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Rating: I don't know a damn thing about this woman. Her human and musical background, nothing at all, whether her father was a preacher, if she started singing in church, if she grew up with gospel, if she hated religion but believed in God; I don't know if in front of the “mirror” she is the same as a thousand clichés of this kind or completely different. Nothing. I know nothing and will say nothing.
The Soul, the Gospel. The soul thrown like this, on a plate, in a cassette player, on a CD player, in a car, MP3 player, iPod, etc., etc.… like raw flesh, something disgusting, yes, the soul, I don’t even know what it is, how to describe it, outline it, what it is not. I am ignorant and also brazen, I'm not ashamed of it.
Having said all that (practically nothing): Track after track this album bites your nails, makes you shed tears, gulp, smile; sometimes it leaves you indifferent for a couple of minutes, just enough time to grab you by the throat and drag you into a blind alley of your own soul, make you lose, find yourself again, like a session of psychoanalysis that dredges up a bad thought that your mind had rightly abolished, you are powerless when she presents herself like this, disarmed and disarming, unadorned, with only the piano surrounding her sublime voice in a cascade of notes that are useless because they neither add nor take away anything, and I don’t even know when the period will come at the end of this sentence, because I’m not writing it, I'm riding the wave of emotion, and this cannot be a critical review, because my critical spirit is nullified, you could die from the desire for stuff like this, which annuls you and at the same time enriches you a little. The period has come.
Perhaps the best way to appreciate this “Circle of One” is to know nothing about it, to put it on when you are alone and a little defenseless because you are unprepared, because if you don’t start thinking of an album as a masterpiece, you expect nothing, and then you are ready to be overwhelmed. I got hit square in the face, like a truck, it knocked me down, and if I get up, it’s to listen to it again.
In the end, I don’t even know if I like this album, if it’s worth one or five stars. I know that I listened to it, listened to it, and listened to it, and that I will listen to it again and again. Or maybe I won’t. But it has left its mark right here, I feel pain here, under the sternum, it hurts, a tremendous and wonderful pain. I want more albums like this, of those that you don’t know how you found and if you will find again, as always, magically, by chance.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Rhythm of Life (04:23)
Climbin' every mountain, always killing time
Count the cost as days go by
Monday I've got Friday on my mind
Why don't we make love
Instead of making plans
Mother Nature, Father Time
Maybe it's the family of man
Angels cry when they hear that tune
It's sleepless nights for the man in the moon
And it's the rhythm of life
My mind's made up
Lucy's sign is a Chinese dragon
Oh, oh, she's got luck
The rhythm of life is the force of habit
Oh, oh, the rhythm of life.
Give the girl a future
Give her what she needs
Teach her life's a Iong flat road
Maybe she'll have better luck than me
Works so hard like he's still in school
His pockets are jammed, but this man's a fool.
Within the rhythm of life
My mind's made up
Lucy's sign is a Chinese dragon
Oh, oh-oh, she's got luck
The rhythm of life is a force of habit
Yeah-yeah, oh, the rhythm of life
Rhythm of life.
Oh, when out of sight is out of mind
Shut your mouth, I'm doing fine
Mama's goin' back in time.
Instrumental
Within the rhythm of life
(Life goes on)
It's goin' on and on, hey yeah
(The rhythm of life goes on
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