Soft folk rock song. Beautiful, heartwarming, she has such a gentle voice.

Isobel Campbell was, of course, a member of Belle & Sebastian as well as the lead singer in The Gentle Waves, a disguised solo project backed by members of Belle & Sebastian. Her first "real" solo record "Amorino" was finally released in 2003. This wonderful cover version was only released on her 2004 EP "Time Is Just The Same". And while it's already great to see a Morricone cover version these days, this one is really amazing too. It just suits Mrs. Campbells airy, fairy-like voice perfectly. Compared to the Astrud Gilberto from 1971 this version feels even lighter, calmer, more stripped down since it's not orchestrated with strings.

Bebel Gilberto had quite a musical career before her debut album was released in 2000 and, of course, stems from a famous family (her father is Joao Gilberto, Miucha is the mother with stepmother Astrud Gilberto and uncle Chico Buarque de Holanda). This is a very lovely, soothing, gentle track, a duet with Nina Miranda (from "Smoke City"), sung in english and portuguese.

A different version than the one that appears on "Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space", this one features a slightly slower tempo, a full gospel choir and some lushly arranged strings and horns. Absolutely beautiful...a longer instrumental version also appears on the EP.

Melancholy but hopeful. This is a gentle song, with acoustic and electric guitars, electric piano, bass, drums, and voice. Excellent lyrics, terrific mood.

There's a little story here, punctuated by flashes of images and moments.

The song is written by Henning Ohlenbusch who has worked with Chris Collingwood (Fountains of Wayne), Mark Mulcahy, and Lloyd Cole. If those names mean anything to you, then chances are you will enjoy this warm track.

This is a jazzy, haunting track from an LP I bought in Brazil last year. I've tried hard to find information about Jean Kelson, but the only mention I've found (other than those I've made myself) is in one of Ed Motta's excellent archived radio shows at his official site (http://www2.uol.com.br/edmotta/sala.htm). Ed plays a different track from this album, Munganga.

Catolé sounds musically like a variation of Baden Powell's classic 'Berimbau', and opens with an incredibly catchy refrain featuring piano, percussion and trumpet. Gentle male voices then come in and flesh out the melody. The entire album is great. I wonder what the chances are of it coming out on CD...

Opposed to the dramatic Morricone interpretation of "Se telefonando", recommended elsewhere on Musicaltaste, Mina is in a beautifully light bossa mood here on "Conversazione". And the arrangement adequately reflects this with joyful flutes, gentle electric guitar and rather muted strings.

Italian singer Edda dell'Orso is the voice backing many soundtrack scores and lounge-beat tracks by Ennio Morricone, Alessandro Alessandroni, Armando Trovajoli (and his 'Mark 4'). This is a Cinecitta-composer Romolo Grano composition for the cult fantasy-drama TV-series 'La Montagna della Luce'. A very deeply and sensually voiced Edda accompanies the slightly latin-flavoured, percussive funky-jazz piece; the haunting funky bassline and a very gentle tenor present throughout the track complete this exotic, obscure jazzy soundtrack.

From the same album which spawned the mindblowing 'Im 80 Stockwerk' comes this superb track. It opens slowly, with a moody guitar/vocal introduction. Soon the heavy Burt Bacharach influence of 'Stockwerk' returns, as the strings come in and the song develops. The beat is funky in a gentle late-sixties pop kind of way. I have no idea what Hildegard is singing, but it sounds rather positive and uplifting, and I’m a big fan of her smoky voice.

A beautifully gentle and textured version of this song, led by some great group harmony vocals. These are backed by a gentle bossa nova beat, electric harpsichord, and strings which sweep in and out. Gentle and addictive listening.

Eleanor Rigby does not immediately seem like the kind of song which would sound good as a cover version, but this fantastic version by Oscar Peterson proves otherwise. It opens with a simply heavenly string sequence from Claus Ogerman. Then Peterson’s gentle and percussive piano comes in backed with an driving bossa nova guitar and a huge, rich string arrangement. The tempo then switches over to a more jazzy style with a walking bass.

