作者 Brien (B-jam) 看板 RnB_Soul 標題 Re: VIVIAN GREEN 時間 Sun Jun 6 10:41:39 2004 ─────────────────────────────────────── Introducing Vivian Green - Love Story (Full Album) - Bio first followed by review. "Vivian Green A Love Story It's no surprise that Vivian Green, Columbia Records newest singer-songwriter, is such a musical power house. From her earliest memories, Vivian Green has been surrounded by music. "My mother used to sing to me all the time -- jazz, spirituals, everything," Green, now 23, recalls while describing her childhood in Philadelphia. "She even made up little songs to teach us things like our address, or how to spell our names. She even made the books of the Bible into a song. I still remember it." To prove her point, Green breaks into a finger-snapping riff that lists all sixty-six books of the Bible -- "Genesis& Exodus& Leviticus&." -- and ends with a giggle. "In fact," she says, "my very first performance was singing that song. My mother dressed me up and put me on stage and I did a little dance at the church talent show." Vivian was five years old. At eight, Vivian took up the piano. At eleven, she started writing songs. And at thirteen, Vivian Green became the fifth member of a girl group with the linguistically-inspired name Younique. "We performed some of my early material," she says laughing. "And we were not very good. But we had fun." At 15, Vivian started pursing music seriously, sending out demos and writing songs for other artists. But what Green spent most of her time doing was singing. Friday night, Saturday night, and many nights during the week, Green would put on a fancy dress and get up in front of an audience of hundreds, sometimes thousands. Night after night she would dazzle them with the music she learned as a child. "I got to sing all the songs that I heard from my mother growing up," she says. "The band leaders couldn't believe that at eighteen I knew "Bye, Bye Black Bird," "Ipanema," "Misty," "All of Me," "Moondance." I knew all the popular standards. And I love to sing that stuff." Green played wedding receptions and banquets and sometimes the gigs would go on all night. For a performer, there could be no better training ground. "It was really good for me as a singer," says Green. "I don't have stage fright at all. Plus, I learned to suck it up when nobody claps," she laughs. "I remember one time singing my heart out to 'Evergreen' by Barbra Streisand. When I finished, you could hear a pin drop because everyone was eating. If you can get through that as a singer then you're okay with anything!" The next year, when Green was 19, she started singing back-up for fellow Philly home girl Jill Scott. Green was in the middle of Jill's Scott's international tour when her manager got her on the phone: "Record company people want to meet you! But you're in Amsterdam, come home!" That was the end of August, 2001. By November, she says, "the ink was dry [on my Columbia contract]. It was like a dream come true. " Her debut album, A Love Story, is an inspired blend of new Philly soul coupled with the vocal maturity Green developed through years of performing in front of live audiences. And her self-penned lyrics reveal the emotional range of a young woman who's seen some of life's ups and downs. "The album actually is a love story," says Green. "I wear my heart on my sleeve ." But don't expect the traditional boy-meets-girl plot line. Rather, the album is a sophisticated, autobiographical rumination on a relationship gone wrong, learning to love yourself, and then finding true love. The infectious track, "Emotional Rollercoaster," was written when Green was going through a rough time with her boyfriend. The song came to Green while she was on her morning run trying to clear her head about an argument she'd had with her boyfriend the night before. "The song popped into my head and I sang it all the way home until I could get to my tape recorder," she says. "It came from me realizing there is something really wrong but not knowing how to get out." During the making of the album, Vivian wrote "Superwoman" one day while reminiscing about the old relationship. "He just wanted me to be something that I wasn't with these ridiculous requests and demands. One day I was like, 'This is not me, I am not superwoman!'" If you ask Green how long she laboured over her debut project, her answer might surprise you. "I did a lot of songs from scratch," she says with a modest shrug. "I'd just go into the studio, like, 'What do we want to do today, something up-tempo?' And before the day was over we'd have a whole song. I like writing like that. I'm really fast." She sings? She writes? She can put together a song in a single day? She sure sounds like superwoman to us. Steve Ripley This album was due out on 12 November but I guess it was deferred slightly. Sampler is reviewed below but now the full album has arrived. I must say that the whole album hangs together much better rather than just being a selection of various tracks. Wishful thinking is a glorious tale of optimism and for me as good if not better than the previously highlighted cuts, quite beat-y but quite mellow too. What is love is a great slow ballad, in the neo envelope, whereas Final Hour, another ballad, is more traditional piano led supper club soul. Staying in that kind of groove but altogether jazzier, and better, is No Sittin by the phone. Music is a jumpy stop start affair which doesn't really go anywhere. Affected pumps it up a touch, driving yet easy beat with a catchy hook. Nothing but love keeps up the standard of the slower material, in fact, I have to say that this one does it for me, builds nicely, good harmonies, bit of freestyle and a mellow groove. Another great 'Storm' is Complete where Vivean's voice does let go a bit more and all the better for it. Closing with Keep on going, the pace is lifted again, nice groove to this. 14 tracks now and a plethora of great material, the album fits together well, excelling on the slower material but still enough interest for the dancefloor. We have here a great emerging talent, I just wonder whether the voice is quite unique enough. The tracks reviewed earlier were :- Fanatic, Superwoman, Emotional Rollercoaster, 24 hour blues, Be good to you. Making up the album we have Wishful thinking, What is love, Music, Final Hour, No sittin' by the phone, Affected, Nothing but love, Complete, Keep on going. 轉錄自http://www.lifeandsoulpromotions.co.uk/so-urbanalbums.htm --

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