WoW, WoW, WoW!!!
Posted June 04, 2009
By teague,
A few years ago my mom and I were spending a beautiful Friday morning enjoying the sunshine with soup and crackers when we heard Mr. Groban’s song ‘To Where You Are’ on the radio. It was (and still is, for that fact) stunning. The way he effortlessly uses his voice to create depth and emotion pulls one into peaceful admiration of such a superb art form while stirring the thoughts of a person’s soul that live on romance, beauty and love.
That afternoon we went in search of one of his cd’s and discovered ‘Awake’. The following morning we spent our time listening to the cd…and loved it. Brilliantly sculpted songs constructed with strong, yet simplistic lyrics, contrasting melodies that consist of gentle, piano-driven moments that evolve into powerful, full (but once again simplistic) orchestra experiences and a presence of emotion throughout the album.
The songs are arranged in such an order that there are an approximately equal amount of English songs combined with an arrangement of songs in the so-called love languages (I think its French, Italian and some Latin, but I’m not sure). Since this cd was used in a promotional effort to prepare South Africa for Groban’s performance here, an extra cd was added with three more of his songs that included ‘Smile’ (the sweetest version of the song that I have heard) and the title track ‘Awake’.
Josh’s talents continues to stun when one reads the credits and realizes that he plays a variety of instruments used on the cd including the drums and the piano. He has also either written or co-written most of the songs.
My favorite songs include ‘Mai’, ‘So She Dances’, ‘In Her Eyes’, ‘L’ultima Notte’ and ‘Un Giorno Per Noi’. The songs performed with the local group, Lady Black Mambazo deserves a loud WOW. ‘Lullaby’ was done without excessive instruments, giving me goosebumps and ‘Weeping’ is a moving tale reminiscent of South Africa’s apartheid era. To be honest, I completely adore every song on the album (with various degrees of strength, but adore, nonetheless) except ‘Machine’ (which I like, but sometimes it confuses me a bit).
Thank you, to Josh Groban.
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