"The Gentle Waves" was the guised solo project of Belle & Sebastian's Isobel Campbell, before she eventually recorded under her own name after leaving the group. This is pure etheral, introverted, delicate indie pop with a strong late 60s feel to it. The track starts with toned down drums, bass and acoustic guitar to complement Isobel Campbells's airy vocals. Later a wonderful harpsicord joins in, together with some violins and cello giving it a flowing, autumnal feel.

Incredibly breezy, silky smooth and gentle sounding tune this one. With a laid back samba rhythm, male/female wordless vocals some soft strings in the backround and some electric and acoustic guitars thrown in, this track is a great example for Martin B�ttchers superior talents as arranger and orchestrator. The whole compilation "Sound Kaleidoscope" is very well done, featuring 25 tracks from the mid 60s to the mid 70s. Highly recommended.

A lovely, gentle samba with wordless three-part mixed harmonies, gently swinging organ and subtle percussion.

Beautiful samba, with great mellow sax playing from one of the masters of the Coleman Hawkins-influenced tenor on his final album. The counterpoint of Kenny Burrell's guitar and Garvin Masseaux's gentle percussion with Quebec's long warm tones really make this track.

This is a simple but rather bitter pop song, although on the surface it sounds quite sweet. If I recall correctly, it was written about the singer that Twinkle was seeing at the time. The gentle arrangement features acoustic guitar and some brass. It's not hard to hear why Morrissey liked this song enough to cover it with The Smiths.

Twinkle has a lovely clear voice, and much as I respect Moz, this version towers above the one done by The Smiths, which suffers from a strange mix of production styles. That said, I have a strange mix of emotions on hearing the song, since I heard the Smiths version at 14, but only got into this one in the last few years.

What a great blend of electronica and easy listening this track is. Think of it as a trippy, chillin' "A Summer Place" in outer space with gentle male/female vocals, some french whisperings and sparse, delicate electronica intertwined with the memorable, lush string melody sample of "A Summer Place".

A beautiful piano-led instrumental, mainly gentle in mood, and an affecting vehicle for the distinctive harmononies and layered textures that characterise Steve's work.

Got a haircut today (short, choppy, fab). Getting a haircut often makes me think of June because she did have the greatest barnet ever - that fringe!

So I've pulled out my June collection - a paltry 4 LPs but growing - and am lovin' a bit of this tonight. The instrumentation here reminds me a lot of Ella Mae Morse's corner of the market, someone I should really get around to recommending on this site.

How High The Moon opens gentle as duck down, moving into a light finger snappin' mood then onto a heavy big band scat rhythm. Christy's technique is superlative and you can almost hear her intuitively measuring the band, taking each note perfectly.

This LP is a set of re-interpretations of songs June originally sang with the Stan Kenton Orchestra. Being a June novice, I'm not aware of the original version but I doubt I could like it more.

A beautiful, lush masterpiece with a bossa nova beat (hmm, is there a pattern to the songs I'm submitting?), 'how to open...' is one of my top tracks ever. It opens quietly with a slightly cheesy flute sound over a gentle guitar. A great wordless vocal then comes in coupled with strings. Superb. If you never listen to music like this, what I'm saying probably doesn't exactly make it sound cool. But it really is cool, very very cool indeed.

A superb recording of a really perfect song. Ennio Morricone's theme to the obscure movie 'metti, una cera a cena' (one night at dinner) is here performed in a classic crisp, clear version by Roy Budd. I'm not sure if I love this recording so much because it was the first version I heard, but I think it may even be better than the Morricone recording. Anyway, if you don't know this song, you will probably recognise it when you hear it. It features an infuriatingly catchy repetitive female wordless-vocal over a gentle bossa beat, with rich strings and piano. Every now and then everything goes quiet and all you hear are the vocals and a faint tremelo guitar. It is really amazingly beautiful. There is also a great italian version of this song by Milva, which sounds amazingly like the group Stereolab.

personally, i enjoy this song in a large part because of the story it tells. i would really like for this to happen to me... it's just a very poignant thing. as to the mechanics of the song, however, some gentle strumming and a bit of classical guitar-style picking lends to the mellow and comforting quality of this song (and the whole album).

