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Vonda Shepard: By 7:30

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Jacket Records
Released: 1999
Time:
 52:27
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): Mitchel Froom, Vonda Shepard
Rating: *******... (7/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.vondashepardonline.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2000.09.02
Price in €: 14,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] By 7:30 (V.Shepard) - 4:05
[2] Mercy (V.Shepard) - 4:57
[3] Clear (V.Shepard) - 4:04
[4] Sail on By (V.Shepard) - 3:59
[5] Confetti (V.Shepard) - 3:26
[6] Cross to Bear (V.Shepard) - 3:40
[7] This Is Crazy Now (V.Shepard) - 3:35
[8] Baby, Don't Break My Heart Slow (J.Newton-Howard/V.Shepard) - 4:41
[9] You and Me (V.Shepard) - 3:40
[10] Venus Is Breaking (V.Shepard) - 4:25
[11] Newspaper Wife (V.Shepard) - 4:57
[12] Soothe Me (V.Shepard) - 5:04
[13] Souvenir (V.Shepard) - 1:54

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Vonda Shepard - Piano, Acoustic Guitar, Producer

Michell Froom - Moog Bass, Piano, Claviola, Hammond B-3, Harmonium, Portative Organ, Penny Owsley, Optigon, Keyboards, Producer
Val McCallum - Acoustic, Electric and 12 String Guitars, Balalika
Michael Landau - Guitars
Leland Sklar - Bass
Tony Levin - Bass, Rubberband Bass
Davey Faragher - Bass
Jim Hanson - Bass
Andy Kamman - Drums
Pete Thomas - Drums, percussion
Jerry Marotta - Drums, Percussion
Garo Yellin - Cello
Jane Scarpantoni - Cello
Mark Feldman - Violin
Lorenza Ponce - Violin
Matthew Pierce - Viola
David Gold - Viola
Aaron Heick - Clarinet
Charlie Guardino - Accordion

Bob Clearmountain - Mixing
Paul Dieter - Engineer
John Paterno - Recoding
Juan Garcia - Assistant Engineer
Nathaniel Kunkel - Engineer
John Paterno - Engineer
Stephanie Woolf - Stylist
Norman Moore - Art Direction, Design
Ria Lewerke - Art Direction, Design
Julie Larson - Coordination
Josh Turner - Assistant Engineer
Greg Burns - Assistant Engineer
Gerry Wenner - Photography

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded by John Paterno, Husky Hoskulds at The Sound Factoryin L.A., The Magic Shop in N.Y.C.,Oceanway in L.A., Conway in L.A.



Vonda Shepard is a perfect example of how radically one's luck can change for the better. Given the boot by Reprise in 1992, the singer/songwriter lacked either a record deal or a manager for several years - from 1992 to 1996, the last thing one expected from her was a platinum album. But in the late 1990s, Shepard's frequent appearances on Fox-TV's hit program Ally McBeal gave her a major boost, and 1998's Songs from Ally McBeal went platinum in the U.S. thanks to sales exceeding one million units. Shepard's follow-up to Songs from Ally McBeal was By 7:30, a good-to-excellent collection of pop and pop-rock that often draws on Joni Mitchell's influence without obscuring Shepard's own identity. A few of the tunes venture into glossy, slick adult contemporary territory - most notably, "Baby, Don't You Break My Heart Slow," a duet with Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls - but for the most part, Shepard favors a more organic and introspective approach that should appeal to the Lillith Fair audience. Indeed, those who have appreciated the emotional complexity and depth of Mitchell and Sarah McLachlan will find a lot to admire in cuts like "Venus Is Breaking," "Cross to Bear," and "Clear." These aren't songs that go for immediacy; even though parts of the album are commercial, 7:30 is, on the whole, an album that has to be accepted on Shepard's own creative terms.

Alex Henderson - All Music Guide



Vonda Shepard was a veteran singer/songwriter with spotty success behind her when she caught a break as the musical voice of Ally McBeal. The audience that connected with that popular TV drama quickly took Shepard's music to heart, making a huge success of the 1998 soundtrack album. Now Shepard returns with her fifth disc. Coproduced by Mitchell Froom in a radio-ready style at odds with his experimentation with the likes of Suzanne Vega and Latin Playboys, By 7:30 will surely please those who are primed for its earnest cracked romanticism. Others - the type of listener, for instance, who's less than thrilled to note a guest appearance by Indigo Girl Emily Saliers - are likely to find its overwrought, clichéd sentiments irritating at best.

