Beverley Craven Albums (3)
'Close to Home'
Release Date 1/1/2009
Tracks 10
Label Campsie Records
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Love Scenes is almost a song-for-song replay of Beverley Craven's first album. On the one hand, this means it's a good set, but on the other, it doesn't say much for her growth as a writer or recording artist. Paul Samwell-Smith produces again, and Craven supplies nine new songs (plus one ABBA cover), sticking to the narrow formula she'd established two years earlier. Thus we have a love song to her daughter ("Mollie's Song"), and one of her trademark gushing odes to lost love ("Love is the Light"). To be fair, there are one or two new ideas -- at one point, Craven tries her hand at political songwriting ("Hope"), but her insights are less than searing. What saves Love Scenes are her consistently strong, impressive melodies and sublime, swelling love songs, particularly "Lost Without You" and "Feels Like the First Time" -- gorgeous tear-jerkers, both as strong as "Promise Me." Love Scenes made the U.K. Top Ten, but its string of minor hit singles wasn't enough to sustain long-term sales, and the album disappeared quickly. ~ Charles Donovan, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Beverley Craven's "Promise Me" was a hit throughout Europe in 1991, and remains an adult radio staple today. Bookended by a naggingly familiar rolling piano arpeggio, it's one of those songs with a melody so well-crafted and easy to memorize, you almost imagine you've heard it somewhere before. Like most of Craven's self-titled debut, "Promise Me" deals with love -- clearly her chief interest. She doesn't really explore the subject in depth, the way, say, Joni Mitchell might; her approach is more akin to that of a paperback romance novel, albeit a classy one. There's unrequited love ("I Listen to the Rain"), long-distance love ("Promise Me"), sisterly love ("Memories"), and love for pet dogs ("Joey"). This is all well and good, and Craven is certainly a fine and endearingly romantic composer, but what's missing is a bit of grit. The songs recall work by Karla Bonoff and Beth Nielsen Chapman, but while those two artists occasionally intersperse their lovelorn balladry with rock, country, or folk, Craven refuses to budge from one string-laden musical setting to another. "Two of a Kind" and "Woman to Woman" are uptempo cuts, but they adhere to the same formula as all the other songs, simply with a different time signature. It's a relief, then, that Craven's writing is so excellent, and her voice warm and unpretentious; otherwise she wouldn't be able to get away with such single-mindedness. ~ Charles Donovan, All Music Guide
