King's Singers - Circle of Life

The fabulously musical Kings Singers visit the realm of popular music in this recording of "timeless songs from famous movies." Their stellar blend flourishes when the Kings apply their close-harmony arrangements to a cappella versions of "Kokomo," "Everything I Do," "The Rose," and "Groovy Kind of Love." The recording falls short, however, when the group tackles songs that highlight a solo voice. Songs like "Wind Beneath My Wings," "I Will Always Love You," and "The Time of My Life" demand the distinctive interpretive character of a Whitney Houston or Bette Midler to enliven the music's passion. The Kings Singers have spent so much time perfecting the art of ensemble blending, that they've lost the ability to be successful soloists. The weakest arrangement is that of Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die." The soloist struggles with intonation and audibly battles the tessitura of the ascending line. (Who would've thought that the former Beatle was such a flawless lyrical tenor?) Still, when the voices embark on what they do best--function as a vocal orchestra--the result is delightful. --Barbara Eisner Bayer Amazon.com

King's Singers - Thumbs up or down?

Although my favorite ever KS CD was the Beautiful Dreamer one, this was also pretty good. Even though I agree that it's not the best recording they have with regard to quality, I like how they've given these classic movie oldies their own unique twist. I would never have listened to most of these songs if not because they were sung by the King's Singers; however, I've fallen in love with quite a few. One thumbs-up! April 27, 2004

Get "Spirit Voices" instead

Circle of Life (COL) has to be one of the crummiest albums I've ever owned. I'm a big fan of The King's Singers, but this album stinks. There are only a couple of decent tracks on it, such as "Kokomo"... oddly, the exact same track appears on another album released by the group in the same year (and not a "best of" album), namely Spirit Voices (SV).

Both albums feature the otherwise-a cappella group singing with instrumental backing (mostly), but SV is successful at it, whereas COL demonstates how not to do it; to wit: take a talented six part vocal group, give them a crummy arrangement that doubles lots of vocal parts and pits the group against the orchestra, and make the (British) soloist give it some "soul" (ouch).

It took me a while to get used to SV, but now I really like it; COL, on the other hand, makes me want to bash out my own brains to make the pain stop. SV experiments with smaller orchestrations and interesting combinations of vocal and intrumental parts, but COL is just a big "let's get together and sing our lungs out with an orchestra" album, a style which must be popular in England or something.

Two stars, and only out of respect for the fact that The King's Singers is the best a cappella vocal group in the world (this album notwithstanding). November 30, 2002

Lose the orchestra!

I much prefer the group's a cappella works - the instrumental accompaniment makes for a sappy sound. March 5, 2002

'Elevator Music'

I am realy dissapointed with this CD.
It starts out very well with 'Lion King' until orchestration is added including a lot that seams synthesized and dimensionly flat. Diction holds no interest.

Have you ever had a mouthfull of de-ionized water? It's like water but something is so spewingly absent and bland.
This describes this CD. The sad thing is that there are so many pieces on this album that could have been completely captivating! December 16, 2001

King's Singers Strike Again...

King's Singers are well known for their harmonies that can stir the soul and this album is no exception. It is another powerful testament to a capella music and it's beauty. My only complaint (as is mentioned in other reviews) is that there are a few numbers that are a little heavy on the background music but others have just the right blend to make it perfection. It's excellent despite this and I'm anxiously awaiting the next release from this more then talented group. July 2, 2000

More reviews at Amazon.com ...