Rickey Wright - Amazon.com



Vonda Shepard kommt auf ihrem Album "By 7:30" noch besser als auf den Ally McBeal Samplern. Einige Lieder auf ihrem Album waren aber auch schon auf Ally McBeal zu hören, wie z.B. "Soothe me" & "Baby, don't you break my heart slow" - meiner Meinung nach die besten Lieder der CD. Aber auch viele ganz neue Stücke können absolut überzeugen, so beispielsweise der Titeltrack oder "Cross to bear", bei dem Vonda ganz alleine auf dem Klavier spielt - wunderschön. Schade, daß sich dieses Album nicht so gut verkauft wie "Ally McBeal", es ist nämlich mindestens genau so gut!!



Von Vonda Shepard haben die meisten wohl erst was gehört, seit dem es Ally McBeal im TV spielt. Das sie nicht nur alte Songs (äußerst gut) nachspielen kann, zeigt sie auf ihrem Album By 7:30. Zwar muss man gestehen, das einige Songs irgendwie nicht ganz ausgereift klingen (z.B. you and me, das großteils wirklich wunderschön ist, doch bei einem Akkord stellt es einem die Fußnägel auf). Aber zumindest die Songs "Baby, don't you break my heart slow" und "Soothe me" sind absolut perfekt und an den Rest gewöhnt man sich nach mehrmaligem Hören auch. Tip: Vonda Shepard ist live überhaupt der Hit, also nicht verpassen!



Es gibt Musik die einen fortträgt, und wenn man das gehört hat und dann andere Musik hört die man immer sehr gerne gehört hat, aber sie klingt nicht mehr so wie zuvor, weil man eine ganz bestimmt Mustik, nur noch diese Musik hören will, dann kann es Vonda Shepard gewesen sein.



"Ally McBeal"'s resident songbird VONDA SHEPARD is spreading her wings with a new CD entitled, "By 7:30." Fans of the show may be surprised to learn that it's the singer's fifth album, and a tune-filled follow-up to her 1998 triple-platinum release, "Songs From 'Ally McBeal.'" Although the Fox series rocketed Shepard to overnight fame, she's actually been in the music biz for two decades. Born in New York, but raised in Los Angeles, the performer got her first big break playing keyboards and singing back-up for RICKIE LEE JONES. She has also toured with such pop stars as JACKSON BROWNE, AL JARREAU and THE INDIGO GIRLS. In 1987, Shepard scored a Top 5 hit with "Can't We Try," a duet with DAN HILL. In the late '90s, she spent a year in the Big Apple, where she honed her craft in small clubs. Not long after that, she began appearing on "Ally McBeal" and instantly noticed what a difference television exposure can have on a career. "[In New York], I'd play for 100 people or sometimes 200. The timing was amazing, how quickly I went from that tiny little club to playing for about 10,000 people one year later. My first gig on tour was a festival in Atlanta on the day the "Ally McBeal" soundtrack was released. Basically, I walked out onstage and my jaw dropped to the floor because I thought they were screaming for somebody else. It was pretty shocking and exciting." Shepard hopes that "By 7:30" will enjoy the same kind of success as the "Ally" CD. The show's title tune, "Searchin' My Soul," was a Top 30 hit and the video reached the Top 10 on VH1. The first single from "By 7:30" is "Baby, Don't You Break My Heart Slow," a duet with EMILY SALLERS of the Indigo Girls. Prior to returning for "Ally's" third season this fall, Vonda Shepard will be on tour across the United States and Europe. Meanwhile, be on the lookout for "By 7:30," in stores April 20th!

April 14, 1999, Copyright © 1996-1998 by Paramount Pictures.



Call her "that singer from Ally McBeal" and everyone knows who you're talking about. But call her Vonda Shepard and it's "Huh?" That's a pity, since Shepard is an exceptional songwriter who pulls her lyrics from an open vein and delivers them in a voice as powerful and evocative as you'll find anywhere in the Lilith generation. In other words, Shepard as Shepard is a hell of a lot better than the soft-sheen bar singer she plays on McBeal and its attendant soundtrack album (which, by the way, has sold more than four million copies worldwide). Easily the best of her four albums (yes, there was life before Ally), By 7:30 is a confident and strong collection of songs that finds Shepard wrestling with unrequited love in all the wrong and - refreshingly - right places; she even tells one lover, "You're like a wave of heaven, and you're breaking on me." An acknowledged Carole King and Laura Nyro devotee, Shepard employs the same cascading melodies and jagged vocal spikes that Tori Amos also draws from on songs such as the title track, "Clear," and "Sail on By," while she's equally engaging in the quieter, piano-dominated surroundings of "Cross to Bear," "Baby, Don't You Break My Heart Slow" (a duet with Indigo Girl Emily Saliers), and "Soothe Me." Shepard can do the middle of the road well too; "Confetti" is prototypical uptempo pop with a chorus that's still hanging in your ears several songs later. So if there's justice in the world, By 7:30 - which the songstress co-produced with Mitchell Froom - will bring Shepard success in her own right and bring her an audience to sing to other than lawyers in (and out) of love.

