Mary Black No Frontiers Grapevine U.K. Mint

$ 86

$ 86 Sold For

Apr 19, 2009 Sold Date

Apr 12, 2009 Start Date

$ 10 Start price

6 Number Of Bids

USA Country Of Seller

eBay Auctioned at

save auction

Description

Mary Black No Frontiers, LP and cover are MINT. One side was played once. This is on the Grapevine U.K. label.

Review by Rick Anderson

With No Frontiers, Mary Black continues to distance herself from traditional Irish music. This time, however, she has also left behind the shimmery over-production of Without the Fanfare; the arrangements are, for want of a better word, more dignified this time, and they provide a better fit for her naturally elegant voice. As usual, several of the songs are by Jimmy McCarthy, and also as usual these are among the best: "Shuffle of the Buckled" sounds as if it were written for Black and the title track makes equally good use of her achingly sweet and clear voice. Inevitably, there is a misguided swipe at a pop classic — in this case, a vaguely Latin-flavored arrangement of "I Say a Little Prayer for You" that is so bloodless and drained of passion that listening to it feels like an insult to Aretha Franklin. Noel Brazil's "Fat Valley of Pain" is a solid winner, though, and Donal Long's "The Shadow" is a quietly powerful depiction of the horror and loss wrought by Northern Ireland's century-old troubles. On this album Black seems to have gained control of the modern influences that had taken over on Without the Fanfare, and the result is one of her more complex and powerful albums.

On Apr-13-09 at 12:13:07 PDT, seller added the following information:

This record has Dara stamper numbers in the dead wax area of the lp. It has Dara 032 A2 on side 1 with a scratch thru it and Grapevine 005 A1 under it and on the other side Dara 032 B1 with a scratch thru it and Grapevine 005 B1 under it.

price rating