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Dame Shirley Bassey
The Performance (album)
Our Shirley is back and, believe me, there ain’t nothing like this dame! With an album of all-new material she doesn’t just sing with her powerfully unique voice, but tells you a story, rolling out the drama that has been this lady’s life, a story of every stage she has ever walked upon and every audience she has held captivated with the sound of her dulcet tones. This isn’t Dame Shirl doing the bombastic style of her classics that we all know and love, like Big Spender, this is the lady being more reflective and subtle. But she still reaches those wonderful heights that make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck — especially on the opening track Almost There. For The Performance she has collaborated with many famous names and this in itself proves how well respected she is by other musicians. Take That’s Gary Barlow has penned This Time, while Nice Men was written by the excellent KT Tunstall. On the final track, The Performance Of My Life, those stalwarts of beautiful bombastic pleasures the Pet Shop Boys, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, take a hand. But the track that stands head and shoulders above the rest comes from a collaboration with true understanding of Welsh minds — and that is The Girl From Tiger Bay which was written by the Manic Street Preachers for this amazing woman of substance. Throughout the album the brilliant composer David Arnold pulls things together beautifully, with ornate orchestration that proves he was the right man for the job. And despite their collective musical credentials, no one connected with this album stands in the way of Dame Shirley who makes every song a joy to listen to. The majority of the music press has been unkind in their reviews of this album by our Shirl, but I’m here to tell them that they’re wrong in condemning The Performance — they obviously can’t see or hear the power, the history and the emotion that she’s put into each and every performance on it. She is a true Welsh icon and this album confirms that, simply by effortlessly showing the awesome power of her incomparable voice. Dame Shirley Bassey is unique and should be respected for that. GG 38
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