Skylark
Nine days after her seventeenth birthday, singing sensation Renee Olstead and her stunning bluesy jazz voice take flight with her second major-label album, Skylark. Backed by esteemed producer/arranger David Foster (Josh Groban, Michael Buble, Celine Dion) on strings, piano, horns and often keyboards, Olstead stamps her mark on standards and modern classics and premieres four originals she co-wrote, including one with Foster. Following her 2004 #1 Jazz self-titled album, Olstead soars on Skylark.
User Ratings and Reviews
3 Stars Great artist, very good music, recording technically poor.
Renee Olstead is terrific, and with a little more maturity she is probably headed for stardom. These great old songs remind listeners of what real music used to sound like. But technically the recording leaves a little to be desired. Her voice on most of the songs sounds muffled and unclear. I don’t know if she was using a Radio Shack mic or if in the mix her voice was somewhat obscured by the orchestration, but it is hard to distinguish the words on most of the songs. It reminds one of a blurry photo – fuzzy; it is not her diction, but it is in the technical aspects of the recording. If not for that, this would be an excellent CD. I’m already waiting for her next one.
5 Stars I AM LOVING IT
WOW WHAT A NICE CD, LOVE EVERY SONG ON THIS CD, VERY VERY NICE ESPECIALLY THE SONG WITH CHRIS BOTTI
5 Stars Pretty Young White Girls……….
….aren’t supposed to sing this repertoire this well. Well…there’s Jane Monheit, but, great as Jane is, Renee is the new head of the list. (Diana Krall is a pretty white girl, but not young; Madeleine Peyroux is young and white). This record took too long to make, but I forgive whoever slowed it up…it is FABULOUS. Yes, I like gorgeous redheads, but that’s irrelevant with singing this good…..
As to specifics…13 tracks…4 original compositions, of which I liked “Midnight in Austin, Texas” the best…9 old standards, that every girl and her sister has done before (some more than others, naturally). Well…it’s like hearing them for the first time. “Stars Fell on Alabama”…”When I Fall in Love”…”Ain’t We Got Fun”…Renee makes them her own. With Jazz, that’s OK…in fact, it’s the idea. (If Anna Netrebko did that in “Lucia”, it would be a different matter). The Hoagy Carmichael/Johnny Mercer standard “Skylark”, the title cut, has been done over and over, but NEVER better (the late Eileen Farrell did it for Reference Recordings ~20 years ago, but she was of an entirely different order of magnitude). Ray Charles recorded “Hit The Road Jack” at least 45 years ago; it’s written for a man, but Renee did fine, and was smart enough not to mess with the lyrics.
If you get the idea that I believe this to be a REALLY special album, you’re right. In a couple of tracks, including “Stars Fell…”, the sound mimicked a 1930s broadcast…that’s OK, it wasn’t overdone. I do see the earlier reviewer’s caveat about the engineering; my sub-woofer got a work-out. That aside, this is one of the greatest Jazz albums I’ve ever heard. (Yes, Diana, I still love you). The little girl from her self-titled recording is growing up very nicely. Don’t fail to grab this….ten stars, at least.
5 Stars amazing…simply amazing….
I think the other reviewers have summed up the album pretty well so i won’t try to add any more repetition to the mix. I would just like to say I’ve been listening to this album since it was released and I still can’t get enough of it. Renee Olstead, remember that name! Other favorite musicians are Michael Buble and Diana Krall.
2 Stars I’ve been sucker-punched
Renee, child, what were you thinking?Don’t you have PEOPLE? Like others, I’ve been waiting for years for your follow-up, and those silly people ran ramshod over the making of this CD! Why did they suffocate you with this smarmy stuff, and the production is piss-poor…You and Mr. Foster put one on us with your epilogue cut, “nothing but the blame”, by far the best selection. We got sucker-punched, and you, little pretty one with the captivating voice and monster potential, got robbed!
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