Customer Rating: 
Summary: Range and Depth in a Strong Debut
Comment: First, there are no crappy Disney musical power ballads on this CD. I cannot thank Kelli O'Hara enough for that. This review goes from four stars to five for that. That's how grateful I am: It is the fifth star of gratitude.
I was going to give four stars because of a couple of less impressive song choices. Most notable is the old nearly-novelty-song pop hit, "Spooky". I can only assume she recorded this song for deeply personal reasons. Reasons that are lost on me. Similarly, on the first listen, the first track ("The Sun Went Out") was a bit of a disappointment--a mediocre pop song. I couldn't imagine why she chose it. So I googled the composer and, of course! he's her husband. So there ya go. Who knows? Maybe the guys who wrote "Spooky" are her uncles. To be fair, I should say, the tracks I didn't warm up to on the first listen have been growing on me. Except "Spooky".
Even so. No derivative Disney schmaltz here. So five stars it is.
Now anyone familiar with Kelli O'Hara knows about her commanding vocal range. What you'll find in this recording are more dimensions of range. Range in her talents: (Turns out she can write songs as well as perform them.) Range in her taste: To be sure, this is a real variety of music. The down side of that is that those who were hoping for a snootful of a particular version of Kelli O'Hara will only hear it on a couple of tracks. The up side is that those of us who wouldn't be as likely to buy a Kelli O'Hara pop recording will find out that she performs pop pretty well. Now for me, I would have been ga-ga over a whole album of Rogers and Hammerstein covers like the one she did of "I Have Dreamed" from The King and I. When I listen to that, I start getting the feeling that finally--finally--someone is here to take up the mantle once held by Mary Martin as America's foremost interpreter of Rogers and Hammerstein. (But then, I've really had a thing for Rogers and Hammerstein lately. I'm getting old.) O'Hara has a refined sense of how to navigate a Richard Rogers' melody line.
The title track, one of three written by Harry Connick, Jr., has a heavy dollop of Richard Rogers styling to it as well. Connick is omnipresent on this recording. He sings "Wonder in the World" in duet with O'Hara. And he provided the arrangements and orchestrations. For the most part, his arrangements are subtle and interesting. His orchestrations are, at turns, spare and remote (as with a poignant cover of Billy Joel's "And So it Goes"). And they are alternately lush and concentrated (as with O'Hara's own charming "I Love You The World"). Importantly, present though he is, Connick never overtakes O'Hara. He supports her skillfully and with obvious respect for her talent. She was lucky to have him.
O'Hara wrote two of the songs on this new recording. To my relief, they're good: Inventive melodies and fine lyrics on both of them. Both songs also have quite a bit of narrative drive in them that point to her immersion in musical theater. Not to mention a strong likely influence from the fairly genius Adam Guettel. (She also does a lovely version of Guettel's "Fable" from The Light in the Piazza. Even though Victoria Clark kind of owns that song.)
Most every song on this recording has something very special about it. Listening to "And I Love You So" is such a pure experience, it's like being in church. (Good church, I mean. Not scary church.) "All You Get is Me" is surprisingly earthy and sexy. "Slowly" is a sweet and hot samba that she sings with clarity and muscle that's rare in a true soprano. It reminds me of Christine Andreas, and that's a very good thing. "All the Way" shows off her ability to interpret a song (though I wish she had more of that focus on some earlier tracks). And then there's "Spooky"... but we shall never speak of it again.
This is a really fine debut recording, and I'm glad to strongly recommend it. I'm glad she recorded at least one Rogers and Hammerstein song. I'm glad she found a creative partner in Harry Connick, Jr. But mostly, of course, I'm just so glad she found fourteen songs that have nothing at all to do with a blank-eyed Disney princess of any stripe.
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