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.
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