Love Wants to Dance

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Recording for more than 30 years, Maria Muldaur has moved from jug-band music to Tin Pan Alley pop, blues, and jazz. It is the latter two genres that have most defined her output since the 1980s. A Woman Alone With the Blues, from 2003, was Muldaur's tribute to jazz vocalist Peggy Lee, and she's followed that with this set of 10 thematically linked odes to love. It's a testament to the subtle dramatics of her voice that she is equally convincing when singing of love on the rise, or of its melancholy demise. Smartly sequenced and warmly arranged, the disc moves gracefully from the sunshine to the moonlight. From dreamy anticipation to heartache, this is a portrait of the varied and elusive faces of love. --David Greenberger

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2005-05-02 rating:
Isn't It Romantic?
In her sleeve notes to this album, Maria says "Once again it's all about love. Anybody got a problem with that?" Well... Maria Muldaur is probably my favourite female vocalist, but as I read those words, I braced myself for fifty minutes of slow, sloppy, sentimental, lovey-dovey dullness. I should have known better. After a couple of plays, I was hooked and the disc has hardly been out of my CD player.

In 'If Dreams Come True', the musicians (Joe Craven - violin, Seward McCain - bass, Chris Burns - piano and Lance Dresser - drums) conjure up images of quaint tea-rooms in posh hotels as Maria sings of unrequited love. Taj Mahal's 'Baby You're My Destiny' has a more upbeat tempo with Jim Rothermel's saxophone replacing the violin in the line-up, nicely complementing Maria's flowery vocal. The sax man also does his stuff on 'Love Dance' as the band move towards smooth jazz territory. This is the album's longest track and the rhythm, along with Maria's dreamy vocal weave a hypnotic spell on the listener.

There's a version of Bob Dylan's 'Moonlight' and Maria sounds uncannily like a female version of the man himself in places on this track. Maria is certainly full-on female for the album's opening number, 'The Lies of Handsome Men'. This song surely contains the girliest of girlie lyrics: "I believe in star signs / and I believe in film romances / I believe in fantasy / and I believe with just one glance / he's crazy for my eyes / 'cos I believe the lies of handsome men". Well, I suppose it's not a song that a man would usually sing.

All the songs are immaculately performed, but I got the impression that Maria and the band were coasting and playing well within themselves. Existing fans will no doubt buy it anyway, and the album will have an appeal to those who enjoy ballads and romantic lyrics. However, I would not recommend this as a starting point for anyone thinking of buying their first Maria Muldaur album. A better choice as a first buy from her recent back catalogue would be 'Richland Woman Blues', 'Southland of the Heart' or the Peggy Lee tribute 'A Woman Alone With the Blues' all of which have more variety than 'Love Wants to Dance'.

Maria's more recent albums have been blues and jazz orientated. The albums that she recorderd in the 1970s for the Warner label such as 'Waitress in a Donut Shop', 'Southern Winds' and 'Maria Muldaur' were perhaps more aimed at the pop market of the time and some of the tracks on these albums veered towards soul and gospel.

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