Okay, I am new to this one--relatively; being of an age, it is hard not to know the title song from its AM radio run back in '73. A quick
google search reveals that it spent more weeks at #1 than any other song in '73, was ranked the #3 song of the year by
Billboard, and took home 3 Grammys. Having written all of that, hearing it for the first time in Quad makes it fresh and wonderful (my 12-year-old self thought it was stale and dreadful back in the day; I remember lampooning the lyric as "Killing Me Swiftly's a DUMB Song--Killing Me Swiftly it's SO Wrong!). Reading the above reviews, it seems the only real beef with this release is the material. All three reviewers praise the mix, and I mos' def' concur. All three reviewers praise
Flack's vocals; not only do I concur, let me add that the mix honors and celebrates the voice. So, how about the material?
I can only imagine what 12-year-old clement would have to say about what I'm about to write (he'd prolly begin with "Clement? Da phuque you thinkin' taking that appellation?"). First, if the titular song is good enough for
the Fugees, it's good enough for me! As I noted above, the mix makes it fresh and wonderful--lush and lovely. The second track,
Flack's take on
Janis Ian's "
Jesse" is another stunner, the interpretation transcending the potentially maudlin arrangement, even elevating what might be perceived as saccharine to sublime. But is that really all this release has to offer? Hell no! The third track, "
No Tears (In The End)," is a horn- and cowbell-driven build,
Flack getting soulful and threatening to let loose by the end. Here's something new for me: the running order! The fourth and fifth songs ("
Conversation Love" and "
When You Smile") on the Q8 were originally the sixth and seventh (of eight) songs on the LP (they are tracks 2 and 3 of side B). Although they do take the wind out of the sails of the flow for me (feeling more Adult Contemporary), the mix still keeps it interesting and engaging. "
I'm The Girl" is another number that really showcases
Flack's vocals in a rather sparse arrangement, plaintive strings in the rears while
Flack milks the lyric for all it's worth up front. The penultimate song, "
River," opens side B on the LP. Yes, it's a second-tier song, but the combo of funk and church somehow works, the mix playfully riding the song's build up. And that brings us to the closer, a song I think deserves some recognition: a nearly ten-minute cover of
Leonard Cohen's "
Suzanne." She really slows this one down, caressing and lingering on the lyric, the bass grounding this one amidst the flourishes of the strings as
Flack closes the album with a grandeur that is powerfully and poignantly stripped to solitary softness that, you should pardon the expression, just kills me!
Ima go with a 9!
