SITE RATING:
4/10
SITE REVIEW:
Tom Parker, who ran the long-running New London Chorale in
the late Seventies to the mid-Eighties, put together several
lite-pop/classical albums during his tenure, which featured not only
this version of Handel's Messiah,
but also Christmas albums, and titles like Bach's The Young Matthew Passion, and The Young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
And, much like the contemporary Messiah
Rocks and Too Hot To Handel
re-imaginings, this album had a small following during a period of
about five years, even generating a filmed concert,
with many of the same artists performing. Similarly, like its
contemporaries, it's a hit-or-miss idea, with this album often failing
to withstand the rigors of time with its thin, malnourished
synthesizers and gospel-lite voices rarely taking flight. The
ballads come off best, with a soulful "Comfort Ye" comparing favorably
with, say, its Soulful
Celebration counterpart; but at every good track, it's
undercut by a shrill, robotic aria, such as the oom-pah orchestration
and grating turn by the female soloist on "Every Valley". The New
London Chorale is enthusiastic, but are limited in their expressions to
simplistic explosions of Gospel fervor on the choruses; and every up
tempo number is lock-stepped into place by machine-like drums thudding
out a dance beat. Purists will howl, young people who were turned
on by this in the early Eighties will find some shallow nostalgia to
enjoy, and Messiah
completists will most likely find this gathering dust on their shelves
in favor of better interpretations.
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