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Dom Robinson reviews
Moving On
UCJ Records
- Year: 2003
- Rating: 7/10
- Cat. No: 9865632
Track listing:
- 1. Toccata
2. For The Love Of A Princess (from Braveheart)
3. Allegretto
4. If You’re Not The One
5. The Heart Asks Pleasure First (from The Piano)
6. Moonlight Sonata
7. Krwlng
8. Pavane
9. Adagio
10. Sarabande
11. Now We Are Free (from Gladiator) (Myleene Mix)
12. Gymnopedie
13. Moonlight Sonata (Classic version)
Myleene Klass has had a rough couple of years. First of all she was thrust into the spotlight courtesy of ITV’s Popstars when she became one of the five members of Hear’Say, the ill-fated pop group who started on the wave of the back of the hype with Pure and Simple, a release which became the fastest-ever selling single, but the record-buying public were even more fickle than those who simply watch TV and after a few more singles, a couple of poor-selling albums and a change of band-member, the band who would pronounce during their live concerts, “Let me hear you say, Hear’Say Forever!”, folded.
Since the split, nothing has been heard of the boys, while one of the band’s cuties, Suzanne Shaw’s public-eye interests have been limited to dating Darren Day. Still, someone has to, I suppose. Kym Marsh brought out an album before any of the rest of her ex-bandmates, but on the strength of the singles released to date the content couldn’t be any more bland than what’s long-since gone before in the charts. Her last single, Sentimental, stalled at No.33 in the charts after one week. Still, she’s always got hubby Jack Ryder’s acting career to fall back on…
And so, the only one to come out of the last two years with any credibility is Myleene Klass. She’s noticeably lost some weight since we first saw her, but to these eyes she looks just as stunning now as she did before and she should pay no mind to those critics who say she’s gone too thin. Her Moving On CD is a return to her classical music roots, something in which she was trained before any hint of a pop career was dreamed of.
Some of the classic tracks featured on this album are ones I have grown to love over the years so I was a bit hesitant at first to see how she’d treat them. Thankfully, it’s largely a successful album and you have to realise that she’s not doing straight covers here, they are her own interpretations.
Toccata is a nice and upbeat introduction to the album and not to be taken too seriously when compared to the lengthy original, Toccata and Fugue in D minor, especially when it concentrates itself solely on the faster part of the tune.
I haven’t seen Braveheart so can’t comment on how track two compares, although it makes for a pleasant listen. The next is a faithful reproduction of Karl Jenkins’ Allegretto from “Palladio”, which the unitiated will remember as the music from the cinema DeBeers diamonds advert. An excellent blend of all the instruments concerned.
Next up is an instrumental of Daniel Bedingfield’s If You’re Not The One. I was never a particular fan of the man’s original No.1 single, and this does little to change that fact. On the other hand, while I got bored rigid watching Jane Campion’s movie, The Piano my constant listening to Classic FM each weekday morning brought the Michael Kamen theme to my attention, a track which is easily to fall into, as well as being very reminiscent of Ludivico Einaudi’s Questa Notte. Myleene’s version does it great justice.
What starts as a regular take on Moonlight Sonata brings in some extra beats, somewhat unnecessarily, along the way until it ends as it should, but the original version can be found at the end of the disc.
I didn’t know until now that Linkin Park’s Crawling was meant to be spelt Krwlng, which explains the oddly-named title on the back of the CD cover, but what started as a rock classic, before LP brought out a few more great tracks and then started to repeat themselves, is given a fantastic classic treatment, working surprisingly well.
Pavane is an old favourite, but here the backing beats seem a little too predictable and it falls outside the remit of either being a faithful reproduction or a notable alternate take.
Adagio, based on Elgar’s Adagio Moderato sounds emphatic and emotional in any interpretation and that’s carried along in fine fashion here. One to definitely stir the emotions to the surface. Sarabande, meanwhile, attempts to carry this along but doesn’t quite carry it on well enough, although it has a damn good stab at it.
Gladiator‘s Now We Are Free is given a far lighter mood in this rendition than it did in the lacklustre movie – another case that proves duff films can spawn memorable themes – and this comes across moderately successfully here.
An uplifting version of Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie and the original Moonlight Sonata bring the album to a close and leave you on a lilting high as the final chord echoes out…
Review copyright © Dom Robinsony, 2003.
Visit the official Myleene Klass website.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.