Hear For You Review

07/13/2005 6:30 AM, AMG


Here for You coincided with Petula Clark's 50th year as a commercial recording artist, and on that basis alone it would demand some attention; the fact that she was still delving into new pop sounds at that point only made it better, although the limitations of her voice were also becoming clearer, along with her success at coping with those limitations; in her case, less range simply means throwing more of herself into the songs, and the result is a matter of less ending up as more. The album opens with "Here We Are," one of the finest records of Clark's career and, in many ways, a distant thematic sequel to her 1964 recording "True Love Never Runs Smooth." The best of the rest are the gently understated ballads, including "Easy" (co-authored by Clark) and Stephen Sondheim's "Not a Day Goes By," which builds to the most dramatic finish of this entire album. "Pinball Wizard" is actually more successful than Clark's covers of Beatles songs from the early '60s, despite an arrangement that's noisier than it needed to be -- it's not clear precisely why she felt compelled to record the song in the 1990s, except perhaps for Tommy's emergence as a Broadway hit, but whatever the reason, the song is one of her better ventures into rock, and totally unexpected at this late date in her career. Following it with the melodic, understated "Stranger in Paradise" from Kismet is downright bizarre -- her lilting performance calls up images of Alma Cogan from the late end of her career. Producer Bruce Kimmel has generally done an excellent job of surrounding Clark with sympathetic arrangements and accompaniment. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide