Album Review: Gentle Ravings Under a Martian Sky by Kathy Compton

Album Name: Gentle Ravings Under a Martian Sky
Artist: Kathy Compton
Year/Label: 2004 / Independent

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Review by Amy Lotsberg Producer of Collected Sounds

Interesting recording. I learned from this that I am sometimes swayed by packaging. The copy sent to me was made on a home computer, the name of the CD written on it with magic marker (presumably by the artist). The “liner notes” consisted of a single sheet of paper showing just the track listing…no photos or cover art. This makes me think either, the artist is not very serious about her work, or this is an advance copy and the “official” ones are not through the production yet. I’m going to go with the latter on this one because the CD looks really nice on her website and on CD Baby.

The music….upon the first few listens nothing grabbed me except for Compton’s remake of “The Love Boat Theme” which made me smile.

After I visited her website and saw all the lovely cover art, photos of the artist, the design of the site and how it compliments the music, my opinion changed. The site automatically plays music, which I normally abhor because it interferes with what I am listening to at the moment (at this moment she was competing with herself, it still sounds yucky when two songs are battling each other out) but it’s OK in this instance because I got the “full package”, sight and sound. I will admit that the added visuals gave this recording a new feeling for me.

That said the music is sort of hard to describe. The vocals are light and sweet, the music is pop with a little jazz thrown in. The production is pretty full and rich sounding.

The intro on “Optisong” has horns that remind me of the old band Chicago. But it quickly moves into a modern pop song.

Contrary to the title, “Wilderness of Sin” is reminiscent of the sounds of Sesame Street with the childlike voices singing backup.

“Grass Beneath My Feet” is a fun techno-ish catchy tune.

This is a nice collection of songs that are unique yet reminiscent of times past.

Posted on March 24, 2004

Track Listing
Listen to track samples
1. Optisong
2. Wilderness Of Sin
3. Sunrise
4. Demigods And Hot Wheel Rods
5. The Love Boat Theme
6. Full Forces
7. Hollow Day
8. Grass Beneath My Feet
9. Over And Over
10. Time
11. Rainbow Thunder Shooting Star

[Kathy Compton Official Site]

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