Singer CD

MUSIC

POP

Song Listing

Disc 1

Song Title

1. My Love Will Never Die ~ Diamanda Gal s (Vocals)

2. Reap What You Sow ~ Diamanda Gal s (Vocals)

3. Were You There When They Crucified My Lord? ~ Diamanda Gal s (Vocals)

4. Gloomy Sunday ~ Diamanda Gal s (Vocals)

5. Balm In Gilead / Swing Low, Sweet Chariot ~ Diamanda Gal s (Vocals)

6. Insane Asylum ~ Diamanda Gal s (Vocals)

7. I Put A Spell On You ~ Diamanda Gal s (Vocals)

8. Let My People Go ~ Diamanda Gal s (Vocals)

9. See That My Grave Is Kept Clean ~ Diamanda Gal s (Vocals)

10. Judgement Day ~ Diamanda Gal s (Vocals)

Album Notes and Credits

Notes & Personnel Info
	Solo performer: Diamanda Galas (vocals, Steinway piano, Hammond organ).
	Producers: Eric Liljestrand, Diamanda Galas.
	Recorded at Sorcerer Sound, New York.
	On this well-chosen set, the avant-garde singer and performance artist Diamanda Galas turns her unique vocal talents to interpreting a variety of R&B, pop, and gospel classics, with only her self-accompaniment on piano as musical backing. Her version of Screaming Jay Hawkins's "I Put a Spell on You" takes the song into even spookier, more arcane territory, while her reading of "Gloomy Sunday," the dark ballad popularized by Billie Holiday, delivers the song's unremitting despondency with an almost supernatural intensity. Songs like Willie Dixon's "Insane Asylum," the classic spiritual "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" and "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" are all ideal material for Galas's sonically adventurous voice, which alternately resembles an avenging angel, a screaming banshee from hell, and, on "Judgment Day," the album's astonishing finale, a demented opera diva.
Engineer: Eric Liljestrand

Artist Overview

Singer/performance artist Diamanda Galas has one of the most alarming voices in music history. Galas's unique vocal abilities--which run the aural gamut from blood-curdling to beautiful--are the product of her studies in classical and avant-garde musical movements as well as traditional vocal forms such as the blues, throat singing, and ritual wails. In 1988, Galas completed a three-part performance/music piece about the AIDS epidemic entitled THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH. She continues to perform well into the 2000s, constantly challenging the limits of the human voice.

Artist Followers
Bj?rk | Boredoms | PJ Harvey | Savina Yannatou | Tracy the Plastics

Associated Artists and Works

Galas, David

Technical Info

	Release Date : 04/07/1992
	Original Release Date : 1992
	Catalog ID : 1278
	Label : Mute
	Number of Discs : 1
	Studio/Live : Studio
	Mono/Stereo : Stereo
	SPAR Code : n/a
	UPC : 00724596127827

Professional Reviews

Rolling Stone (6/25/92, p.44)
- 3 Stars - Good - "...she summons up a sound that is stripped down and a fury that is razor sharp...Each song on THE SINGER is transformed into a howl, a shriek, a rant against life, death, nature, the history of music and the will of God..."

Q (5/92, p.74)
- 3 Stars - Good - "...Galas has honed right down to a vocal and piano starkness for a set of blues and gospel classics interpreted in her own unparalelled manner...masterfully gloom laden..."