Burt Bacharach Albums (12)
'Live at the Sydney Opera House'
Release Date 10/28/2008
Tracks 32
Label Verve
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Burt Bacharach's Live at the Sydney Opera House is the first live record he's released since 1979's Woman. Impeccably recorded during his 80th year in front of a sold-out house, Bacharach and his collaborators perform 32 of his compositions from throughout his six-decade career. The composer conducts the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and employs Josie James, John Pagano, and Donna Taylor as vocalists, fronting a small studio band. The music is arranged in three long medleys, two assembled from hit singles written for other performers as well as his albums, and one from his many hits from the movies. A number of tracks also stand outside this format. Beginning after the swelling "What the World Needs Now Is Love," the first medley might have been enough as it contains eight tunes including "This Guy's in Love with You," "I Say a Little Prayer," and "Walk on By." In other words, these are themes of love's aspirations and expressions. The second medley contains broken love songs -- "One Less Bell to Answer," "I'll Never Fall in Love Again," and "Only Love Can Break a Heart," but ends with the sprightly "Do You Know the Way to San Jose." In other words, after the jarring experience of love, the resolution is to return to one's roots and begin again. The medley presentation might have had its drawbacks with a lesser talent, but Bacharach is nothing if not a total perfectionist and gets nothing less from his singers. While it's tempting to hear the voices of, say, Dionne Warwick and Herb Alpert or even Elvis Costello from the original versions of these songs, and to find the music a bit of a shock, that notion is dispelled quickly, long before the first medley ends. This trio of soloists interprets these songs by sticking close to the source material, never veering far from the original arrangements. Pagano in particular is startlingly strong, whether he's singing the yearning "Always Something There to Remind Me" or the elegant expression of need in "God Give Me Strength," the album's longest cut at over six minutes. This gives way to a gorgeous rendering of "Make It Easy on Yourself." The movie medley begins with "The Look of Love." (Bacharach in his creaky age-old voice even takes some turns here on the film medley, and these are more poignant than frail.) Other cues, such as hits from the films Arthur, What's New Pussycat, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and of course Alfie are present as well. The twin reprise themes "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" and "What the World Needs Now Is Love" close out this performance. The Sydney Symphony Orchestra are wonderful throughout. They play Bacharach's arrangements tautly, they are suited to the poignant or humorous parts in each tune, and their accompaniment feels quite natural. Ultimately, this is not a schmaltzy career tribute to one of the true songwriting originals that has become one of the architects of the new American standards book. Instead, this is what the composer no doubt envisioned: a concert-length overview of his vast body of work, realized with full glorious accompaniment and in front of a live audience. If this is all we get from Bacharach, it's more than enough, the best sendoff we could have hoped for. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
For as great as he is, Burt Bacharach has never been much of a solo recording artist. His greatness lies as a composer, not as a performer, due largely to his gravelly voice, which has a tendency to waver out of tune, but he also has a tendency to indulge in his sleepiest MOR qualities when he's left to his own devices. Even on his 1967 solo debut, Reach Out, he emphasized easy listening, spending nearly as much time on instrumentals as he did on vocal tracks. This is a template Bacharach followed over the years, returning to it repeatedly on his increasingly infrequent solo albums. As the decades passed, he paid less and less attention to his recording career, entering a quasi-retirement after 1977's Futures. He returned 20 years later with a collaboration with Elvis Costello, Painted from Memory. This was released at the height of a Bacharach revival -- new bands were covering his songs, dropping references to his work in interviews, and Mike Myers' Austin Powers character seemed to be lifted out of a mythical swinging '60s scored entirely to Bacharach/David songs -- but despite great reviews and the fact that it was Bacharach's best album, it stiffed. Despite its poor commercial fortunes, it eased him back into being an active artist, so when he released At This Time seven years later, it didn't seem like a comeback as much as it did a belated follow-up of Painted from Memory. The album itself isn't a continuation of that splendid affair; it's a throwback to Bacharach's solo albums of the '60s and '70s. All of the press surrounding the release of At This Time emphasized Bacharach's contention that he was compelled to write these songs due to his despair at the state of the world in 2005, which gives a not inaccurate impression that this is a politically charged record. To a certain extent, that is true: "Who Are These People" is a direct assault on the Bush administration ("Who are these people that keep telling us lies/And how did these people get control of our lives...And what kind of leaders can't admit when they're wrong?") and there's a mournful quality to many of the songs here, as on the opening pair of "Please Explain" and "Where Did It Go?" Bacharach is also writing direct, confessional first-person lyrics for the first time, which is disarming yet endearing. At This Time bears many of his lush orchestral pop trademarks and several of the songs feature the presence of many interesting collaborators, including rhythm loops by Dr. Dre. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Burt Bacharach wrote the laidback score to this biopic of Valley of the Dolls authored by Jacqueline Susann, starring Bette Midler and Nathan Lane. The album also includes two songs featuring Dionne Warwick and Vanessa Williams on vocals, written with Bacharach's lontime lyricist Hal David. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
