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Tina Arena : In Deep
exPOSEd Review

"In Deep", Tina Arena's follow-up to the multi-platinum "Don't Ask" is a both a major release on the Australian calendar and a key step in the hardworking, big voiced, songstress' career. Music Editor MIKE GEE dives in and finds the tide has changed and Arena is in danger of being swept away.

Big albums usually ask big questions - both of the performer and the listener. For Tina Arena, "In Deep" is a big album. And it asked of her a big question: what could she do to follow up the phenomenally successful "Don't Ask"?, a set which has sold around 700,000 copies in her home land alone and laid the foundations for similar success overseas.

The answer poses the listener's question. While "Don't Ask" was a mighty, passionate, document of this down-to-earth woman's fight to succeed, her battle to bust out of the confines of childhood stardom, her lone move to the US to gain experience and develop her songwriting, and the little things of life that are the large daily realities, "In Deep" is a lover's dream and a safe haven.

Where "Don't Ask" bustled with energy and vigour and contrast, "In Deep" narrows the focus, mostly concentrating on the Arena voice, the big ballad and the middle ground. Not that it does it badly. More that it does it a lot.

"In Deep" sounds suspiciously like the album that's been made to break Tina Arena in the US. It is a Celine Dion/ Mariah Carey album, perhaps more the former than the latter. It oozes love, concern, love, pain, love, commitment, and is almost perfectly produced by Foreigner's Mick Jones who hasn't overdone the arrangements, the strings or the schmaltz but opted to let Arena's voice work in space.

On that level "In Deep" works remarkably. Only occasionally does the Arena voice strain for a note and shrill out, mostly it oozes class and sheer talent.What it asks of the listener though is another thing.

"In Deep" asks the listener to accept an endless variation on a couple of themes - and while this woman is so talented she almost gets away with it, there is just so much ballad and slow mid-tempo MOR/AOR pop a record can stand. Too much, and the hypnotic effect of those big, big ballads is lost in the general lack of contrast.

Sure, many of these tracks on their own will stand-up beautifully on radio, there's three, four, maybe five obvious singles. And, sure, programmers across a broad band are going to love it. But at what cost?

"In Deep" isn't Tina Arena's great album - that has yet to come, nor is it dismal failure. The quality of performance and production is too strong. But it is an indulgence and a reasonably obviously marketing and career ploy that pushes Arena into a much smaller space than she should occupy and only shows half the picture at best.

On "In Deep" Tina Arena is in love (personal, family, friends), drowning in emotion, floating when she should be splashing, treading water. It won't sink her career: she's too big, too good, too established. But after 25 years in the music industry, Tina Arena perhaps deserved better than to be tucked away in the easy to handle basket.

TRACK BY TRACK

Burn: Doesn't need much introduction, does it. Already a smash hit, this power ballad is definitive Arena: big sound, big shiny production from Mick Jones, glistening instrumentation all support that big voice.

If I Didn't Love You: Kinky and pretty keyboard - is it a harpsichord? - intro slips into a lush quasi-psychedlic Beatlesque wash before breaking into the body of the song: a swarthy, fat, epic style contemporary pop charmer that has some lovely backing vocals (Rick Price perchance?) that sit just under the Arena's voice. There's also a nice tempo twist three minutes in that carries the song through to a big finish.

Sixteen Years: Let's get slow, sexy, warm, soulful and a touch funky on a number propelled by a mammoth backbeat and burbling bass washed by strings, penetrated by some lovely keyboard lines and capped off by flecks of acoustic and electric guitar. Classic Arena style pop and a hell of a vocal performance, but adds nothing to a songbook that has far more impressive chapters.

In Command: Classical string into breaks on an ethereal and echoed verse that works into a mid-tempo pop rocker with some lovely guitar. Lots of contrast and subtle use of the string section emphasise Arena's continuing understanding of musical dynamics. Again, John Robinson's drum track is rock solid and the backbone to the whole performance. Nice fade away middle just adds to the attraction of a song that is capped off by a super sax break that's reprised as a blast against the holler at the end. Impressive.

Not For Sale: Big ballad time. Mellow magic that'll have the lighters out in concert as the piano rolls under a husky Arena vocal that is tightly bound and restrained to gain maximum effect. Ho-hum though.

Unsung Hero: Strummed acoustics, a wash of cymbals, gentle strings, underscore a truly lovely song that is all atmosphere and adoration. It finally crashes like a wave in the second chorus, a cascade of nuance and cadence, multi-tracked backing vocals and a marvellous Arena performance. Destined to become an anthem and a smash hit. This shows just what Tina Arena is capable of.

I Want To Live With You: Take a listen to the harmony vocal work here. Lovely, understated and sultry. A laidback slice of pop marked by some stellar guitar lines and chords and a strong middle where the song slips into second gear effortlessly before dropping into a one of those guitar solos you wish you could play yourself: brief but perfectly phrased. Unfortunately, things are beginning to sound a little the same.

Welcome To My World: Slip sliding away on a funky soul groove with a blast of sax to open proceedings on a typical Arena mid-tempo workout that has some fat grooves delicately placed in the body of the song and more of that sinful sax. Forgetable and becoming predictable.

I Want To Know What Love Is: Heavy atmospheric beginning on bottom end piano keys and reverberating chords introduces a stellar and moody reworking of the Foreigner classic written by producer Mick Jones, himself of Foreigner, with guest harmony vocals from the band's lead singer Lou Gramm. That chorus is a glittering prize, and this just screams big, huge, smash hit single.

Flashback: Do we hear some crazy Prince-style keys zapping up the intro here? You bet. Very funky with a liquid bass line and more nice stick work from Robinson. Shimmy down with the mover and shaker of the album. Arena pulls it all off nicely, very nicely. But it's been done often before. Padding.

Now I Can Dance: Changing moods to a flamenco-tainted Euro-pop shuffle that skips a merry line against strummed guitars and a sea of percussion. There's some delicately-picked guitar that highlights the middle of this subtle, pretty understated song that lasts nearly six minutes. Gloria Estafan would be giggling if she heard it. Celine Dion would nod her head.

Stay: Welcome to the album's surprise and in many ways it's pivotal moment and perfect conclusion. Listed at 10.06, it has to contain a surprise and that comes at 4.20 when the beautiful, contemporary pop of "Stay" - it's an atmospheric joy with all the ingredients of classic pop: harmony, melody, pure emotion - fades to 15 seconds of silence, and then a solo piano brings in Arena singing a reprise of "Burn". The next five minutes plus are quite astonishingly moving; a heartfelt marvellous rendition of a song that actually benefits from being pared back to just piano and vocal. And it underlines just what remarkable voice Tina Arena really has. Flawless. Much more of this would have made "In Deep" something else again.