Another Great Discovery by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Darrell Vail | Washington, D.C. USA | 04/06/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Andrew Lloyd Webber has done it again in his discovery of Andrea Ross. Her voice has a beautifully clear tone and an amazing versatility especially for someone her age. The album has some delightful favorites that she makes her own. I'm sure we'll be hearing a great deal more about her in years to come. I highly recommended her debut recording!"
I found a one star singer
Isao Fujita | Japan | 05/01/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I found a one star singer,
When I listen to music, I listen to a CD of Andrea first,
The singing voice is splendid beautifully,
I am healed by her singing voice,
She is not yet famous in Japan,
However, it will be for the splendid singing voice to be known in Japan, if activity in U.S.A. and the U.K. continues,I pray for a day to listen to a singing voice of Andrea sometime in Japan coming."
Andrea Ross, Moon River a winner!
C. Kou | IL | 03/19/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"When Andrea sings . . . my heart melts. How can it not?
I discovered Andrea Ross rather by accident. I believe Amazon recommended her album to me several months ago after I had viewed something by Hayley Westenra. Andrea's album had just been released exclusively in the UK, and the Amazon price tag was $45. I took a pass on it in spite of the intriguing samples I heard on her website. I saved a link, however.
Last week I was cleaning out my computer and ran across the link. Who is Andrea Ross? I wondered, and why had I saved her link? That took me to her website where I rediscovered her. This time, with the price of the album half of what it used to be, I couldn't pass it up.
I found her voice entirely captivating, and she has a great story to go along with her sparkling persona. Andrea played the title role in Annie at age 11; at age 14 she was "16 going on 17" in The Sound of Music. When she was 13 she sent a karaoke demo tape to Andrew Lloyd Webber. That led directly to her first record contract with Universal at age 15 and a starring role in Andrew's Whistle Down the Wind.
Listening to her sing, one can hear immediately what Andrew Lloyd Webber recognized in her. She has a very mature vocal style for her age (or any age). Her diction is perfect, her voice has depth and richness, while losing none of its innocence. She draws on her stage acting experience, giving her delivery a varied spectrum of emotion and expression.
That would be more than enough to seal the deal as a singer, but beyond all that, Andrea also happens to be a remarkably beautiful girl. Visually, her performance absolutely glows with a tender and effortless grace. It's a stunning combination that one doesn't often find.
Unfortunately, Andrea's album Moon River suffers from inconsistent recording quality and lackluster mixing and mastering. It ranges from "quite good" to "what were they thinking?"
Andrea's voice sometimes gets lost in the mix, with the orchestra or the background choir drowning her out not because her voice is too quiet or weak, but because the levels on her track have been inexplicably dropped relative to the other tracks. This is especially apparent in "You Raise Me Up."
Sometimes the processing on her vocal track is tastefully subtle, allowing the listener to hear her voice as it really is (as in "Learn To Be Lonely"), and at other times a rather ugly and artificial-sounding reverb plate DSP has been applied (as in "You Raise Me Up"), which is a shame, since her voice does not need to be covered by any processing. The most I would apply to it is perhaps a very light convolution reverb DSP just to add some "real" space.
Despite its many flaws, Moon River is a more-than-worthwhile album simply because of Andrea. It is still a UK exclusive album (even though Andrea is a Boston resident), but hopefully she'll be brought to the attention US audiences soon, especially after her US tour with Whistle Down the Wind, which finished last September.
"
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1