Tracy Chapman - Our Bright Future

On her 20th anniversary as a recording artist, Tracy Chapman has written one of the most powerful and moving albums of her career. Tracy worked with producer Larry Klein, who has produced albums by Joni Mitchell, Herbie Hancock, and Madeleine Peyroux. Product Description

Chapman Reflects on 'Our Bright Future'...

In the twenty-year long run since 'Fast Car' raced into the American psyche, Tracy Chapman has delighted, wooed, soothed, and even befuddled those of us who tend toward meaningful folk-pop. Perhaps the only downfall of Chapman's latest release, then, is simply one of timing. Released on November 11th, 2008, 'Our Bright Future' could have picked up on the sweeping, historical energy propugated by the election of Barak Obama to the Presidency a week earlier. Instead, Chapman's CD exudes a quiet, introspective intimacy that, in fact, opines that 'our bright future' is actually 'in our past'... Huh? In this current political context, this rhetoric simply contradicts the newfound sense of hope many Americans felt with the kind of presidential election many of us thought would not occur during our lifetime. Gone are the sharp, stinging lyrics of people 'talking about a revolution' or requesting that the president be given 'my honest regards; for disregarding me'. Older now, and understandably more complacent, Chapman sounds like one who has become comfortable reflecting on the state of our world instead of hoping to make grandiose stands on how to somehow change it.
'Our Bright Future' pays equal attention to matters political as well as personal: 'Conditional', 'A Theory', and 'Thinking of You' reveal the uncertainties and the highs and lows where matters of the heart are concerned. 'I Did It All' captures Chapman at her reflective and witty best as she looks back on a life and a career fraught with few regrets (despite the fact that most of her 20's were admittedly 'lived in a haze'). 'Something to See' and 'The First Person on Earth' imagine a world without war and an exploration of 'original sin' and how that still impacts us all today. Stand out cuts, however, are the CD's opening cut 'Sing For You' and the yearning plea of 'Save Us All'. 'Sing For You' manages to wrap itself around the listener with understated and simple lyrics and a melody that is one of Chapman's most endearing to date. This song's best quality, however, is its ability to stir emotion and engender contemplation with a chorus that is 'sung' without words... Quite simply, this song must be experienced to be truly and wholly appreciated. 'Save Us All' is Chapman's cry to religion as the vehicle that will (hopefully) one day be our ultimate salvation. Though she sings of Jesus with commitment and conviction, Chapman also acknowledges the faith of others around the world and eventually comes to the conclusion that it really doesn't matter what God you worship...but, hopefully, one of these Gods will one day 'Save Us All...and love the sinners, too'. For some, this song, and this CD in total, may come off as a whitewashed, watered-down, weary-minded complacency that lacks the drive and the fire of much of Tracy Chapman's early works. But Chapman, now in her mid-40's, should be allowed to write from that place in her life where her heart, mind, and soul presently reside. Understandably, the meteoric zoom and rise of her 'fast car' has slowed to a reflective cruise... The question, though, that many long-time listeners of this gifted singer may be haunted with is 'Has Chapman shifted into a state of cruise control?'... As for me, I prefer to think not. I am, however, unable to forget about the notion that music- and especially folk/rock- plays best when it is rooted in the current times and the present psyche of the world at large. Inevitably, the downtrodden spirit of this disc contradicts with the exuberance of many in this time which may well go down as one of this nation's most crucial turning points of the last half-century. 'Our Bright Future', then, may, in fact, be ahead of us. November 29, 2008

LOVED HER THEN...LOVE HER NOW

What can i say aobut this amazing artist. Her lyrics, music, are some of the best tested around. If you are a Tracy fan you will love/like this album. I recommend it. I to think this album is alittle sad in tone so I hope that she is enjoying and experiencing life to the fullest. November 27, 2008

THIS WAS SO HARD FOR ME TO REVIEW!

When I say I'm a Tracy Chapman fan, that's an understatement. The last time I saw her was in Tucson for the Westward Swing Vote. She was, once again, amazing. I think I'm simply the fan of Tracy and her guitar. I think her past two albums, Where You Live and Let It Rain are my all time favorites and I haven't loved one of her albums that much since Crossroads. They both left me singing the tunes and every song had such an emotional message that made me think. I was INCREDIBLY excited for Our Bright Future and I can't figure out what happened.

