Eli and the Thirteenth Confession

There are songs and moments I don’t mind, but overall, the musical theater vibes and proto-Joanna Newsom inability-to-stop-singing-for-three-seconds are hard for me to overcome.

2.5/5

idk how i’ve never heard of laura nyro before. starts a lot stronger than it finishes, but it’s a beautiful blend of genres throughout.

The soundtrack to picturing myself in a smoky bar, contemplating the bottom of my whisky glass because I slept with my secretary but my wife found out and now she's taken the kids and moved back in with her mother who hated me all along.

Oh so very inconsistent. Some parts were very, very good, but when she tried hitting the high notes it's was BAD.

If she toned it down a notch this would have been miles better

Komeaa laulumusiikkia! 4/5

This is an album that’s on my playlist of my favorite albums, and I have seven songs from it “liked” on Spotify. Those are signs of a five star. But today it didn’t hit me that hard, which speaks to how subjective these things are. I’m calling it four stars today, but anyone who reads this should know at one point it was a 5 and it may be a 5 again in the right circumstances.

Great voice, but some songs missed the mark for me. Still quite good. 3.5/5

Nice voice. Typical 60s female singer. Not my deal. Now that I’m through this it’s horrible. The lyrics mean nothing.

Actually not bad. 3

Soul geprägtes fast einstündiges Album. Mit Soul-, Blues und Jazzelementen im Hintergrund. Die Stimme ist ordentlich aber nicht herausragend. “Eli’s Coming’” ist auf Grund des breiten Spektrum brauchbar. Die Interpretationen eignen sich für die Pianobar des Luxushotels aber auch nicht zu mehr.

Very surprisingly good

I’m at a 3.5 that I just don’t think I can round up to a 4.

Really, the biggest thing this album has going against it is a lack of complete consistency. I’m not opposed to bucking traditionalism and having wild tempo shifts and mood shifts within individual songs, because when this album does it, it usually does it remarkably well, and tends to make sense within the lyrics of each track. It just never keeps a model of consistency in the quality of those shifts, and it stems entirely from her vocals.

Her vocals, for most of this album, are usually pretty good, but there are times when, much like the compositions themselves, it just strains a little too far one way or the other to the point of either breaking, or sounding a little shaky. It’s very apparent when she tries to do those stair step vocals to pitch up or pitch down; it’s not consistent, and it’s not as clean as one would hope. Regardless, though, her vocals don’t ruin the songs at all, they’re just noticeable in a way that doesn’t vibe with my musical sensibilities. I love having vocalists blend in perfectly to the music, and she just doesn’t do it consistently enough here to overlook it.

With all of that said, I think the instrumentals are great, the lyrics are a little weird at times (what in the fuck is “Decembery ice” other than a desperately needed adjective-noun pair) but mostly pretty solid, and the vibes of the album are good. I really did enjoy most of this album, and I’d honestly recommend it; someone will absolutely overlook all of these perceived flaws and just vibe out.

For me, though, it’s just not consistent enough to bump up to a 4, and it certainly never gets anywhere near a 5 as a complete project. If I could keep it at a 3.5, I would, but I’m gonna leave it at a 3.

This album is full of soft music like you'd hear as live music while enjoying a drink. I enjoyed this album quite a lot.

A wonderful voice, an interesting artist, and someone I will be returning to - all her stuff is on my "after the list" list

I can definitely see that she is definitely a muse for some of my favorite musicians, and there are glimmers of perfection. when she starts talking about cocaine?? amazing. but I just don't particularly care for the parts that the 1970's singer/songwriters overused. Interesting but probably not anything I'd listen to.

What a great voice. Really solid arrangements too. This album sounds very modern and forward thinking for something that came out in the 60s honestly

This is why I love this project. Finding new artists that had passed me by first time around.

A mix of Dusty Springfield and Joni Mitchell with a sprinkle of Karen Carpenter, Laura Nyro has it all.

At its best when it's doing a Supremes kind of Motown thing with a horn section, backing singers and some lively bass. At its worst when it verges into Broadway territory with story-telling ballad style, or when it goes all schmaltzy slow and sparse and flutey. An incredible, if kind of nasal, voice with a huge range, but that includes a very annoying piercing high-range she spends lots of time in.

Even though Laura Nyro has a good voice, I don't think her way of singing suits me well, especially when she bellows and goes up. It sounds too theatrical to me, and that's a shame, because the songs are quite good. I think the instrumentation is quite worthwhile, but it remains a challenge for me to listen to it in a relaxed manner.
So, to be fair, I could do without this album (actually, most of hers)
A matter of taste probably. Today, I tried again for the 1001 Album Challenge, but I was glad when I finished listening.

Album Review: Eli and the Thirteenth Confession – Laura Nyro

Going into this, I had never heard of Laura Nyro before, so I was genuinely curious to explore Eli and the Thirteenth Confession.

It turned out to be a really interesting listen—definitely not what I was expecting. The album has a theatrical, expressive quality to it that feels almost like a stage performance. While many of the songs are strong in their own right, I found myself preferring some of the versions I've heard covered by other artists.

There’s no doubt Nyro was a bold and unique talent, but the showy, dramatic tone didn’t fully connect with me.