Liza Minnelli, it\u2019s fair to say, has had one hell of a life. Of course, she\u2019s still around, but despite some troubling times and a few health scares in recent years, as Bette Midler says, \u201cThe showgirl must go on,\u201d and Liza is certainly is living by that moniker.\u00a0 Minnelli\u2019s career is one of the most celebrated in American pop culture, her stage shows have been massive successes, and her starring role in Cabaret <\/i>earned her an Oscar, which was no mean feat considering it was a musical.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The one constant, though, when her movies weren\u2019t so memorable (Arthur 2: On The Rocks<\/i>) and her health kept her from hitting the stage, has been her voice, and more importantly all of the things she can do with it.\u00a0 Her recording career was always something she treasured and loved working on, and so as time goes by and Minnelli heads into her seventies, it seems it will be her last love after all.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Although most of her albums are live recordings from various shows over the years, some of her best work can be found on her early studio albums like It Amazes Me <\/i>and There Is A Time<\/i>.\u00a0 There\u2019s no point in comparing this new album (released a year ago) to any of her classics because that would be a little unfair, considering Liza recorded this entire album whilst lying in bed recovering from a knee-replacement surgery.\u00a0 For her it was a form of therapy, and although her voice isn\u2019t anywhere near what it once was, this woman lives and breathes music. I know this because I can hear it in every single note she sings here.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Lots of artists from Liza\u2019s generation (and several younger ones) have enjoyed great success with singing standards these days. I\u2019m not sure why the whole thing has grown into what it now is, but it seems everyone is doing it. And so for Liza\u2019s therapy it seems she was in the mood for a little night music, and here we have only her eleventh studio album, the very soothing Confessions<\/i>.\u00a0 This album is a wonderful collection of some great old songs that have been given new but pretty straightforward arrangements for Liza to croon over, and croon she does.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Her voice now has a very lived-in, smoky quality to it, which only gives these songs character and one could be forgiven for thinking this was actually recorded in a lounge somewhere at 2 a.m. It\u2019s hard to pick any standout songs because the album is so even and so consistently good, as is Minnelli\u2019s performance, during which she breathes new life into beautiful songs like \u201cYou Fascinate Me So\u201d and \u201cHe\u2019s A Tramp.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cClose Your Eyes\u201d is every bit romantic as it should be and Liza\u2019s reading on \u201cI Must Have That Man\u201d is understated genius.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Three of the finest moments here are the last three songs: \u201cAt Moments Like This,\u201d \u201cIf I Had You,\u201d and \u201cAt Last\u201d all of which sound wonderful as Liza handles each of them with an easy cool that many singers would kill for.\u00a0 Confessions<\/i> is a very easy album to listen to and just flows beautifully and as for Liza herself, there\u2019s certainly no denying her conviction. Now that she\u2019s fully recovered, I\u2019d love to think there\u2019s plenty more where this came from.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":30839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8783],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-42514","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-liza-minnelli","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42514","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=42514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42514"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42514"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}