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Reviews: Diana Krall: The Girl in the Other Room

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Reviews: 15

Review by RobertPaulson April 24, 2004 (0 of 2 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Normally I'm not that kind of guy who likes Jazz.
But you hear a lot about Diana Krall. And when I was looking for some new "software" I thought "Why not".
And this album is really great.
The songs are all from a different kind. They don't have all the same style.

But apart from all that, I love the sound of this SACD.
The instruments are very well separated. Some are very well bound in the surrounds.
I absoluztely love it!

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Review by uffemannen April 27, 2004 (1 of 1 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
I always thought that Diana Krall was nice to listen to, but with nothing extra that made me buy any records of her. That was until I saw and heard her Live in Paris DVD, where the Canadian singer stepped out from the former slick and almost icy approach and delivered that extra. Suddenly you could feel the warmth in her voice, her ultra sensual charisma came through with full force – I was hooked. Still feel though that her albums are too polished for my taste, I stick with the fantastic live DVD.

Now Mrs Krall has made a studio album that connects to the feeling on the Live DVD. The musical setting is much more intimate than on her previous albums. Basically you have one tight band, where the two most impressive musicians to my ears are Anthony Wilson on guitar and Christian McBride on bass. Diana Krall herself sings like a goddess and plays a very good piano. The songs are a mix of jazz, blues and pop, with a more rootsy feeling than her usual repertoire. There are also a mixture of covers and original songs. The originals are all written by Diana Krall and Elvis Costello, though Costello has only contributed to the music on the majestic title track, otherwise he has stuck to the words. There is a natural flow to the song sequence on the album and the originals stand up very good to the covers.

There are in my opinion no weak songs on the album, and my favourites (today) are the title track (Krall/Costello) and Temptation (Tom Waits).

Audiowise the album is very good recorded and produced. The SACD layer adds that extra HiFi dimension with crispy treble and a deep and tight bass. But the real winner here is clearly the multichannel mix. Diana’s vocal is placed in the front channels and center and all instruments are spread in all channels in a rather aggressive but still very tasteful way. In my opinion a perfect 5.1 mix, compared to i.e. Norah Jones Come away with Me which has a very wimpy 5.1 mix. The only negative to say about the sound quality is that from time to time you can hear some harschness to the s-sounds.

Higly recommendable!!

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Review by Monteverdi April 29, 2004 (1 of 2 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Diana Krall redefines herself in The Girl In The Other Room. She’s moved from world of The Great American Songbook with the overly lush arrangements of the last disc to that of a singer and songwriter successfully collaborating with her husband Elvis Costello on several tracks.
The torch of the jazz influenced work of the great Joni Mitchell is taken up by the exceptionally talented Krall. The vocals are as involving and personal as ever. And we get to hear more of her wonderful piano playing supported by a great group of musicians including bassist John Clayton, Krall’s mentor.
Krall’s rendition of Mitchell’s Black Crow is just terrific.
The surround sound mix is good. The overall sound lacks a bit of air and top end, but doesn’t unnecessarily detract from this highly satisfying disc.
©DAE 2004

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Review by peteyspambucket June 2, 2004 (0 of 2 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
I am thoroughly enjoying this album. I have generally found Krall to be very cold as an interpreter, but in this album she seems inpired. The sound is very well engineered and natural. You get a sense of the musicians working together dynamically and like a live performance. This is jazz performed and recorded right. I like her collaborations with Elvis Costello and her Joni Mitchell cover. Perhaps the only criticism I could make is that I wish it was a longer album.

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Review by monotone July 16, 2004 (1 of 1 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
A very pleasant wait for this release (not to mention an added bonus of having the SACD released at the same time as redbook version). Having 2 major 'mega-sellers' which were filled with popular jazz standards, this album is definitely a pretty bold and positive move for Krall. This also marks Krall's major writing debut (with costello's assistance).

Initial listens, I actually felt other than a couple outstanding tracks, the rest was actually pretty monotonous. But they actually grows on you, especially the second half of the album. Some find her vocal emotional-ness... to me, it's highly addictive.

The multichannel SACD is well mastered, fully enhancing and defining her vocals. Nice work!

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Review by PaulHoncoop January 23, 2005 (2 of 3 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
Great album with a great sound. Diana's latest album contains jazz, blues and pop influences. I found it her best album by so far. Temptation is the first single of this album and maybe known by radio listeners. The album include more great songs as the blues track Love me like a man, and the beautiful end track Departure bay. Girl in the other room is well done produced by Tommy Lipuma and herself.

