Michael Ball Albums (18)
'Back to Bacharach'
Release Date 10/22/2007
Tracks 12
Label Universal
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What The Critics Say
When an artist has been a star of the stage in London's West End, recorded several albums of theatre related music and even entered the Eurovision song contest and everything Michael Ball touched was a hit, with a loyal and never fading fan-base, he could record almost anything he chose, and for the Christmas season 2007, he released an album of standards written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David titled Back To Bacharach. An ideal choice for someone of Michael Ball's easy laid back style, the modern day answer to Andy Williams or Perry Como, even if he didn't set out to become that. Virtually all the songs on Back To Bacharach were so well known, it would be difficult not to compare them to the originals, the only difficulty would be knowing exactly which artist did record the original since all of them had been so well covered both by famous and not quite so famous singers. There was nothing to stretch the imagination here, versions of The Look Of Love, Alfie, They Long To Be Close To You and This Guy's In Love With You, all performed in the blandest of vocal styles, perfectly in tune, very pleasant, no chance of alienating any existing fan, but even less chance of acquiring any new ones. The problem with the album lay with the presentation of the songs in such a laid back style, even when he attempted to inject some dramatic sounds such as on Anyone Who Had A Heart, it was nowhere near as exciting as the Cilla Black version over 40 years previously. Make It Easy On Yourself and Arthur's Theme were both in former versions, satisfying songs, full of richness, but Michael Ball stripped them of all emotions and left them as little more than album filler (which of course they were), but no more so than the lesser known songs on the album, This House Is Empty Now and Reach Out For Me, the former sounding like a workaday musical song and the latter, another attempt at Eurovision. Michael Ball can and has done better than this. ~ Sharon Mawer, All Music Guide
'Always'
Release Date 3/2/2004
Tracks 12
Label Universal International
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What The Critics Say
Michael Ball knew his audience. The MOR crowd who bought into the show business and cast recordings of the 1980s from productions such as Phantom of the Opera and Aspects of Love could send a record high in the charts without too much need for promotion, as word of mouth and TV advertising often sold this genre far better than touring or hit singles. Indeed, an EP featuring four songs from the album Always was released under the lead track's title of "If I Can Dream," but couldn't even reach the Top 50 during Christmas 1992, and while the album was being TV advertised, it spent six weeks inside the Top Ten. When the campaign had finished, it plummeted down the charts, remaining only for a further five weeks in total. As the star of both the previously mentioned Andrew Lloyd Webber productions in London's West End, Ball was well placed to capitalize on a recording career concentrating on songs that were theatrical in nature rather than currently in vogue, and so it was on his second album, Always, the follow-up to his successful number one self-titled album from the previous year. Always featured 12 songs in total, virtually all of them ballads and mostly familiar from other versions, including the Gershwin song "Someone to Watch Over Me," Arlen/Koehler's "Stormy Weather," and Bacharach/David's "A House Is Not a Home." His version of "If I Can Dream" was a rather strangled Sammy Davis, Jr. impersonation and his take on more contemporary songs "On Broadway," "Always on My Mind," "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me," and "Cry Me a River," while admirably sung and orchestrated, lacked the emotion associated with the originals. In the early '90s Michael Ball competed with fellow theatrical singer Michael Crawford for the biggest-selling albums in this genre and proved that, although never in fashion, they never actually went out of fashion either. ~ Sharon Mawer, All Music Guide
'I Dreamed a Dream'
Release Date 4/8/2003
Tracks 18
Label Universal International
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'Centre Stage'
Release Date 10/30/2001
Tracks 13
Label Polygram International
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What The Critics Say
Thanks to Andrew Lloyd Webber, Michael Ball has been a star in his native U.K. since 1989, when he created the role of Alex Dillingham in Lloyd Webber's musical Aspects of Love and got to sing "Love Changes Everything," which became a number one hit. Since then, while continuing to appear in West End shows, he's charted ten solo albums in Britain. This one, the tenth, makes a good introduction to listeners in the U.S. (where Hip-O issued four of his previous discs in 2000). The song list consists entirely of show music, with qualifications, since "The Winner Takes It All" was a hit for ABBA before it was included with a collection of the group's other songs in the musical Mamma Mia, and the Bee Gees' "Immortality" was written for and introduced by Celine Dion before being interpolated into the score of the stage version of Saturday Night Fever. Ball harks back to early triumphs with "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables, the show in which he made his West End debut in 1985, as well as "The Music of the Night" and the title song from The Phantom of the Opera (the latter a duet with Lesley Garrett), which he appeared in in 1987. His other choices tend to reflect his immersion in sub-operatic pop-style theater music, though he also throws in a couple of Stephen Sondheim songs. He possesses a supple tenor that he frequently uses in melodramatic and stagy ways, an artificial approach that may be unconvincing to American listeners used to more down-to-earth interpretations. This isn't a collection that takes any chances, and it pales in comparison to Donny Osmond's 2001 album This Is the Moment, which employs several of the same songs, much less the catalog of Michael Crawford. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
'Songs of Love'
Release Date 3/13/2001
Tracks 16
Label Sony International
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