ROMANTIC LOVE SONGS (MUSIKALISCHE ZÄRTLICHKEITEN)

back 1988


ROMANTIC LOVE SONGS

835 977-2, Polydor Germany

  1. Unchained Melody (4:36)
  2. I Don't Know How To Love Him (3:37)
  3. Theme From "Love Story" (3:57)
  4. If You Could Read My Mind (3:45)
  5. Killing Me Softly (4:08)
  6. I Only Have Eyes For You (4:24)
  7. Endless Love (2:54)
  8. I Just Called To Say I Love You (4:18)
  9. Hey Jude (4:37)
  10. You Make Me Feel Brand New (5:27)
  11. Without You (2:52)
  12. Ballade Pour Adeline (3:14)
  13. What Now My Love (2:55)
  14. Wedding Song (There Is Love) (3:37)







Review
Another compilation from 1984, simply titled ROMANTIC LOVE SONGS (POLYDOR 835 977-2) takes the listener into romance at cloud level – if I may be allowed to exaggerate in a good way! This set draws you in with mostly string arrangements that are pitched like Mantovani in its familiar passages and then interspersed with Fender Rhodes keyboards, solo violins, trumpet and chorus. Wonderful surprises include the disco ballad treatment of I Only Have Eyes for You; a live (with audience applause at the start and finish), emotionally charged interpretation of a saxophone led Endless Love; the lightly Latin flavouring in Love Story through the use of massed guitars a la Manuel and the Music of the Mountains in a mid-tempo rendition of the Francis Lai classic; and the cheerful choral rendition of I Just Called to Say I Love You which I dare say, sounds better than Stevie Wonder's original. Finally, Ballade pour Adeline and What Now My Love send you to romantic France on a bed of strings that seem to reach infinitely into the upper atmosphere of dreamy consciousness.

- ALAN CHONG