Every song blends into the next and they all sound the same. It has many religious undertones, which is fine if I wanted a Christian album. Her voice is IMMACULATE and still gives me goosebumps. I guess I miss the variety of all her songs on an album. The same thing seems to be said on most of the songs on this album. I do like I Did It All and Conditional but I can't find my place in the others because they all sound the same. This is SO hard for me to say. I guess I miss those heart wrenching and simplistic acoustic songs like The Promise, Be Careful Of My Heart, Don't Dwell, Goodbye, In the Dark, The Love That You Had, or For You. They were greatly missed on this album and that is classic Tracy. I still plan on going wherever she is close to KC but I hope she does much from her past albums. Still love her! November 27, 2008

Tracy of the Autumnal Voice reminds us again why we can't stop listening, even when the songs are not her best.

There is so much to love about this album--but it doesn't quite reach Tracy's highest standards of excellence. Tracy Chapman has one of the most distinctive and warm voices in music, and from a straight vocal standpoint, everything is as beautiful as it has ever been. Her vibrato is as strong as ever, no hint of effort on her part. Every note seems channeled from some inner well of grace. Her intonations are perfect--floating over her guitar at moments of emotional delicacy, punching on the beat when she decries injustice. Her lyrics are poignant, insightful, but not searing. She no longer sounds as angry as she once was, but just sadder. This is perhaps understandable--she is more than 20 years on from where we first her Talkin' 'bout a Revolution, but I know that the fire that she has showed in the past is still there, and I was hoping for a little more to rise to the surface.

This is not an album that you can get on the first listen, and indeed, the melodies improve and stick in the memory more with repeated spins, but there is nothing here that will even rise as high as "Bang Bang Bang" in terms of memorable tunes.

Ultimately, if you are a fan of this amazing lady, then you are going to enjoy this disc a lot. If you find that the last several of her discs have started sounding similar one to another, then this disc will hold no surprises for you. I don't think that is a bad thing, but it is a true thing. Tracy has been our travelling companion for two decades, reminding us of how love hurts but is still worth it (mostly), of how America has some real wonders, but how we have a great responsibility incurred by simply living here, and how sometimes people are not what they seem. She was right then, she is right now. This is a good disc, a warm disc, but a sad disc. On Conditional, Tracy sums up exactly what is required to love this album well: "There are strings attatched/tied to me/I want something back/if you agree/to be in love with me". If you agree to give back the effort it takes to love these songs, they will deepen for you and make this disc something to keep warm by this winter; if you give it a cursory listen, you might miss the point entirely. I know that Tracy can do better than this, but for now, this is a beautiful interlude, and I look forward to seeing more from her in the future. November 12, 2008

A mixed bag with different feelings.

At 44, Tracy Chapman has written another of her archetypal protest songs, one which makes its point eloquently but is delivered in somewhat sleepy fashion.
The title track turns out to be more bittersweet than its title suggests - the full lyric is "our bright future is in our past". The tastefully downbeat arrangement defuses the angry, questioning lyrics, robbing them of potential power and turning what could have been a trenchant anti-war song into a downcast acceptance of the inevitable.
"Something To See" is another protest song that doesn't protest too hard.
Unlike Sam Cooke on A Change Is Gonna Come, Chapman does not sing with passionate conviction. Even though it is all there in the lyrics, she never strays from her trademark mild delivery.
It's been 20 years since "Fast Car" first alerted the world to Tracy Chapman.
Eight albums later, not a lot has changed. That voice is intact, although her lyrical concerns are now more focused on love. A posse of veteran players ensure that "Our Bright Future" has a professional sheen, everything tasteful and underplayed. This type of well-mannered pop/folk is perhaps not to everyone's taste, but if you are in a quiet mood, these sweet and earnest melodies might touch a lost.
With a lush production by Larry Klein (frequent musical collaborator, and ex-husband, of Joni Mitchell, and producer of female singers like Holly Cole, Mary White, Shawn Colvin, Julia Fordham and Madeleine Peyroux), the result could easily be predicted.
Despite the optimistic-sounding title, Chapman has not come over all saccharine, though.
Her strident earnestness has been tempered, leaving a wry warmth that turns even such political numbers as "Something to See (No War)" into something intimate and beguiling.
A highlight is the older-and-wiser sigh of "A Theory". This is actually a pretty witty number, in which Chapman woos a potential lover using cerebral terminology ("in theory I could propose and in theory you could affirm that you were meant for me").
Yes,songs namecheck Katrina, Obama et al - but there's also a playful, reflective quality as Chapman looks back at the way music has shaped her life. She is terrific on obsessive love, while on "Conditional", a riposte to commitment-phobes, she rails, "There are strings attached... I want something back".
The arrangement has a light, jazzy feel with sashaying clarinet and tinkling piano.
"Our Bright Future" is a potentially stimulating album, but it has been rendered in a gentle hush-and-rustle soothing manner that it will eventually wash over the listener when it could have better expressed the challenges of these particular, difficult times.

Portrait of a Legend 1951-1964 November 12, 2008

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