Love Has Made Me Stronger
- Carol Kleyn
- Band Name: Carol Kleyn
- Record Label: Drag City
- Release Date: Jul 19, 2011
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Aug 26, 201180Kleyn's songs sung to a rugged, vaguely Celtic harp accompaniment with electric piano, bridge the gap between Judy Collins and Joanna Newsom. [Sep 2011, p.88]
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Aug 22, 201178Love Has Made Me Stronger's rough-around-the-edges imperfections only allow Kleyn to convey her spirited optimism all the more forcefully. That sort of music boldness never goes out of style.
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Aug 22, 201175Though the songwriting on Love Has Made Me Stronger is rarely at the level of its influences, Kleyn's intricate harp-playing on the dramatic instrumental "Street Song" and her richly emotional vocals on the soaring ballads "Mountain Child" and "Higher Than High" is pure and affecting, whatever the pedigree.
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Aug 22, 201170Kleyn sounds just fine accompanying herself with adept piano and efflorescent harp flourishes, her music FX-free except for a little echo, and I can imagine a less skyclad presentation simply gumming things up with New Age goo.
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Aug 22, 201170Her 1976 debut (reissued plus one new song free for download) is brief and unpretentious, a soprano celebrating heaven on earth over harp and piano.
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Aug 22, 201170For anyone interested in underground music from the later '60s through the mid-'70s, Love Has Made Me Stronger is recommended listening.
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Aug 22, 201160It's not your typical listen for sure, but it is one that somehow manages to weasel its way into your synapses. [Jul 2011, p.90]
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Aug 22, 201160Kleyn never insists upon some carefully crafted weirdness. If she is an outlier, it's because her sound was inherently singular, not crafted to be that way.
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Aug 22, 201150This album feels more like a curio of a bygone era rather than an overlooked gem.