"Black Velvet WITHOUT that slow, Southern style."Alannah Myles- 'Black Velvet', Music Album Reviews (2007) from ChrisOnline.biz

Text Box: Alannah Myles, ‘Black Velvet’ (2007) Black Velvet WITHOUT that slow, Southern style... Fabled one-hit wonder and Canadian songstress Alannah Myles is back with ‘Black Velvet’- new material headed with an electronic reworking of her finest hour. Alannah says that she had always wanted to title an album ‘Black Velvet’, after the success of the track- roughly translated, that’s pretty much all the average music fan associates her with. The reworking gives the listener the impression that maybe Alannah has just been unplugged from The Matrix and wants to give the track a reworking with that fast, electro style- it’s not a welcome reprisal. What cannot be denied is that Myles’ voice is just as strong, poignant and definitive as it ever was, sadly the production from fellow Canadian Mike Borkosky doesn’t do what it might have done for her. But you can’t keep a good songbird down and there are some successes on this collection. Second track ‘Comment Ca Va’ is a funky and sassy romp of a tune. There’s just something sexy about singing in French and combining that with the sort of digitally intrepid beat that this one features takes it above comparisons of perhaps- a poor man’s ‘Lady Marmalade’. Just as third track, ‘Prime of My Life’ might draw comparisons with a certain other sultry Canadian singer’s work, its construed lyrics and big-band beat just about take it free of all parallels of Ms. Twain. Then come efforts like ‘Only Wings’ where Myles goes for uncharacteristic high, ballad vocals, laced over progressive strings which makes it instantly forgettable. ‘Leave it Alone’ continues this theme and whilst working better with Myles’ dreamy vocals, the electronic underpinning is about as welcome as the bike bell that sounds at the start of ‘What is Love’- which to be fair does redeem itself thanks to Myles’ amazing voice. ‘Faces in the Crowd’ is another bizarrely sombre effort which details Alannah’s trips across the Channel, though she doesn’t say whether Sea France or P&O was her vessel of choice- which she might as well have done considering the blandness of it. This album is not without highlights but sadly it’s the lowlights that are more likely to stay with you- spearheaded by the criminal rearrangement of the classic ‘Black Velvet’. Myles undoubtedly has a lot to offer to the industry with more talent in her little finger than most talent show singers, but she needs a new producer to exploit this. 5/10 CM