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Helpless Heart
Maura O'Connell
Warner Bros / Wea
- List price: $9.98
- Lowest new price: $5.57
- Lowest used price: $4.94
Can't stop The Girl- Helpless Heart
- Summerfly
- Trouble In The Fields
- Cast A Long Shadow
- Only A Fool
- Just Like The Blues
- Isn't It Always Love
- Bed For The Night
- Western Highway
- You'll Never Know
Average customer rating:
Good music
This cd was recommended to me by a friend when I mentioned that I enjoyed Alison Krauss' cd "Forget About It". Maura O'Connell's music is along a similar vein. I enjoy listening to it and have a couple of her other cds as well.
Modern, Mellow and Folksy
These are folksy type songs but they don't sound old or recycled. They have a fresh, modern sound to them without crossing the border into rock or pop or even country. Each of the songs on this album could conceivably fall into one of those other categories but they are more properly in their own. They are also quite enjoyable.
Maura has a lovely voice. It sometimes seems as if it has been electronically enhanced to compete with the very strong instrumentation but never sounds strained or overwhelmed. It is a nice mix.
Maura's Amazing Voice
My family and I just love Maura O'Connell. She has a voice like no other, a voice that just goes right to the heart of whatever music she is singing - ballad or "jig" or country or "standard" - she just sings it better than anyone. We have been to an Emmylou Harris concert and could neither hear nor understand one note or word - a total waste of time and money. In contrast, we went to a Maura O'Connell concert a few years ago where she sang in a large concert hall (University of Illinois, Krannert Center - one of the concert halls there) and she sang - without amplification - and you could hear her all over the hall, that pure beautiful voice. It can be so completely tender, yet simultaneously powerful and strong. I will never in life understand why America (and elsewhere) gives its hard-earned cash to the likes of Britney Spears or Madonna or Mariah Carey, et al when they could be paying Maura O'Connell for the pure and simple pleasure of hearing that voice. It is one of life's gifts. Buy this CD. Buy any and all of her CDs. Enrich her in return for how she enriches music. Her voice is a joy and a blessing to anyone who loves music.
Amazing Simply Amazing !!!
This album has to be one of the best albums of all time! Maura O'Connell has one of the most expressive and powerful voices that I have ever heard. She can be sweet and gentle when the need arises or powerful and strong. Her range is truly staggering and she has that unique ability to touch your soul. My favourite tracts are Cast a long Shadow and the Title Track Helpless Heart. I agree with the previous reviewer, you cannot put Maura and Mary Black in the same category - Maura is simply streets ahead!! Buy this album and enhance your life!
CAN'T STOP THE GIRL!!!!
Look, lets just lay it on the line here. Maura O'Connell is NOT...as described in the notational Amazon blurb...just one of the greatest IRISH singers around. You can take that restrictive little adjective qualifier out of the description and junk it. Maura O'Connell is one of the greatest SINGERS around. PERIOD.
"The Voice" can do virtually anything. Any genre (though I haven't heard her try opera yet), any tempo, any time, any place.
And when you HEAR "The Voice" you know it instantly to be hers...just as you do with Judith Durham of the old Seekers.Maura is Maura, and as soon as she starts up you know you can just settle back and expect a TREAT. "Red" ALWAYS delivers.
I Don't plan to go overlong with this review (if you want more yak from me about how good she is, go read the "Walls & Windows" review). Don't need to. This album is flat out WONDERFUL. It may well be her best. It has all the wonderful instrumentation you expect on an O'Connell CD, and all the heart and sublime vocal nuances. The songs on this thing are just fabulous from start to finish and I hesitate to name any titles at all as being "special". They ALL are. If pushed, I would have to say my biggest love affair here is with "Cast A Long Shadow" (but that's just me), though EVERYTHING else runs "dead-close second"!
If you have never heard Maura O'Connell before (what cave are YOU fresh out of?), then saddle up with THIS album, pardner. Right here. Right now. "Helpless Heart" is a real gem. Be warned, though. Once exposed to "Irish Red" you WILL absolutely and unequivocally become an O'Connell junkie and crave her music like a fish craves water.
WELCOME TO THE CLUB!!!!! Me, I'm about to DIE to hear her do
"Danny Boy"!!!!