Search - Donna Summer :: Crayons

And You Thought It Would Never Happen ...

Tom Ragú | New York City | 06/13/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After countless remixes of "I Feel Love" and lots of GREATEST HITS packages "with two new tracks" ... the hard-core Donna Summer Fans ~ The Friends Unknown ~ really began to lose faith that we would ever see a full-length CD of all-new material.



We waited. We waited. We waited.



Well, the wait is over.



CRAYONS - Donna's first CD of all-new material in 17-years - does not disappoint. Gone forever are the Disco Days of "Hot Stuff" and "Heaven Knows". Donna Summer is a well-respected, 5-time Grammy Award winning songwriter and artiste' - not just a singer who can hold a note for 15 bars. (see "Dim All The Lights" ... "Let it fill you uuuuuuuuuuuup"...)



No stranger to challenging herself and going for the unexpected, she crosses over many music genres on this CD - as she has in all of her her post-SHE WORKS HARD FOR THE MONEY work - and has produced a very nice album that is very pleasant and easy to listen to. While I must admit that I actually prefer when Donna sings in full voice and shows you her God-given talent as a vocalist, the studio effects placed on her voice do grow on you after a few listens.





TRACK LIST:



1. Stamp Your Feet

2. Mr. Music

3. Crayons (featuring Ziggy Marley)

4. The Queen is Back

5. Fame (The Game)

6. Sand On My Feet

7. Drivin' Down Brazil

8. I'm A Fire

9. Slide Over Backwards

10. Science of Love

11. Be Myself Again

12. Bring Down The Reign

13. It's Only Love (bonus track)





STAND-OUT TRACKS:



"The Queen is Back"

"Sand On My Feet"

"Stamp Your Feet"

"I'm A Fire"

"Drivin' Down Brazil"





I have listened to The US release countless times over the last month, and I must say that it has been worth the wait. Dancing Queens and Gay Boys will revel in the remixes of released tracks as they come out. But for variety and diversity, this album is a standout. Go get yours today.



And then check out www.donnasummerlove.multiply.com

"

AT LAST - Donna Summer's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2

Johnny Myo | London, UK | 07/09/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Oh, hold on a minute... this is an album of new material. That just sounds like a greatest hits collection.

Well, I'm sure that, by now, most listeners already know the story behind that. Suffice to say that among this palette of varied - some might say conflicting - styles, the big, seven-minute disco workout I'm A Fire is worth the investment on it's own. But I'm getting ahead of myself - here's a track-by track-breakdown:



STAMP YOUR FEET From the opening whoa-oahs, there's no doubt that Donna's back in business with a radio-friendly belter of an "encouragement song" (as the lady herself describes it). The production signals a relentlessly modern approach, and boy, is this what's delivered over the next hour or so.



I LOVE MUSIC Kicks off all high-octane R'n'B in the style of Usher or Justin Trousersnake, and when she tells us, "I've got my iPod" in the opening line, it's hard not to wonder whether she's not just angling for a high-profile product ensdorsement. But it wins you over with its exhuberence. Perhaps moreso than...



CRAYONS, with it's nevertheless great lyric about celebrating diversity and a pleasant enough guest vocal from Ziggy Marley. Its skittering raggaeton vibe (think Rihanna's 'Pon De Replay) might be an already discarded flavour, but if you think Donna's already had one double espresso too many, she cranks up the pace even more on...



THE QUEEN IS BACK. "She wants a Toblerone". What the hell is THAT opening line all about? OK, I know she's singing something else, but it does sound uncannily like that. This rocking, tongue-in-cheek number seems based on a theme tune for a boxing flick like Rocky 6 or something, and you do get the sense that she's been limbering up in the gym for another sparring session with the `Industry'. Time for a bit of a rest between rounds? You've got to be kidding.



FAME rocks it out even more, with a jaded lyric about... well, the clue's in the title. Naturally, you're going to be put in mind of David Bowie's eponymous hit; then your mind might wander to Tina Turner's cover of Bowie's "1984", with which it has more common, musically. Then it might hit you that Crayons is a comeback album on a par with Tina Turner's Private Dancer. And THEN, the actual songs just get a whole lot better, starting with...



SAND ON MY FEET A mid-tempo ballad in which Donna enjoys a seaside holiday with her hubby, to the accompaniment of an acoustic guitar. Nice - you could imagine Rihanna, Kelly Clarkson or Pink singing this... then feel all warm and fuzzy that Donna Summer decided to come out of "retirement" to co-write and record it herself.



DRIVING DOWN BRAZIL is a bit of a story song, and Summer knows how to tell a story - this time to a playful bossanova beat. One of the real highlights of the album and, although it probably won't be single, it should be.