A lovely little pop song, Jellypop perky Jean uses a standard Julian Cope trick - having a nice little repetitive musical phrase running in the background throughout the whole song. He then builds things up with a simple organ sound. The effect is very gentle and ambient and wonderful. At one point late in the song, Julian stunningly stops singing and starts talking. Here the real genius cuts through, and I start wondering why more people don't rant on about this guy as much as I do.

The innocent punky charm of Teenage Kicks was a distant memory by the time this yearning gentle beatbox ballad was recorded ,a sad summer song to lost love and playground nostalgia with a beguiling maturity not often assciated with The Undertones .

Well, i guess musicaltaste is a rather safe place to recommend some Free Design without getting laughed at. It always strikes me they haven't been more popular back in the late sixties. "Kites Are Fun" is one of their more popular and one of their best tracks for sure. Uber-jolly, playfull, catchy with superb vocal harmonies, gentle guitar, flute, bass and drums and some keyboards.

A gorgeous ,lively instrumental set to a gentle piano driven house beat.Uplifting and glad retaining the joy of disco music

A lovely triptych. Plaid keep their trademark odd noises (creaking doors and weird duck quacks in this track) more in check than usual, and the result's a little more conventional than a lot of their work, but it's also very pretty. It's tightly structured, with a happy little introduction followed by three sections marked by their different, though related, warm basslines. Each has a gentle melody of its own, and between each there's an interesting break. Warm, sophisticated, and full of beauty.

holy monk. ethereal. just ethereal.

This track is delicately built upon a sample from the first opening bars of "The End Of A Love Affair" by Julie London, a song i absolutely love (and was recommended by delicado somewhere else on this site). Further on Ollano add a gentle bossa nova rhythm to the track and light, breezy vocals (in french) by Helena Noguerra. Evokes a feeling of a mild, sunny day at a lovely seaside.

i once met these guys at a festival. we discussed belle & sebastian and they went 'let stuart sing his songs and kick the looper-man out of the group as well as that gentle waves-chick' i don't remember my reply... legal man is a perfect example of belle & sebastian as a group i think. the fact that i like sitar and the tempo makes me like it even more.

It's hard to pick a particular Gary McFarland song to recommend: although I love almost all of them, there aren't that many that particularly stand out. Most have some of the same trademarks: whistling or wordless vocals, brass, guitar, and a gentle bossa nova beat. They're slightly wistful, and make me feel like it's summer whenever I hear them. McFarland also worked with some outstanding musicians, including Gabor Szabo and Kenny Burrell on guitar, Grady Tate on drums, and Willie Bobo on percussion.

Long live the king is actually slightly different - it's a simple, upbeat number with a rock beat, bacharach-style trumpet, and picked guitar; a boogaloo-style saxophone also makes an occasional appearance, as does a hammond organ. The German 'Latin Lounge' CD showcases his work on the Verve label, and it's all excellent.

spacy female vocal-based sadpop, perfect for cold weather and sunday afternoons. these guys pioneered this kind of music, if you're familiar with white noise,
os mutantes or even broadcast this album is your jackpot.
it's one of the more calm and mellow tracks on the albums, and one of my favourites.
absolutely gorgeus chorus, totally wide, deep string based arrangement.

..And dig the gentle, almost non-audible rhythm track.

Always loved this song by Burt Bacharach and this version sounds just heavenly. From the credits, it's easy to spot why: Claus Ogerman. He's in top form here, transforming the song into a gentle bossa nova with all the Ogerman magic of that time, very similar in sound and texture to his work on Antonio Carlos Jobim's "The Composer Of Desafinado Plays": Gentle basic rhythm section, subdued piano, airy flutes and trumpets and of course those impeccably arranged strings swirling in and out during the song.

A very cool sunshine pop style number from the soundtrack to the Brazilian soap opera 'selva de pedra'. This two-minute track has an irresistable groove and some nice harmonized group vocals. The vocals are mostly gentle and smooth, like strings, but there are also some jazzier scat phrases thrown in. The entire soundtrack is highly recommended.