As with 1973's Living Together album, Burt Bacharach was given a lot of latitude by A&M, and deservedly so. This album is even more deep and complex than Living Together; though commercially it has more to grab onto, it still lacks the immediate punch of his Reach Out album, Burt Bacharach Plays His Hits or even A Tribute to Burt Bacharach: Composer, Arranger, Conductor. This is a very musical episode with Burt Bacharach: Reach Out engineer Phil Ramone co-producing. When you've got Jamie Anders singing on "When You Bring Your Sweet Love to Me," Joshie Armstead contributing to four titles, and even Peter Yarrow helping out on "The Young Grow Younger Every Day," the result can be called "underground adult contemporary." It goes down smooth, and where there are no singers, like on "Time and Tenderness," sophisticated Muzak emerges. As negative as the term Muzak has become, that is a compliment. The audience that enjoys a "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" are more apt to listen to this perfectly balanced array of performances and arrangements. Futures is a great title; it's a very futuristic middle of the road album, Bacharach looking like he stepped out of the gym riding in what looks like a ski lift on the cover. An Engelbert Humperdinck type relaxing, if you will. But the music inside is complex, and the project itself is as tremendous as Jethro Tull's A Passion Play. Unfortunately, it is also as difficult. With the legendary songwriter's many achievements it makes sense that A&M would allow him to go so far out on a limb. As Carole Bayer Sager's masterpiece Sometimes Late at Night mesmerizes -- and keep in mind Burt Bacharach was a major contributor to that epic, Futures is not as easy to absorb. It is immediately accessible, but not as easy to contain or recall. On the back of the album the artist writes, "My music came alive because of these people...," and that pretty much says it all: a major composer and arranger bringing more of his individual music to life. It's a classy project that may find appreciation years after it was recorded, one that might have been overlooked because the composer's other work is so popular. ~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Make It Easy on Yourself is a puzzling record. Some tracks are instrumental, some feature session vocalists, and Bacharach himself sings only one track. Still, the album is a lesson in great songwriting. Bacharach's charm is his skill in dealing with abstracts. Songs that aren't immediately pleasing to the ear grow on the listener. "I'll Never Fall in Love Again," and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" are great songs that solidify Bacharach as a master of quirk. ~ Zachary Curd, All Music Guide
'Hit Maker! Burt Bacharach Plays His Hits'
Release Date 10/27/1997
Tracks 16
Label Universal
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Composer and arranger Burt Bacharach is perhaps best known for his work with lyricist Hal David. The pair practically unleashed an entire subgenre of pop music beginning in the late '50s. After racking up numerous hits for other folks -- notably female vocalists Dionne Warwick stateside and Dusty Springfield in England -- the artist began exploring his considerable back catalog. While living in London in the early '60s, Bacharach recorded his first collection of Bacharach/David songs, aptly titled Hit Maker! (1965). As the package was issued under the Burt Bacharach moniker, many thought that the tunes would actually feature him singing and playing. Instead, the slightly updated arrangements are scored for a decidedly more discerning and mature ear. Although listeners would never know it by the practically ersatz interpretations, future Led Zeppelin members and mid-'60s London recording session musicians Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were contributors to the likes of "Walk on By," "Don't Make Me Over," "Blue on Blue," "(There's) Always Something There to Remind Me," "Wives and Lovers," and "Anyone Who Had a Heart." In the context of those familiar melodies, some of the second-tier selections, such as "And So Goodbye, My Love," "The Last One to Be Loved," and "Saturday Sunshine" are among the most memorable. Hit Maker! became just that in the U.K., as the album rocketed into the Top Ten and the single "Trains and Boats and Planes" took off after being aired on BBC Radio, eventually spending 11 weeks on the charts. The unqualified success didn't translate stateside, even though the package was reissued -- with some slight modifications -- twice, first as The Man! Burt Bacharach -- His Songs (1965) and then several years later as Burt Bacharach Plays His Hits (1969). Nearly four decades later, Hit Maker! was included -- along with a rare mono version of "Saturday Sunshine" from the same time frame -- as part of the limited-edition five-disc Something Big: The Complete A&M Years...And More (1994) box set. ~ Lindsay Planer, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Burt Bacharach's second album will either delight or sorely disappoint modern listeners, depending upon how aware they are of who he really is. It's easy to forget, amidst his '90s revival, that Bacharach was never fundamentally a "rock" songwriter. Reach Out was reissued in 1995, just as Bacharach's star was rising among more mature rock listeners. Parts of this album do aspire to a kind of big-band pop soulfulness. The rest is quasi-jazz of the light variety, very cleanly and carefully arranged by the composer, who tends to emphasize the obvious. A lot of what is here is very basic, well played but displaying no dazzling interpretive details. That's often a risk when a composer interprets his own work -- frequently, it is the outside personality, the performance specialist rather than the composer, who picks up the hidden and unusual sides of a score. Some listeners will also be thrown by the presence of "Lisa," a throwback to pre-'60s pop. But that is a valid part of what Bacharach was about -- he grew up in an environment in which big-band jazz represented mainstream music, and was aspiring to make it as a pop composer when rock & roll hit. So it should be expected that he would have had an affinity for elegant pop music, which he would indulge on his first album for a soft-jazz and pop label like A&M. Reach Out isn't a Rosetta Stone to understanding his music, but it does present Bacharach's vision of his work at its most straightforward, and it is enjoyable on its own terms, as a snapshot of his own sensibilities at that time. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
This Burt Bacharach/Paul Anka collaboration is another case of a fine soundtrack album that went nowhere because the movie stiffed. Side A (this album unfortunately is not available on compact disc) opens with Jackie DeShannon singing the heartbreaking "I Don't Need You Anymore," while side B opens with a gorgeous ballad -- "I've Got My Mind Made Up" -- soulfully sung by Michael McDonald. Every other song on the album is a winner, including "In Tune," sung by Libby Titus. This is a really good album -- almost every track catches Bacharach's magic. To top it off, there's a nice picture of Jacqueline Bisset on the cover. ~ Tim Griggs, All Music Guide
