Little Voice

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  • Artist: Sara Bareilles
  • Rating: StarStarStar
  • Release Date: July 17, 2007
  • Total Time: 48:53
  • Type: Lyrics are included with the album
  • Genre: Rock

Review

For her first major outing Little Voice, Sara Bareilles puts forth an intimate, emotionally charged album that sounds remarkably polished for a fledgling self-taught songwriter/performer. In fact, her voice even stands up to professionally trained pop divas like Christina Aguilera. Her only potential downfall is that she fits so perfectly in the adult contemporary female pianist mold that comparisons are inevitable -- Bareilles' vocal range is similar to Fiona Apple and she bears a striking physical resemblance to a merged composite of Vanessa Carlton and Michelle Branch. Despite the plethora of comparable looking and sounding artists, she still manages to stand out. The songs are sultry and generally upbeat, and delivered in a soulful manner with polished production and arrangement, but her X factor is in her ability to make it all sound unforced and very, very easy. Unquestionably, she's a natural with a huge voice and personality that shine through with spirited energy here. Perhaps the best and most original track is the ultra-peppy (think "Benny and the Jets") "Love on the Rocks" (not to be confused with the Neil Diamond number). With a warm wah-wah guitar and meandering Motown-esque harmonies, it makes for a perfect summertime love song. Undoubtedly her expertise is writing love songs like this, evident by song titles like "Love Song" and "One Sweet Love," but there are enough uniquely spun takes on the subject to make it interesting. In "Fairytale," children's stories are used as a metaphor for escapism and dealing with depression, and with the moody ballad "Gravity," falling in love is compared to getting caught in an inescapable gravitational pull. In the latter tearjerker of a tune, she shows off her chops with a song-stopping vocal crescendo, further proving that she has a style that's something special, even among all the stiff competition. ~ Jason Lymangrover, Rovi

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Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Little Voice (album)

Top
Little Voice
Studio album by Sara Bareilles
Released July 3, 2007 (USA, Canada)
May 9, 2008 (Europe)
May 12, 2008 (UK)
Genre Pop rock, soul
Length 49:01
Label Epic
Producer Eric Rosse
Sara Bareilles chronology
Careful Confessions
(2004)
Little Voice
(2007)
Kaleidoscope Heart
(2010)
Singles from Little Voice
  1. "Love Song"
    Released: June 19, 2007
  2. "Bottle It Up"
    Released: April 29, 2008
  3. "Gravity (US)"
    Released: February 3, 2009[1]
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 3.5/5 stars[2]
Digital Spy 2/5 stars[3]
PopMatters 8/10 stars[4]
Rolling Stone 3.5/5 stars[5]

Little Voice is the debut major-label album by American singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles, which was released on July 17, 2007 on the Epic Records label. Six of the tracks are re-recorded studio versions of songs from her previous album, Careful Confessions. A two-disc special edition of Little Voice with live acoustic tracks was released on March 18, 2008. The bonus disc also includes an interview with Bareilles and accompanying videos of the performances.

The album debuted on the US Billboard 200 at number 45, selling about 16,000 copies in its first week.[6] As of January 13, 2011, the album has been certified platinum by the RIAA and peaked at number seven on the Billboard 200 and has currently sold over one million copies in the United States.[7] The album debuted at number 26 in New Zealand, helped by "Love Song" reaching number one on the radio airplay chart. In the UK, the album debuted at #9 with sales of 14,484.

"Love Song" was selected as the first single. It was featured as the iTunes Single of the Week from June 19 to 26. In 2008, "Bottle It Up" was released as the second single. The video was directed by Marcos Siega.[8] The third single in the U.S. was supposed to be "Gravity", with the video released on February 3, 2009, but no further information was ever revealed as to the date of the single release.[9]

The album was well received by critics. "Love Song" was nominated for Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 51st Grammy Awards.