The title track of Television's 1975 album is the greatest statement of their cumulative abilities as a band. A majestic epic of dual guitar interplay, metronome bass playing, unconventional jazz drumming, and the strangled vocal screeds of Tom Verlaine, Marquee Moon begins with a double-stop riff. A second tangled guitar weaves in, a bass thuds upward, and a lockstep rhythm forms behind the surreal lyrics. From the chorus to the long, flowing jams that follow the third verse, the guitar interplay between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd amazes again and again. Instead of rhythm and lead guitar, the two guitarists trade solos and phrases, tones and colors. Even when Richard Lloyd plays simply, he dominates the color and tone of the solo he underscores, and when he lets loose a solo, it flows like poetry, phrasing and declaiming the beauty of the notes it contains. Band leader Tom Verlaine twists and curves his notes all over here, careening in on himself and threatening to implode before finding a perfect spot. The majestic peaks this song climbs to seem almost impossible, and it very nearly stumbles by running long. However, nothing can detract from the climactic jams that culminate in Tom Verlaine's singing bird-call guitar notes and gentle spills of warbling riffs.

Excellent gentle mambo arrangement, courtesy of Claus Ogerman, of this spy theme featuring Tjader's vibes and George Castro's flute in nice counterpoint with Palmeiro's piano and some very lively percussion.

Very rhythmically complex track with gentle finger-picked guitar courtesy of Byrd. Romero was at the forefront of Venezuela's "onda nueva" movement, which was an interesting conflagration of Latin jazz, American pop, calypso & traditional Spanish styles. According to this album's liners: "The time is 3/4, but the drummer often plays 2, giving the beat a 4/4 quality. Or the measure is played in 6, spraying accents in such a way that one hasn't time to count beats to the bar." If that seems perplexing to you, you're not alone. In a 1997 interview, Byrd called this album the most challenging recording he had ever made.

The soundtrack to Bedazzled is remarkably good, one of a few much-hyped records floating around in my head that has actually lived up to my expectations. This instrumental is notable for its haunting mood and astonishingly beautiful chord sequence. The flute melody, lush strings and gentle latin percussion combine beautifully. Musically, it's one of those pieces that's so good you want to cry.

wonderful harmonies, gentle sound,lyrics really make you think about them and reminds me of crosby stills nash and young particularly on the chorus.

simply because it's gentle, chiming and so full of yearning. i'm a sucker for that.

When you consider just how wonderful it is, Les Baxter's 'exotic' work is under-represented on this site. From a superb and reasonably easy-to-find album, this cut is an intoxicating mix of shimmering 50s style strings and gentle bongo rhythms.

'Nightingale' is a Xavier Cugat original that is very much in the style of classic Lecuona songs like 'Taboo'. Melodically, it also reminds me of another standard, 'Invitation'.

This short track opens the classic 1995 easy listening compilation The Sound Gallery. I'm sure it's well known to anyone with a remote interest in the whole revival scene. It's a really beautiful track, with funky drums, organ, a gentle, whispery vocal chorus, and some great jazz piano. Evocative and glamorous, this evokes a swinging party attended by people wearing sparkly dresses. For me, this is perhaps the ultimate stylish/glamorous 60s recording.

This song - like the whole Secrets of the Beehive album - leaves me breathless... awash with gentle melody, so atmospheric and dripping with beauty.
Acoustic guitars roll on a painted lanscape; subltle fingers tug at long-forgotten memories...

"Sunlight falls, my wings open wide..."

Indeed, the kind of song that could make you fly!

I'm very surprised there are no other Georgie Fame songs here.

Here's yet another British solo singer of the 1960's who never really made it in America...except, I think, with the song 'Bonnie & Clyde'.

By 1969 Georgie Fame's success as a hit-maker was starting to wind down, before, in the early '70's, he teamed up with Alan Price and had a hit with the forgettable 'Rosetta'.

I think this song has been forgotten, this version anyway, but it's far from forgettable.

A really terrific late '60's chart hit, that only made it to no.16 on the British charts, but should have done so much better.

A really upbeat, summer song.

It was covered by someone else sometime in the '70's, I think, but that version was far inferior to this.

Wondeful gentle arrangement...lots of mellow brass & Georgie's voice at its understated, confident best.

This live recording of "Ride The Wind" is a wonderful nine minute take on the six minute studio version available on The Youngbloods 1969 "Elephant Mountain" album.