Gary Graff, WALL OF SOUND
Copyright © 2000. Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.



After inflicting the emotionally superfluous musical interludes for the loathsome Ally McBeal, Vonda Shepard returns with more Tori Amos- lite tosh. In appearance, Vonda is a mixture of hippy and high fashion, walking barefoot in designer leggings. Musically, 'By 7:30' is a similar mélange, lots of authentically 'woody' instrumentation, acoustic guitars and pianos worked up to a high gloss in the studio. Over this already sickly base, Vonda pours her syrupy, fluttery vocals. The title track and 'Mercy' see Vonda enfolded in domestic bliss, but evidently it's not long before her silent partner gets mightily pissed off with the drip Vonda ("You're like a wave of heaven and you're breaking on me"), for she's soon plunged into vapid turmoil as he hightails it. Modern culture is already dominated by this sort of weak-kneed, self-obsessed post-feminist mush, from Kathryn Flett's autobiography to Bridget Jones (summary: It's a man's man's man's world, but it wouldn't be nothing without a man), we don't need any more. He dumped you, Vonda. Go get drunk at a singles bar like everyone else.

3/10, David Stubbs, www.nme.com



Not too long ago, a Happening! Reader wrote in to ask if I could review Vonda Shepard. Well, sorry it's taken so long, but Vonda's finally made it to our pages. Yippeee! Good news folks.in a nutshell, this is a good album! Folk, with a dash of blues, and some rock fused in to lift up the whole appeal. Many of us (yours truly included) may know Shepard from that TV series about a certain lawyer who is getting thinner with every episode. Let it be known that this is Shepard's fourth solo album (yeah.the Ally McBeal thing might have catapulted her album sales, but she's been writing and producing way before that). Like most folk singers, Shepard's audience has almost been exclusive, and that is essentially what is truly magical about Shepard's talent. It is, by large, still undiscovered. Vocally, she's got that style that would mix the best of Sarah McLachlan and Tori Amos, while her music is reminiscent of greats like Janis Joplin and Carole King. Essentially, her vocals are as moving and distinct as her lyrics. By 7:30 explores emotions which deal on love. 'I feel so lame for getting sucked in so deep', she cries on the track Venus Is Breaking. This work is far from lame, that much I can vouch for. The standout (and by far, most commercial) is her duet with Emily Saliers of the Indigo Girls (another folk act), on the track , Baby Don't You Break My Heart Slow (already released as a single). Other cool and thought-provoking songs include the album opener, verbal By 7:30 (I have been lost in this verbal rain. do you believe in destiny?), the piano based and quiet Cross To Bear and the slightly rock/pop-ish, Confetti which has guitar riffs that would make Bon Jovi sound dated [didn't he always?-Ed]. My personal favourite is Soothe Me (darling I love you, but I swear that I'll be gone, by the time you figure out what you want..), poignant, but not at all melodramatic mush. It comes across as straightforward and gutsy. Co-produced, by Michael Froom, this is one effort that should make it big this year. Then maybe, we'll all stop referring to her as that Ally McBeal singer..sigh!

www.happening.com.sg



WARNING: Don't listen to Vonda Shepard's "by 7:30" if your heart has recently been broken; it will likely be the catalyst that puts you over the edge. It's song after song of love lost and missed opportunities. But considering she's the official songstress for TV's "Ally McBeal," it's not a huge surprise that her fifth album is littered with heartbreak tunes. "By 7:30" is easy listening for the soul. All songs are written and produced by Shepard. Some of the best are "Baby, Don't You Break My Heart Slow," a duet she does with Emily Saliers from the Indigo Girls; "Mercy," which shows off Shepard's fabulous vocal abilities; "Sail On By," one of the few songs Shepard wrote on guitar; and the jazzy "Confetti." And while Shepard's voice is unfailingly perfect, a whole CD of Vonda Shepard is just a little much. Song after song with the same tempo and same theme can get a little dull. This is more background music - something to flick on during a quiet dinner party or at bed time.

Pamela Reeder, Staff Writer



...Shepard writes herself boatloads of beautiful melodies that are far more spellbinding thatn the nostalgic cheese they feed her on TV...

Rating: A-
Entertainment Weekly (5/7/99, p.64)
 

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