The song simply evokes emotions in me that I never knew existed. "Paper and Ink" is a great song to listen to just to appreciate Tracy's talent with the acoustic guitar. I wholeheartedly recommend this album for all true Tracy Chapman fans. All true Chapman fans know the talent that exudes from this woman.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By Phill
Format:Audio CD
Obviously Tracy Chapman has been a name practically everybody on the planet knows if not they know and love her song 'Fast Car' from way back in 1988. 'Telling Stories' Chapman's fifth album is probably one of if not my favourite album of hers. I came across it by sheer accident i lent a CD to my older cousin and when i got it back this CD was in the case of the other (Smashing Pumpkin's Gish to be precise), I thought 'cool lets give it ago' i was blown away i ended up listening to it the whole night and ended up buying it a couple days later, I love this CD.
1.Telling Stories - Basically the song is about people lying about themselves to make them seem more interesting and appealing to others.Also the song could be about the affair Tracy had with acclaimed author Alice Walker back in the ninties i guess it wasn't a good break up then Tracy!
A brillantly written song which is one of my favourites 10/10
2.Less Than Strangers - One song that i personally identify with. She does a great job of expressing what it feels like to come face to face with an ex-lover; the kind of wistful awkardness that arises when you realize that you cannot even say hello to someone who you used to be able to share the most intimate of conversations with a beautifully sad song in the sense that it just goes to show you how much you can share with someone in the blink of an eye be nothing at all great song writing yet again, maybe another one about Alice Walker! 10/10
3.Speak The Word - I love the way her vocals are on this one, one of the sub-topics on this album is obviously love and this one is a clear indication of that.... Read more ›
1.Telling Stories - Basically the song is about people lying about themselves to make them seem more interesting and appealing to others.Also the song could be about the affair Tracy had with acclaimed author Alice Walker back in the ninties i guess it wasn't a good break up then Tracy!
A brillantly written song which is one of my favourites 10/10
2.Less Than Strangers - One song that i personally identify with. She does a great job of expressing what it feels like to come face to face with an ex-lover; the kind of wistful awkardness that arises when you realize that you cannot even say hello to someone who you used to be able to share the most intimate of conversations with a beautifully sad song in the sense that it just goes to show you how much you can share with someone in the blink of an eye be nothing at all great song writing yet again, maybe another one about Alice Walker! 10/10
3.Speak The Word - I love the way her vocals are on this one, one of the sub-topics on this album is obviously love and this one is a clear indication of that.... Read more ›
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
This album has been long over due. unsong psalm, wedding song and only one are perhaps some of the best on the album, and one can feel the meaning and emotion with in the songs as she sings. Again i feel that she exceeds herself.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Tracy Champman is one of my favorite artists. Telling Stories lives up to her high expectation. This CD will appeal to all her fans and also to people who are not familar to her work. Wonderfully original and caters for all moods. This CD gets two thumbs up, and definatly worth every penny
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4.3 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant
I have always been a massive fan of Tracy Chapman and had this album as part of my collection. I lent the CD to a friend who sadly didn't return it so I downloaded the album from... Read more
Published 3 months ago by starling
3.0 out of 5 stars
CD Doesn't load to PC
I have recently bought this and a couple of other Tracy Chapman CD's. None of them will load to my, relatively new, PC. The disk just isn't readable on it. Read more
Published 13 months ago by RAJ1o1
4.0 out of 5 stars
upbeat tracy?
This album is good, only because it stands out from the rest of her albums, The songs are very upbeat, quick, jaunty, uplifting and pop like??? Read more
Published on 13 Aug 2009 by Iorek
4.0 out of 5 stars
Best album by Tracy!
There are five tracks (1, 3, 4, 5 & 11) on this CD that deserve to be on a Tracy best of collection. That is enough to make this her best CD. Read more
Published on 2 April 2008 by Johan Lonn
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tracy Chapman meets drum loops in the 21st Century
Remember all of those acoustic tracks from her debut album, the near perfect production, clean and detailed recordings of heart felt songs.... Read more
Published on 14 April 2002 by C. Dodkin
5.0 out of 5 stars
Melodic thought provoking songs with an edge.
This is a very good album and even better value with the extra tracks on the second CD. There are stand out tracks like "It's OK", but even the ones that don't... Read more
Published on 5 July 2000
2.0 out of 5 stars
No stories to tell
Tracy Chapman can certainly sing in a unique, emotional way. No doubt about that.
The trouble is, with the album »Telling Stories«, that she has nothing new to contribute. Read more
Published on 10 April 2000
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