Recorded live in NYC as a trio, The Youngbloods never sounded better. Jesse Colin Young is on bass. Banana plays guitar and keyboards, and Joe Bauer on drums. Sparse, almost scatted vocals mixed with improvisational instrumentaion help this song lightly float along. The bass solo gives me goosebumps, and accents the playfulness of the improv style the Youngbloods exhibit on this song.

I really like this song because it sounds so mellow and free. One of the best ways you can spend almost 10 minutes of your life. Give it a listen, you won't be sorry.

The most beautiful song ever recorded ,hard to qualify,hard to measure,i know ,but one listen of this gentle folk infused languid samba will convince and convert.
Everything on this is right,the apologetic vocal,the crying strings and a portentous forboding lyric,everything seems to move along at a rivers pace.it could last for two minutes or two hours,its effect on your senses would still be divine

In his home country France Benjamin Biolay often is praised as the "nouveau Gainsbourg", he's a singer, songwriter, arranger, producer, orchestrator and plays various instruments. His debut album "Rose Kennedy" shows the impact "Histoire de Melody Nelson" had on him, as this is also conceived as a concept album. The track "Rose Kennedy" sounds very 60's in its instrumentation and feel, with lush, rich strings, warm Fender Rhodes keyboard, gentle and dreamlike vocals with a sparse dose of electronica and some samples thrown in.

This is a pretty much overlooked gem by The Association. Somewhere described as a "total pacific beach fantasy", that's exactly how the song sounds. With it's idealized lyrics, great vocal harmonies, lush strings and a very nice acoustic guitar solo you can almost feel a gentle pacific breeze, evoking a similar kind of "lost summer" mood Chad & Jeremy's "Distant Shores" provide (at least for me)...

This song has been a favorite of mine ever since I first heard it on the album "Birthday" back in the 80's. It reminds me of walking along the beach with my girlfriend, looking at a gorgeous sunset. The song was written by Jim Yester, who also sings lead...the string arrangement, great vocal harmonies, lush melody and delicate guitar solo by Tommy Tedesco make this a sunshine pop classic. Jim Yester also contributed two other equally great tunes on this album, "Birthday Morning" and the stunning, majestic "Barefoot Gentleman". I recommend the entire album to fans of 1960s harmony pop-it is their most psychedelic record, hands down, and my favorite by them,although I still haven't heard their first LP yet, which others have recommended to me as their best.

A beautiful Mancini piece from one of his best-known soundtracks that I had somehow managed to neglect completely. The Pink Panther was never at the top of my wish-list, but after picking up the CD last week for a mere 50p, I was very impressed. The score utilizes the accordian slightly more than I would have liked, but has some fantastic textured tracks, such as this one.

The track opens with a 'Blues in the night' style riff on the piano. The lead is then taken by a blistering muted trumpet sound. I've always thought of Angelo Badalamenti's Twin Peaks work as being heavily Mancini-influenced, but that link has never been more clear to me than on this track, which has a similar moody tone to some of the best tracks on the Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me soundtrack. The classic Mancini string sound is also in evidence, as well as a gentle wordless chorus. About half-way through, legendary tenor saxophonist Plas Johnson takes up the melody. The dreaded accordian gets a brief look-in before the track concludes with some more riffing on the trumpet. Fantastic stuff; Mancini really was an inspirational arranger.

A superbly catchy mood music piece, with a gentle bossa rhythm and Claus Ogerman-arranged strings. Very cool, and from the same album which featured strongly on the superb 'Snowflakes' CD compilation of the best mood music from the German MPS label. This track arrived in my head after I woke up this morning and demanded to be played. Very sleek and cool.

A dramatic pop number from the 60s in which Mina passionately belts out the tune. The opening is gentle, with a delicate trumpet melody; it then builds up to a huge climax with full orchestra. The song is infuriatingly catchy and familiar; I'm sure I had heard it many times before I finally identified it about five years ago. Very highly recommended.

Great soundtrack to a sun-drenched sunday afternoon. Birdie members Paul Kelly and Deborah Wykes met as tour musicians for Saint Etienne, and in fact they sound similar with Deborah Wykes sounding like a somewhat subdued, toned down Sarah Cracknell. But you can hear more influences, with all the warm instrumentation in the song (acoustic guitar, flutes, muted trumpet, various analogue keyboards) it's close to late 60s easy listening pop, Bacharach and The Carpenters.

