Lady in Satin

A pretty pleasant record to listen to, love her voice, but it's a bit boring and very, very samey.

Not the Billie Holiday I'm used to. I guess you can't include her classic recordings without choosing a compilation. Still very good. Surprising how well her voice works with these kind of late 50s lush arrangements.

Deservedly in the list. A very sorrowful album of the great blues artist, I might prefer 'Lady Sings the Blues'.

8/10 [KEEP]

I'm starting to realize that vocal jazz may be a genre I struggle to connect with. Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of it, but it's a matter of just "liking" some of the most sacrosanct music of all time. For me, there's kind of a pattern with it actually. I understand that the vocalist is incredibly talented and really enjoy the performance, but just can't really enjoy the songwriting which is rooted in a time and genre that I'm distant from (I'd like to note that Wild Is The Wind by Nina Simone is an exception, I adore that album and find it incredibly beautiful). I thought that maybe I could get a little closer on Lady In Satin: after all, I do like some of Billie Holiday's older recordings. For example, her recording of Strange Fruit is absolutely haunting and I can hear her vocal talent even on casual listens. But sure enough, I find Lady In satin to be a beautifully performed rendition of songs that I struggle with a little. Though, I will say, that the higher fidelity sound here grants her voice a really compelling, smokey quality. And the band here is enormous, and unbelievably tight. It's almost a bit too much sometimes, but it really is grand and beautiful. Check out I'm A Fool To Want You and go from there. It's one of my favorites, and if you *really* like it, then this whole thing will be right up your alley.

Just like Ella's album in terms of sound and lyrics. It's very same-y.

Good to see a Billie Holiday album on here. Pretty much the only album representation of pre-war music, along with Sinatra, Duke Ellington and that weird Dagmar Krause album. I don't think this is as good as Billie Holiday's older songs. The leaps in recording quality and her age kind of expose her shortcomings as a vocalist. Her voice sounds a lot better when softly spoken into a horn directly connected to Shellac. The songs don't really do much for me either and don't necessarily sound like they are hers.

I do like these 50's, gentle ballad, orchestral-backed albums. Especially in winter time. The backing music is lovely, with it's occasional flutters and swells. It's just a real nice, warm kind of album.

As others say, it totally all blends into one, and it feels overlong, so loses marks as a result.

3.5 rounded down.

Good but I need to be in the mood.

Billie Holiday may have been a big name in her day. I'm sure this album was great back then. But I'm afraid those days are long gone. I don't like her singing style. On top of that, the strings and the settings are so saccharine that it physically hurt me to listen to it. I definitely won't be listening to it again. 1/5

Легенда! Дуже м'який альбом для спокійного вечора вдома. 3.5

Not my preferred genre, and to be honest at first her voice didn’t appeal to me. But on second listen I started to appreciate the time she took to get the emotions across, and this album grew on me. Very talented song interpretation.

Billie has the voice of someone who has seen some shit. Soft and gentle, wry and raw.

Amazing voice but it didn't blow me away.

I like this somewhat grizzled, older Billie, just as smooth and deeply emotive as ever.

Solid, though it feels like she could have done so much more than love songs.

I know why Billie Holiday was significant, but this isn't the sort of music I listen to for fun.

Lady In Satin is another one of those albums where i can speak pretty positively about the music but the vocals, not so much. Ray Ellis and his orchestra did the main heavy lifting of the album in my opinion with some pretty good music with some great work especially on the violins, kinda giving a Frank Sinatra vibe with all the music and it really fits each and every song. My main issue with this album though is Billie's vocals, she sounded like an old lady in this album (which didn't make much sense seeing as she was 43 when this album came out). This is just a problem with this album that i don't have with other vocal jazz by women. I liked the music, I just wish the vocals were better.
Best Song: The End of a Love Affair
Worst Song: For Heaven's Sake

A very soulful and unique voice. I can see how it was very influential on future music, but it is not something I am going to throw on all the time. Still pretty decent.

Sad smoky warbling. Can think of precisely zero occasions when I would think "oooooh, I must play this"

I’m more familiar with Billie Holiday’s earlier recordings, so hearing how much her voice had aged on this was poignant. Her singing is still expressive, but the arrangements and tempos are so similar, the songs kind of blend into each other.