Rating 4.5
Not her best.I adore Dar Williams. I find her music to be introspective, thoughtful, lyrically beautiful and true-to-life, and musically sound. This is what I expected from The Green World, but sadly, I was a bit disappointed with this album. While many of the songs (After All, Calling the Moon, We Learned the Sea) are simply beautiful and have excellent lyrics, other songs just don't suit my tastes. This album is very different from Dar's earlier work; it definitely has a more "country" sound to it, which I don't care for. I enjoyed Dar as the folk singer/songwriter she was in the early days, and this CD seems to have lost some of that integrity and eagerness of the earlier albums. Nevertheless, it's not a terrible CD by any stretch of the imagination, and in the right mood, I do enjoy it. However, it is much different from Dar's other albums, and the potential listener should be aware of this before purchasing this CD. Listen to this a few times and then decideThe Green World was not an album I initially liked much at first, but after a couple years of listening to these songs along side Dar's other albums, I feel that this is her most (with the possible exception of "Mortal City") consistantly good album . There truly is not a bad song on this album. It just took me a while to catch on.She Sings My LifeOkay, so you listened to Honesty Room and Mortal City and fell in love with Dar. At first, The Green World may dishearten you because her sound is quite different on this album. But if you listen to the songs, you realize that Dar is staying true to form. I hate it when people use the word "pop" to describe her music. "Pop" music is about entertainment and appealing to the masses. Dar Williams uses music to tell stories, to evoke emotions, to relate to real people living our lives. The Green World continues in this vein.Dar's new album, The Beauty of Rain, is due out February 18. Critical acclaim of that album says she "picks up where The Green World left off," but I think fans of Mortal City and Honesty Room will be pleased. She refines her old style in Rain, focuses more on the intimate details of the individual stories. ... |