Just about everyone has a favorite version of this song and Blossom Dearie's recording is mine. Sitting quietly at the piano with bass and percussion joining in Blossom maps out the man of her dreams and what she plans to do when she finds him. Another gem from the sadly out-of-print album 'My Gentleman Friend'.

His choice of lifestyle may have been questionable, yes. A prolific user of drugs and prostitutes, Elliot Smith was certainly not a healthy man physically or mentally toward the end of his life. What isn't questionable is the fact that Elliot Smith was an amazing, soulful, passionate musician. I don't really know why I picked Speed Trials. I suppose it's my personal favorite.
Suicide is a subject that always baffles me, and nothing hurts more to see a man with such beautiful music in his soul gone... especially at such a young age. What we do have, however, are the recordings of his maticulously constructed chord progressions, his sweet, wispy voice, and gorgeously poetic lyrics. Pieces of history we can all forever hold onto and remember him for how he may have affected each of our lives. I know his music certainly had an impact on mine. I will miss Elliott Smith.

I really could've picked any song from this album, but this was the song that stood out the most when I first heard it.
A gentle, almost fragile, home recording. Hushed vocals, simple guitar lines, and minimal drums, its intimacy is compounded tenfold towards the end when he samples what could very well have been a message left on his answering machine.

If you are familiar with the,by now,well played M and P sound this will surprise you ,a gentle ,light funky ballad with an entirely male led vocal .The measured ,considerate vocal by John Phillips takes the Mamas and Papas into a new mature almost sophisticated territory.Regretably short at 2.20,the previous sunshine pop makes way for new feeelings and concerns ,from a fantastic album callled "People Like us " which seemed to pave the way for what came to be known as AOR,the relentless sunshine of California discovers the humidity of 70,s L.A .This was their last record

An incredibly light and gentle bossa nova track with an impeccable, delicate arrangement. Originally released on the "Stiletto"-Soundtrack, it's due to compiler Toru Hashimoto's excellent work on the "Cafe Apres-Midi" series that this gem didn't fade into obscurity.

Fantastic piece of gentle soft rock, filled with simple and effective bittersweet lyrics. Soundwise, delicado appropriately described it in his review as a "cooler and classier take on the Chad & Jeremy sound with superior performances, songwriting and arrangements". I can absolutely subscribe to that description, the whole album is a long lost softrock gem.

The opening track from Acid House Kings' latest record "Mondays Are Like Tuesdays and Tuesdays Are Like Wednesdays". For me the song captures perfectly what a sunday morning should feel like : it�s gentle, light, clear blue sky, sun-drenched yet with a light breeze, a certain freshness. The song represents all that with a very light, transparent, mostly accoustic arrangement, enriched with some synth strings and guitar and with the charming voice of Julia Lannerheim including some nice ba-ba-ba's. The whole album is excellent and highly recommended.

It took me some time, but I'm finally really getting into Tipsy's second album, 'Uh Oh!' This track is a beautiful sound collage, with a slightly more complex structure than a lot of predominanty sampled tracks have. Its samples include celestial harps, gentle beats, middle eastern snake charmer sounds, old wordless vocals, and lots more wonderful sounding stuff I can't identify. The overall effect is rather intoxicating. My admiration for this track mixed with a touch of jealousy - I have some of the records being sampled here (for example, the 'Bacharach Baroque' version of 'Close to you' is clearly audible), but my own audio assembling skills are rather poor compared with those of Tipsy. If you haven't listened to Tipsy since 'Trip Tease', or even if you're just interested in creative sampling, I recommend checking this out.

This is a track of off Dearie's second Fontana album "That's Just The Way I Want To Be". An overlooked gem of a record, unusual sounding for Blossom, blending together jazz, bossa nova and folk with nicely arranged orchestration. "Sweet Surprise" has a dream-like, airy feel with it's jazzy waltz rhythm. The album is available on the japanese "Whisper for you" compilation. Unfortunately, her first Fontana album "Soon It's Gonna Rain" from 1967, featuring lots of Jobim and Bacharach songs, has yet to be released on CD.

