John and Lucie Collins - A Voice In The Night

Hear The Track Here

I raved like a mad thing at the original A Voice In The Night which I reviewed first back in December 2006, and was my first encounter with this versatile and accomplished husband and wife team (he does the music, she sings like an angel). Surprisingly enough, the original was way out of my normal league being a kinda/sorta 'torch song' but it was arranged and produced so well, it even climbed the mountain of predjudice I have for the more 'easy listening' side of the musical spectrum. Interestingly enough, I didn't keep it but have since had least three separate keepers from them (Open Up Your Heart, Sometimes and I Feel Your Heart) so maybe the time is ripe for a keeper of their oiginal track to me.

That, as they say, would be serendipity.

That quality seems to be around John and Lucie a lot just lately because (I presume) their daughter Alyssa - whose The Hiragana Song I reviewed a while back (Ed: it was March 2007, he's being lazy today) - was produced - in part anyway by the legendary Art Munson. He also appears to co-produce this new version of the song that first drew me to John and Lucie and of which I wrote 'sends shivers down my backbone' Mmmmm, so far so wonderful. I so wish now that I'd kept the original of that track but I think it feel off my hard drive at some point; I would like to contrast that version with this one to see what had actually been changed. Certainly the tenor of the track has been somewhat reworked because - in my hazy memory - it paid a lot more attention to the vocal than this version does. In some ways it has flattened something I considered the most appealing part of the track, the lyrics and the vocal.

That isn't to say that it doesn't work, it sure does. Just in a different way, is all. The jazz club feel of the original has been extended and made much more 'live' sounding giving it a harder cohesiveness that gives this track that final polish. The brass is in rude health too, the sax tones in particular being an experience in and of itself. A Voice In The Night is bagged and tagged as Pop but its soo much more than that. It's a feast of all the best of the blue jazz tradition couched in a production so clean and clear you could drink out of it. It was always a terrific song, and with a fairly hefty production to back it up but this version of A Voice In The Night is a commercial dream, and as radio-friendly as you could ever want.

Top class song. Highly Recommended.