Dana Winner's 80's pop hits and Groove Armada SACDs: review

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The Dana Winner Unforgettable SACD features pop hits from the 80s. The amazing thing here is that she makes me see anew the beauty in songs that I have grown to hate! Songs like "just when I needed you most" or "Never gonna change my love for you."
That is because there is an amazing transparency and self effacing lack of ego and idiosyncracy about the way this Belgian singer sings these classic songs, so much so you only notice how beautiful the songs are, and do not notice the singer. She becomes merely the messenger who evaporates and disappears as the songs unfold. I think this is a sign that she has truly mastered the high art of singing. You don't hear the singer, just the song.
For example, I can't stand the way Barbara Streisand sings "I am a woman in love" because her interpretation of this Barry Gibb song is all about projecting her musical personality and branding us with the imprint of her voice. Overbearing, more like "bitch in heat". Miraculously, Dana makes me love this song, which is an achievement!
I never thought I would have bought an 80 hits compilations, but I did so after listening to the realaudio clips. Lots of nice songs here that you thought you hated, but might fall in love with anew. Even with a song that I love, like Shirley Bassey's Never Never Never, Dana delivers it in a freshly tingling way that does not shame Bassey's original.
Dana is backed by a neat & tight rhythm section and a full symphonic orchestra. The arrangements are not quite retro, but rather time-locked from the 80s. You hear the various mannerisms from that time period, and they are really very nicely and tastefully done. This is definitely a multi-mix job rather than a minimalist acoustic recording. The type of delay effects used and gated reverb for toms reminds me of the session work I did back in the 80s, recording covers of these very songs.
I doubt too many people would have ordered the Groove Armada SACD together with the Dana Winner SACD. Old Fogeys who like 80's pop do not tend to like the House/Trance/Techno licks of Groove Armada. I like to stay young though, mentally.
Many enjoy Groove Armada as a sort of acceptable medium between the insipid repetitive music of the Venga Boys and the sophisticated heady music of intellectual House music from Germany, with quirky meters, harmonies and undanceable rhythms. Groove Armada's music is definitely very clever and wittily structured, with a fine ear for dynamic envelope, rhythmic flow and the thwarting of it, and juxtaposition of sound colours. This is music that does not sink into a boring repetitive groove, but grows & evolves logically and surprisingly and beautifully. Somewhat like Beethoven.
Most of it uses low resolution, bandwith limited, samples. Still, the SACD sounds a grade higher than CD, because when you mix a variety of low res samples together, it results in complicated waveforms that benefit from high resolution mastering and playback. So the sound is more dynamic, open and less cramped than such music played back on CD.
Still, the low res digital synthesis gives a certain mechanical tint to the sound that makes me wonder if this is the type of music that makes the most of a high-resolution playback system. Probably, the musicians made this music on mundane monitoring equipment. It should sound great enough on PC sound systems, in discos, and on boom boxes. Listening to it on SACD and a high-resolution system made me feel it does not take advantage of the colours that my system was capable of, in the way a jazz or orchestral recording does.
As always, feedback on these ideas are welcome.

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Kimber Kable

Topic - Dana Winner's 80's pop hits and Groove Armada SACDs: review - DkB 22:53:48 10/21/02 (4)

more comments I forgot to add on.... - dkB 20:08:16 10/22/02 (0)

Re: Dana Winner's 80's pop hits and Groove Armada SACDs: review - jdarby 10:34:06 10/22/02 (1)

Re: Dana Winner's 80's pop hits and Groove Armada SACDs: review - Ted Smith 11:34:55 10/22/02 (0)

Re: Dana Winner's 80's pop hits and Groove Armada SACDs: review - Marc P 00:45:15 10/22/02 (0)

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