When asked in an interview by UK newspaper The Daily Mirror about how she would describe her music, Bareilles said, "I guess I would say it's piano-based pop/soul," and said she listened to a lot of early soul and jazz when making the album.[10]

Contents

Track listing

All songs written by Sara Bareilles; "Love on the Rocks" co-written by Javier Dunn.

  1. "Love Song" – 4:18
  2. "Vegas" – 4:07
  3. "Bottle It Up" – 3:00 (3:18 on 2-disc edition)
  4. "One Sweet Love" – 4:20
  5. "Come Round Soon" – 3:33
  6. "Morningside" – 3:58
  7. "Between the Lines" – 4:34
  8. "Love on the Rocks" – 4:13
  9. "City" – 4:33
  10. "Many the Miles" – 5:11
  11. "Fairytale" – 3:14
  12. "Gravity" – 3:52
  13. "Any Way the Wind Blows" (Japan/Platinum MusicPass bonus track)

Bonus acoustic tracks (2-disc edition)

  1. "Bottle It Up"
  2. "Love Song"
  3. "In Your Eyes"
  4. "Many the Miles"
  5. "Gravity"

All acoustic versions were recorded in 2008 as part of a live session for Stripped Music. The two-disc version also replaces the original version of "Bottle It Up" with the radio edit, which is renamed "Bottle It Up" (remix edit).

Production

  • Arranged, produced, recorded and mixed by Eric Rosse
  • Basic tracks recorded and engineered by Howard Christopher Willing
  • Vocals and overdubs recorded and engineered by Eric Rosse
  • Assistant engineers: Dave Colvin (NRG Studios), Bill Mims (Sunset Sound Recorders), Charlie Paakari (Capitol Studios)

Personnel

  • Drums: Matt Chamberlain, Brian MacLeod
  • Percussion: Rafael Padilla, Eric Ivan Rosse
  • Bass: Chris Chaney
  • Piano: Sara Bareilles
  • Fender Rhodes: Sara Bareilles
  • Mellotron: Eric Ivan Rosse
  • Guitars: Stuart Mathis, Bruce Watson, Lyle Workman, Joel Shearer,
  • Programming: Eric Ivan Rosse
  • Cello: Cameron Stone
  • String arrangements: Eric Ivan Rosse
  • Backing vocals: Javier Dunn, Josh Day (both on "Many The Miles"), Sara Bareilles ("Love Song")

Singles

  1. "Love Song" was the lead single of this album. It was released in the USA on June 19, 2007, EU on April 25, 2008, and in the UK on April 2008. It is Bareilles' most successful single, charting at #4 in the USA, #4 in the UK, and #22 on the EU Top 200.
  2. "The River" (live) was released on January 1, 2008. Although not a mainstream release, "The River" is a live cover of Joni Mitchell's "River".
  3. "Bottle It Up" was the second official single, released in the USA on April 29, 2008. It did not gain as much popularity as "Love Song", and only to chart on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles at #7 which is equal to #107. It was released in the UK on October 13, 2008, but failed to make any impact on the charts, peaking at #92.
  4. "Gravity" was supposed to be the third US single from the album. The video was released online in February 2009 and appeared on VH1's top 20 countdown. The song also appears in the TV series Community, and plays during a (intended to be humorous) montage of lingering looks between the characters Annie and Jeff. The montage is then instantly parodied using the song as backing for similar moments between the characters Abed and Pierce. This sparked a series of YouTube covers of the montage using "Gravity".

Charts

Chart (2008) Peak
position
Australian Albums Chart 49
Austrian Albums Chart 46
Belgian Albums Chart 45
Dutch Albums Chart 31
European Top 100 Albums 24
French Albums Chart[11] 87
Irish Albums Chart 37
Italian Albums Chart 45
New Zealand Albums Chart 26
Mexican Albums Chart 15
Swiss Albums Chart 34
U.S. Billboard 200 7
U.S. Billboard Comprehensive Albums 8
UK Albums Chart 9

References


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