REVIEW: Julia Fordham, The Julia Fordham Collection (Virgin)
- Chris Hill
Seeing its U.S. release at last, this collection by British songbird Julia Fordham provides presents for both a longtime fan and a newborn convert: two new songs ("Kid" and "It Was Nothing That You Said"), reworkings of three classic tracks and ten other choice cuts culled from her five full-length cds, spanning a decade from 1988's self-titled debut to 1997's East West. Assembled with care, it's a perfect retrospective and a promise of what Fordham's future holds.
Two remixes kick off the collection. "Happy Ever After (Rain Forest Mix '98)" finds Julia modernizing her '88 blending of a soured personal relationship and her dismay at black/white inequality in apartheid South Africa, to account for the freeing of Nelson Mandela and that country's abolition of apartheid. On the second track, "Where Does the Time Go? ('98 Remix)," Curtis Stigers brings a wonderful male vocal presence to Julia's rich tones. Hearing their voices intertwine, locating the emotional core in every line and word, then lifting it to the sky, is worth the price of the disc by itself.
The third '98 remix, "I Thought It Was You," shows up ninth. It's a moody, bass-driven take on a heartbreakingly intimate and all too common scene: "I'm not looking for the answer, baby/I'm just looking for a little love/We're all looking for someone/For a minute.../I thought it was you." An oxymoron -- uplifting sadness -- which is present in spades in her work.
Julia's never flinched from examining the heart in minute detail. The songs here attest to that. "Girlfriend" pleads for a stout, silent comforting shoulder. "Porcelain" portrays a woman struggling with emotions she should, but can't, return. "I Can't Help Myself" is an airy abandon of the self to love. "East West" sees her discovering, to paraphrase Buckaroo Banzai, that wherever she goes, she still finds herself and her broken heart. Perhaps for all the worms she's encountered, the soil is fresh and vital in each track. Whereas some divas dig tired ground with songs of love's fickle nature, Julia manages to always produce fruit.
With this concentrated glance into her career, it's also pleasantly obvious that Julia sublimates her dulcet tones to the importance of the song, rather than parading her powerful range for a lessened impact of ability over emotion. There's no scale exercises found here; when she stretches, it's in the service of her muse.
There's wealth to be found in the back catalog, as well. Any of her albums contain songs equally representative of her brilliance ("Honeymoon," "As She Whispers" or "Behind Closed Doors," for example). On a stage of divas, she merits a dais all her own. This is a welcome spotlight.