Very good multichannel mix. Everything sounds good. Not to much treble or bass, just fine.
Stick it in your sacd player, pull up the volume and lay down with a good glass of wine. Enjoy!

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Review by csuzor March 25, 2005 (9 of 12 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:
A little over-rated!
Difficult to get through the whole album, the songs start to resemble each other.
The clarity and tonality of voice and instruments is great, but this is the only sacd I cannot listen to in 5 channels: Her voice is distributed throughout the channels, and the instruments cannot be positioned in the soundfield either!
Actually, I use this to show friends how surround music should not be mixed.
In stereo, it's worth the effort... play it in the background, fairly quietly, and pretend you're in a piano bar, but don't expect more than that.

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Review by StyleAndEntertainmen May 14, 2005 (4 of 11 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:    
OK, this is the last DK album I will ever buy. I've given her a chance based on all the rave audiophile reviews. And I bought this album because it was "more intimate, immediate, and emotional." Hahahahahahahaha! It's more elevator music with a touch, and I mean a touch more emotion than previous albums (which I've given to friends). But really now, if you want female vocals pls listen to Eva Cassidy, Norah Jones, Alison Krauss, or even (and I'll lose many of you here :) Madona... at least she sounds like she cares. Listening to this album is like making love to a fridged woman.

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Review by nevagich October 25, 2005 (5 of 10 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
I was a big fan of hers before she started to play and sing in commercial frame...very good piano player and singer...during her trio years ALA Nat King Cole...I thought... great...!! now we have a new generation performers to pass on the classic styles to the youngesters....for me she started to decline begining her last two albums....may be she is great for some new audience she has found...good for them...but a big loss for jazz fans....it's interesting she is trying to find new pop listeners with uninteresting songs..( most of these songs were written by her husband Ellvis Costello)...and... cross the ocean Rod Stewart is trying cross to the jazz listeners with the American Song Books ...what Diana used to do...so..therefore...the songs on this CD can not survive more than few playing times...recording quality is okay...looks like there were too many people at the mixing board trying to decide what to do...because..the sound mix is just that...you never know what is what...? another good performer left the real music sceen...how sad...

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Review by sacd1 January 7, 2006 (0 of 9 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:    
good sacd for me.

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Review by Hunt March 18, 2006 (1 of 1 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
These songs don't provide the instant gratification of Diana Krall's early jazz albums, but at least they're an honest attempt to make good music, unlike the horrid muzak on "The Look of Love." These tracks require careful listening a couple of times to appreciate what's gone into them. Except for "Temptation," which grabs you right from the get-go, and is a worthy addition to the versions of Tom Waits and Holly Cole. "Love Me Like a Man" is a pretty weak and "white bread" compared to the gutsy rendition of Bonnie Raitt. One odd quirk of this album is that Ms. Krall goes out of her way to enunciate the "r" sounds at the ends of words, which makes her sound kind of straight and nerdy. Is that a Canadian thing? I don't remember that from her previous albums. The other songs are thoughtful and interesting and satisfying if you give them a chance.

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Review by clef May 22, 2006 (0 of 1 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
I love the elastic and undercooled voice of Diana Krall. Mixed with her indigenous style of piano-playing her roots are really closed to traditional Jazz music. It's a album you could easy listen to in a good sound quality for stereo systems.

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Review by Croc June 28, 2006 (1 of 3 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
well, i was positively surprised from this album - i mean i like quite a few songs from it. it happens that most of them are not her/her husband material.
sonicaly it's perfect.

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Review by mandarintje November 10, 2010 (1 of 2 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
Temptation (track 3) was the track that decided my purchase of the Arcam CD37 sacd player. Very natural and real sounding. Every detail is outstanding. I like "the best of" album even more.

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Review by astome March 22, 2015 (1 of 2 found this review helpful)
Performance:   Sonics:  
Awesome songs on this discs. I like to listen to Jazz and Blues sometimes, so it's no wonder that after a certain time I got a SACD - this one - of Mrs. Krall. It's my first listening experience of her and I got to admit that I'm deeply impressed. By listening to "Temptation" or "Departure Bay" you can outbit your high end surround sound system (if you got one) - an enormous spatial impression with a great voice. It's like a private hearing with Mrs. Krall to the front and the guitarist to your left backside, for example. Outstanding clarity of voice and expression.

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