Audio Beaverhausen: The Puppini Sisters Live the High Life

Hoorah, The Puppini Sisters are back in grand style with their new album, High Life! This is their first in five years and it's fabulous; an event!

Noteably, singer Stephanie O'Brien has been replaced by Emma Smith. But the harmonies are still lush and gorgeous. The Puppini Sisters are in smashing form with their typically eclectic (to say the least) and fun selection of pop tunes.

You haven't lived until you hear these women cover ~ in swing-band style ~ "Supercalifragilistic," Carmen Miranda's '''Tico Tico," "Rapper's Delight/ Chandelier," Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and much more. The album kicks off with "Is This the Highlife?" and ends with "Hit the Road, Jack." The trio is backed by a three-piece band, except for on the finale, where they have a full orchestra background.

The album will be released in the USA this Friday, March 18. I ordered  on cd but Marcella Puppini sent me a copy on-line, graciously, so I could review it. You can order it on Amazon or wherever fine music is sold.

Class with flash, campy and vampy. put High Life on your must have list.

Incidentally, I recently reviewed Marcella's solo album on this blog and did a Q&A with her as well. Busy lady! I'll be doing a Q&A with all three ladies very soon!

Audio Beaverhausen: Adele's 25

Adele, a fellow Taurean, is now 27. Her new album is 25. Her previous albums were 19 and 21. I wonder if she sits around the house, scratching her head, wondering "What should I call this one?"

One proposed single off 25 is titled "When We Were Young." When was she not?

Adele has slimmed down physically though her voice is as big as ever. She's a married lady with a baby now.

Don't you find it funny that Adele says The Spice Girls were her biggest musical influence? And she's not joking!

As for 25, it may not be her greatest masterpiece as an artist, though it's passionately sung (with lots of echo) and accompanied on piano with lush orchestrations and back-up vocals. But Adele's lyrics of love lost are a bit well worn at this stage in her career. There's something sadly stagnant about this set of soulful torch songs.

Adele would be well advised to move on thematically. A little added Spicey pop would be refreshing, for instance. Still, the album is bound to be a crowd pleaser. Perfect for any pity party. Recommended with reservations.

Audio Beaverhausen: Coming Home for the Holidays with Kristin Chenoweth

At one point in her concert recording, Coming Home, released November 17th, Kristin Chenoweth says she's "not a screamer but a singer." Take that, Idina Menzel! But, indeed, that proclamation rings true.

Ms C already has released a Christmas album but, as I listened to Coming Home on the night before Thanksgiving, I found it a nice bit of holiday-season easy listening. Kristin's voice is reminiscent of Broadway divas of the '50s and '60s like Barbara Cook, for example, powerful yet velvety smooth. She has every right to be a "show"-off. It is an operatic coloratura soprano very much at odds with her girlish speaking voice.

When the diminutive (4' 11") diva sings "I Could Have Danced All Night" from The King & I or "Maybe This Time" from Cabaret, it's Wow! and Holy cow!, even Ker-pow!, as she performs for her home town of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma (where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain -- but she doesn't do that song herein). I wouldn't miss a concert of hers when it comes to New York City after hearing this cd (also available for download at Amazon and Cd Baby).

I've long been a fan of KC, though, from stage to screen (her line, "Two scoops of crazy with a side of kookoo-kachoo!" from You Again is a scene-stealing classic) and tv (Pushing Up Daisies and (another guilty pleasure) GCB (Good Christian Bitches), a one-season flop that was kind of like Dynasty as political satire that I watched religiously.

Chenoweth is a progressive GCB herself, an evangelical Christian who is a big supporter of the LGBT community. Many of her song choices on the PBS-produced album seem to reflect this. Her amazing cover of "Over the Rainbow," for instance. Or Dolly Parton's "Little Sparrow." Or disco-ing down with "No More Tears." Whether singing pop, or Broadway tunes like her gorgeous rendition of Jerome Kern's "All the Things You Are," Chenoweth's melifluous talent is a godsend. For that, I truly give thanks.

Audio Beaverhausen: Barry Manilow's Duets with The Dead

Barry Manilow's My Dream Duets is my Welcome to My Nightmare.

I appropriately listened to it in the privacy of my inner sanctum on Halloween night as it's, frankly, a ghoulish endeavor ironically timed for release the Tuesday before Halloween.

While I was rather appalled by the karaoke approach of Barbra's duet with dead Elvis on her latest album, I'm mortified times 11 listening to unwilling participants unable to decline the opportunity (or accept) to do these duets with Mr Manilow.

Mostly, these "collaborations" seem, at the very least, unnecessary. I mean, do we really need to hear Barry barge in on Mama Cass' "Dream a Little Dream of Me" (with this crass Cass intro: "And now to sing this lovely ballad: ME and Mama Cass!") or Frankie Lymon's doo-wop version of "Goody Goody"?

Our boy Barry is now 71 and I suppose the dream of these duets is to meet these artists in the hereafter and put on really divine performances, rocking the clouds. Mr M's voice, while retaining its smooth styling and sense of show-biz pizzazz, shows strain on some tracks (most evident on "Sunshine on My Shoulder" "with" John Denver) though his redeeming virtue is distinctly his arranging and production throughout.

Perhaps the most successful duet is the first with Jimmy Durante ("The Song's Gotta Come from the Heart") , especially in the cleverly spoken intro. And the Manilow meets Dusty Springfield "The Look of Love" is actually touching.

Too much of this album gave me the distinctly uncomfortable feel of necrophiliac opportunism, especially the songs done with Whitney Houston, Andy Williams and Marilyn Monroe.  "What a Wonderful World" with Louis Armstrong closes the album but is a completely irrelevant track. And "The Candyman" duet with Sammy Davis Jr.? Ridiculous. High camp for years to come.

While the album was perfect for my Halloween night in a perverse way, it may not be so perfect for other nights. This is, in the end, recording industry zombie-ism, aurally bringing back the dead, remixed, and ready to eat our very souls.