With the wild African rhythms, yelped back-up vocals and honky-tonk piano, this song is bizarre and crazed and lot of fun. Lyrically it's also very cool with Mick Jagger singing from the persona of a very gentlemanly and straightforward Satan. It's also incredibly timeless and influential. Listen to Outkast's recent album, or the Libertines, or the Music and you can hear shades of this song without a doubt.

Following shortly on the heels of Of Skins and Heart, "Tear It All Away" still was the picture of a developing band, but one already more comfortable with the studio, able to use subtlety and quiet drama to inform its cool, soothing yet tense take on post-punk filtered through psychedelic touches. The familiar Byrds-derived guitar and Bowie-tinged lyrical regret and sighing crop up as they so often would in the earliest days, but there's a clean, blue tinge to the whole performance, something that feels inexpressively like an eighties recording rather than a sixties throwback. Call it the space in the mix, the gentle keyboards here and there, or the substituting of folk and country roots for something more urban and faster-paced. The lovely mid-song solos show the Marty Willson-Piper/ Peter Koppes team still well within its element, and the whole composition has a rich, lush feeling to it that's most attractive.
(AMG)

'do they know, do they care, that it's only/that I'm lonely and low as can be.../And the smile on my face...isn't really a smile at all...'
This is a brilliant, devastating recording. Julie's gentle, heartfelt vocal, the lush background... I'm speechless!

the perfect teen heartbreak country ballad. the arrangement on this just BLOWS me away. check out the dissonant strings and the gentle steel guitar! not to mention skeeters vocals.. she never sounded better in my opinion, it just comes across as so goddamn heartfelt. marvel at the heavy, deadpan spoken word section at the end!
A desert island break-up song if there ever was one:)

Why does my heart go on beating
Why do these eyes of mine cry
Don't they know it's the end of the world
It ended when you said goodbye

For "The Look Of Love" Diana Krall managed to bring the legendary Claus Ogerman out of his retirement as an arranger (in fact, at that point, he didn't arrange for other people for 15 years or so). That was due to the fact that Krall's longtime producer, Tommy LiPuma (who did some marvelous production work for A&M in the late 60s e.g. for Claudine Longet or The Sandpipers) used to work with Ogerman in the past and so Claus got on board. While Krall's jazz followers found the result all too schmaltzy i just love it. The track is a very laid back, gentle, cool sounding version with a subtle bossa rhythm. And the arrangement and production is as immaculate as you might expect with Mrs. Krall giving a fine vocal performance, reminding me a lot of Julie London.

Club 8, consisting of songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Johan Angergaard and vcalist Karolina Komstedt, started of in the mid 90s with a twee indie pop sound, with jangly guitars (Angergaard being a major Smiths fan) and simple instrumetation. With the release of their self- titled album in 2001 they added some electronica without losing the general tone of their music which is basically well crafted, melodic, gentle, airy, etheral, melancholic indie pop. Karolina Komstedt vocals are quite similar to early Nina Person of The Cardigans or Claudine Longet in their airy, angelic, dreamlike delivery. "The Next Step You'll Take" is a bossa nova influenced track, with gentle acoustic and electric guitars, some percussion and vibraphone. Nothing groundbreaking, but they combine well known elements in such a charming, delicate way i find them hard to resist.

A real journey, from a gentle acoustic introduction to an earth-moving riff-feast in the middle, and developing organically towards a satisfying ending. Neurosis really are an extraordinary band, and this is one of their very best tracks.

A sophisticated and understated pop bossa. This song can breeze by the first time you hear it, but the unexpected hooks and chord changes make for addictive listening. There are strings, a gentle and high male vocal and a rhythmic piano. It really is heavenly. I should add that the CD compilation this appears on, 'the essential...volume 2', is really one of the very best single-artist compilations I've ever heard. The liner notes are not perfect though - this song is erroneously listed as 'Tiao branco forte'. Great compilation though, one which showed me that Marcos really is a genius.