I'M A FIRE - That voice! Reminiscent of her disco monsters of the Seventies and Eighties, the slick production is nevertheless very much of the Noughties (naughties?), and hits the bullseye in the same way as a contemporary production/remixing team like The Freemasons, when they use a reliable, warmly-voiced industry pro like Siedah Garrett. Donna teases us with the line, "Can you feel it? Do I need to say it? Can't you just feel it?" before the track morphs into an even more infectious latin stomper, skipping through some holiday Spanish, but in a soaring vocal deilvery which even talents as great as La India and the estimable Liz Torres could take pointers from. I've heard some remixes of this track, and most of them have tended to follow the tedious, dated, bangbangbang, Victor Calderone/Junior Vasquez-style tweaking of the US gay circuit party (nightmare!). This original mix (by Sebastion Arocha Morton, I think) is as near to perfection as we're likely to get, but I wouldn't mind hearing some UK mixes, all the same.



SLIDE OVER BACKWARDS is a backwoods, bluegrass number all huskily and lazily intoned like Macy Gray - or "B.B. Queen"? Donna lives in Tennessee and she's clearly having a bit of fun here, singing as an alter ego called Hattie Mae Blanche Dubois(!) Well, if Tori Amos can do it...



SCIENCE OF LOVE. Rockiest track of the lot and very radio-friendly. Tipped as a future single, but I'd be surprised if it becomes one here in the UK. Her voice is especially strong on it, though.



BE MYSELF AGAIN is a piano-led torch ballad which comes across like the climax of some autobiographical stage show Donna might have penned - perhaps more hardcore fans could illuminate me on that one, if they know something I don't. Ms Summer always had an awesomely mature vocal style, but it just crackles away on this. It might be a bit too melodramatic for some but, if it is a showtune, then it's a Memory or a Don't Cry For Me, Argentina.



BRING DOWN THE REIGN Warm, slightly worthy ballad about the Darfur genocides, featuring a kiddies' choir. It's nice enough, but might have been a bit of a damp squib to close the album, if it hadn't been for...



IT'S ONLY LOVE Lucky European purchasers (and US fans intrepid enough to track down a special edition) get this bonus track, which is another seven-minute disco treat. It's not lyrically clever, and I can understand why it was left of the mainstream US release - daytime radio won't understand it at all, it's really little more than a groove - but its late-night hedonism will tear up any club set. The vocal is cool, soulful and while it puts me in mind of a Chaka Khan or a Rosie Gaines, it's still unmistakably Donna. Unlike in the US, a huge chunk of the UK population had its DNA chemically altered enough by the three "Summers of Love" in the late 80s for us to lap this up 20 years later. I can think of a few DJs and producers over here who'll be itching to get their mitts on the masters for remixes, too.



So that's it: sorry if I've made comparisons with other vocalists along the way, in order to try to describe the songs - I guess it just demonstrates how Donna Summer has been and still is a template for so many others. At 59, she wears me out at - ahem - let's say 39... and is more in command of her legendary voice than she ever has been. Somebody give the woman a freaking Toblerone - she's earned it."

QUE SERA ESTA VIDA, OH YO TE QUIERO, YO TE QUIERO ESTA MAÑAN

Mario Maldonado Alvarado | Mexico | 09/11/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"DONNA SUMMER: CRAYONS

Dear friends; these are great times, good times. We've been listening to many wannabe Divas for a while now, but after the release of the latest CD of the ultimate Dance Diva, here comes the bomb!!! Beneath the wings of Sony/BMG; the most sensitive company at the moment. Voila DONNA SUMMER!!! a truly Diva.

After 17 years releasing singles, soundtrack songs and giving concerts with her previous hits, Donna Summer has decided a comeback to the international scene and she has done it with such elegance that I'm knocked out. CRAYONS is an album that creeps discretely inside you, but at the second listening you're trapped ¡you cannot escape! CRAYONS it's full of good songs, and Summer shows triumphant herself at her best, because this woman is definitely a winner and remains triumphant on what she best knows to do, she was triumphant even when Disco era ended. After all this time her gay fans have been by her side. On the other hand CRAYONS guarantees a return in perfect form to one of the greatest singers of all time and that's more than many so called divas can offer. Because when it comes to music everything suits perfect to Donna; in "Mr. Music", "Fame", "The queen is back", she is bigger than big!!! And in tunes like "I'm a fire" and "It's only love" Donna shows why she is the ultimate dance Diva; and if you pick "Be Myself Again" you'll get Goosebumps. That only song deserves the album purchase. In synthesis there are not filler songs is an album delivered with dignity, and with a "know how" (savoir faire) that sends the implicit message; "this is my territory and the jokes are over" get aside "wannabes"; the queen is back!!!

"