Customer Rating:  
Summary: A gossamer grab-bag of European air.
Comment: Since the focus of this column is music, I won't dwell on supermodel singer Carla Bruni's recent marriage to French president Nicolas Sarkozy, because it's irrelevant to her recorded output -- at least so far. No Promises is Bruni's second album, an all-English setting of poetry by such icons as Yeats, Auden, Dickinson, and Parker. Given the introspective nature of these lyrics, it's no surprise that the album is a gossamer grab-bag of European air. Bruni's intimate vocals are mated with classical guitar, harmonica, cello, bass, and light percussion. For those given to reflecting slowly over turns of phrase, No Promises promises a provocative soundtrack. For the rest who wouldn't know subtlety if it whacked `em upside the head, No Promises promises nothing -- and delivers the same.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I LOVE this album!
Comment: I truly do not understand how anyone can give less than a 5 star rating for this album. I find it amazing that Carla Bruni took these poems and made them into intriguing, sexy songs. Her voice is so unique and I just cannot say enough about the greatness of "No Promises." When I've had a bad or stressful day, I put this album on and I am immediately calmed. I can't wait for her next album and hopefully she'll release another one in English. I'm extremely surprised that "No Promises" did not pick up as much attention in the U.S. as it deserved.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mais oui, c'ets horrible
Comment: OK, so she has taken poems by some of the greatest English poets and writers and shows some taste in literature but not in music. This is horrific: it even has a gy from that horrible french group Telephone on it. Avoid! It is the pretentious production of somebody with too much time and money.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Sweet Sound
Comment: Carla Bruni putting music to Yeats and singing the verses is a masterpiece.
She sings in a sweet,thoughtful whisper.
A favorite 'Those Dancing Days are Gone" is sung exceptionally well. It's very delicate, like a lullaby to a child.
Admiring her as a model for many years. She's now more than a beautiful face in a crowd.
I recommend this highly to folk fans and anyone who lends their ear will probably fall in love with her songs, particularly this CD.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Carla Bruni makes No Promises....that she can write a decent song
Comment: I think Carla Bruni has the voice (and appearance, for that matter) of a goddess. I thoroughly enjoyed her debut CD, "Quelqu'un M'a Dit," as well as her rendition of Leonard Cohen's "In My Secret Life" on the recent Till Bronner album. Perhaps that's why I find her newest work, "No Promises," that much more appalling.
Although anyone and their brother could grasp the many ways this project was ill-conceived from the start, somehow the Italian-born, French-singing Bruni convinced her record execs to fund an album on which she composes music to several of her favorite English-language poems (W.B. Yeats, Emily Dickinson, etc.). As you might expect, the results are disastrous.
Whereas the lilting chansons on "Quelqu'un M'a Dit" possessed enough soulful melancholy to melt even the coldest heart, "No Promises" finds Bruni in a free-spirited, fluttery mood (i.e. a LOT more major chords), while retaining nary a shred of the surprising compositional skill she expounded on her debut disc. Her chord progressions are rudimentary and ineffective, while the bland melodies she's composed over them often force her to rush through the poetry, capturing none of the subtleties encased in these timeless words. Frankly, speaking as an acoustic-based songwriter myself, if I had composed these tunes, I'd have probably thrown them out midway through the compositional process. Not only does Carla Bruni decide to keep them, she decides to set some of the most well-loved verses in the English language to them. In a word: Yuck.
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