This probably sounds like an odd thing to recommend, but the more I hear this track, the more I love it. It's as if the arranger didn't actually like the song that much - he has changed it a great deal, but for better. Mixed with the trademark Mystic Moods sound effects, it begins lush and gentle. However, after the sound effects fade away, the quality of the arrangement and recording come through, with crisp drums, a nice bass and some great piano. It has a very cool funk-orchestral feel, recalling some of Pete Moore's best work.

Late 60s mellow sunshine pop with amazing vocal harmonies, composed by the legendary Roger Nichols with lyrics written by his long-time partner Paul Williams. A very gentle, breezy and light tune, due to excellent arrangement/production by Nick DeCaro and Tommy LiPuma with a delicately sounding trumpet playing the main melody. Like many Nichols songs, it's soft and mellow while being full of longing and melancholia at the same time.

Mixing light bossa nova guitar, gentle strings, flutes, subdued piano and muted trumpet (or trombone, not sure) this is a very elegant, romantic sounding track by Piero Piccioni, evoking, as the title suggests, images of the blue sea glittering in the summer sun. Moodwise it's quite reminiscent of Jobim's "Tide" and "Triste".

Listening again to a compilation I made almost four years ago, I heard this magical track, which really had a big effect on me. It's probably not for everyone. Meandering and rather wistful, it's not at all funky like some of their later work, but I find it utterly compelling.

As you might have heard, Novi Singers were an incredibly talented quartet of vocal singers recording in Poland in the late 60s and 70s. They did several amazing records. This is taken from what I think was their first, Bossa Nova. But rather than renderings of songs like 'One note samba' and 'Desafinado', the album consists of a delightful and varied collection of originals in a related mood. The result is like bossa nova from a parallel, slightly more melancholic universe.

The accompaniment is a slow, gentle bossa played by a small jazz group, with some rich strings dropping in and out, and the vocals (all wordless/scat) take centre stage. The chord sequence is staggeringly beautiful, and at times the vocalists take slightly extravagant scat solos.

It sounds strange to say it, but this is really one of those tracks that seems to tell an enormous, emotional story, in spite of the fact that it doesn't contain one word! It would make a fantastic soundtrack to a silent movie.

Well, i guess you just can't recommend too much Morricone. So, this is another track off the excellent "Mondo Morricone" trilogy (Note: With the completion of the trilogy with "Molto Mondo Morricone", the formerly out of print first two parts "Mondo Morricone" and "More Mondo Morricone" have been reissued with 2 bonus tracks each). This track has it all: Gentle bossa nova rhythm, subtle triangle, swirling, almost surreal sounding strings, harpsicord galore and on top of it magnificent vocals by the incomparable Edda Dell'Orso.

The opening track off Koop's already classic and eponymously titled album, truly a shining example of sampled neo-lounge jazz music. Very floating, daydream like atmosphere with a looped stand-up bass riff, gentle, shimmery strings, analogue keyboard sounds and some electronic embellishments. With breezy, breathy and soft vocals provided by Cecilia Stalin on top of it.

I always like Claudine Longet's whispery, French accented voice, singing cutesy little love songs with all the dreamy passion of a girl decorating her school notebook with detailed drawings of unicorns and flowers. But she sounds even better when performing a darker, vaguely forboding song like "Wanderlove". The gentle string arrangement and subtle sitar flourishes are the icing on the cake. Wherever you're going, Claudine, take me with you.

The title of this Sommers/Almeida album is spot on: gentle, soft arrangements by Laurindo Almeida, simple yet effective with guitar and lush strings, embellished with flutes, harps and vibes and Joanie Sommers' vocals dominantly on top of it.

A gentle, easy-listening inspired song which is pretty much perfect so long as you can manage to avoid finding it overbearingly kitsch. The naively optimistic, yet sophisticated lyric is beautifully matched by the music and arrangement.

A great track by a true american treasure. Blossom Dearie's one-of-a-kind voice is perfectly suited for this song. You can hear the vixen just below the sweet innocent exterior as she demurely praises the object of her affection with a raised eyebrow and knowing look. She knows that she is going to get her way, but decides to throw in a little flattery to ensure that her intended shows no resistence to her plan.
This song is only available on the criminally unavailable album 'My gentleman Friend'. You may occasionally find a copy for sale on Ebay (like I did) or shell out about $35 for a japanese import CD.