{"id":41933,"date":"2010-03-29T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-29T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-performance\/"},"modified":"2010-03-29T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-03-29T00:00:00","slug":"the-performance","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/the-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"The Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welsh songstress Shirley Bassey (a.k.a Dame Shirley Bassey or DSB) has been performing and recording now for over fifty years and for the most part has enjoyed lots of success, possessing one of the most loyal and enthusiastic followings in popular music. DSB has come a long way since her humble beginnings, and although she recently announced she was scaling down her workload, Bassey has made frequent short trips abroad to perform a handful of shows every now and then.\u00a0 There\u2019s no doubt that despite the gorgeous gowns, seductive persona, and natural charisma, Bassey\u2019s main attraction is her stunningly powerful voice.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Few woman (in the world of pop music) have the range and control that Bassey has \u2013 and boy, does she know how to use it. She can still hold notes for minutes on end and her range is still very much intact. Back in the day, Bassey was known mainly for her powerful renditions of popular torch songs like \u201cSend In The Clowns\u201d and \u201cI (Who Have Nothing)\u201d to name but two.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

That material still makes up the bulk of her shows, but over the last few years, Bassey has covered some more contemporary material like Pink\u2019s \u201cGet The Party Started\u201d and Grace Jones\u2019 \u201cSlave To The Rhythm,\u201d which both appeared on her 2007 release Get The Party Started<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

While DSB did enjoy success with that Endeavour, it has been a long while (thirty years, in fact) since she recorded brand new original material for a full album — until now. Producer David Arnold was the mastermind of this project, and after convincing Basey that several artists were interested in writing for her, she agreed to go back into the studio. Late last year, DSB completed her thirty-seventh studio album, which is simply titled The Performance<\/i>.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

With her voice in stunning form and the quality of material offered to her, this release could only have been exceptional \u2013 and I can tell you it is just that. There are no unnecessary overblown productions and vocal gymnastics, and while there is a slightly nostalgic feel to it, I feel that that is probably due to that voice that\u2019s been around for so long I can\u2019t help thinking about the first time I heard it.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

The most pleasing aspect of listening to this record is the fact that Bassey was willing to throw out the rulebook and everything she felt works for her, instead trusting her producer and writers to guide her. The great thing is that the material has brought out the singer\u2019s performance here and not the other way around. With Rufus Wainright\u2019s \u201cApartment,\u201d Bassey gets into a groove that she has never tackled before, and you can tell by her performance that a lot of work went into the phrasing and interpretation of the slightly abstract lyrics.\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Gary Barlow\u2019s \u201cThis Time\u201d is more in line with Bassey\u2019s work of the past, and that\u2019s why it fits her style and voice like a glove. \u201cThe Girl From Tiger Bay\u201d was penned by members of The Manic Street Preachers and was inspired by a documentary made about DSB. Her reading of this one is superb and so is the majestic arrangement. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Bassey\u2019s fondness for melodrama is appeased here with the moody \u201cGod Is My Witness,\u201d with which the Bassey of old laments all that\u2019s dull in life and love: \u201cThis house is full of ghosts \/ Echoes of the promises we made \/ But those died with all the roses \/ Are we dying, too?\u201d\u00a0 <\/o:p><\/p>\n

The album\u2019s closer could not have been more aptly titled — \u201cPerformance Of My Life\u201d (penned by the Pet Shop Boys) is a grand but understated ballad. It\u2019s given the full lush arrangement it deserves, with strings and organs sending DSB off with as she closes out the song with one more massive note. The Performance <\/i>is a fantastic new album from a legendary singer and it should win her the approval of her aficionados and even the most cynical of critics.<\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":30279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8554],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-41933","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-shirley-bassey","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41933"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41933"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}