Technically Perfect, but where's the Emotion?

Ages ago, I bought a DVD to fine tune my surround sound system, and it had songs on it to demonstrate 96 Khz 48 bit recordings and how great they sounded. One of the three songs was by an artist I had never heard of before, Kendra Shank. After much looking I was able to acquire but one of her CDs Reflections.

This is her third album, and the only one I own so far.

Songs Alone Together, I'm Never Sure, Reflections, This Is New, Throw It Away, When Springtime Turns to Fall, Let It Be, Papillon des Nuits, A Timeless Place, The Silence of a Candle.

Musicians Kendra Shank: vocals, acoustic guitar; Frank Kimbrough: piano; Dean Johnson: bass; Tony Moreno: drums and percussion.

Recording Quality I believe that one of the reasons one of Kendra Shanks recordings was used as a demo for high resolution recordings was because her recordings are impeccable and her voice is a great way to show off good speakers, it is an instrument unto itself. Shank has a perfect voice, but as you will read, this alone doesn't make for perfect music.

My Thoughts on the Music

Kendra Shank has a very polished studio like sound to her songs. Her voice soars above the light piano and gentle drum and bass backing. It is clear on her album that the band is there to back Kendra Shank's voice. The music almost approaches new age sounding mellowness.

On "I'm never Sure" Kendra laments leaving a lover explaining that I had my reasons her voice reaching for the upper registers. My problem is that although Shank's voice is certainly technically perfect, she lacks emotion and passion in her singing. I find myself reaching for Diana Krall, Billie Holiday or Sarah Vaughn before Kendra Shank.

On "Reflections" she laments a lost love her voice traveling the upper registers, while the band lays down a relaxing backdrop. Shank sounds like the lounge singer in a fancy jazz club where people sip on their overpriced martinis. The music is recorded perfectly, but it seems to lack life somehow. Things pick up a bit on "This is New" a little faster, Shank showing off her technical voice skills.

On the other hand I love "Throw it Away" featuring a deep bass plucking to back Shanks tale of moving on. She seems to have more passion in this song, and it sounds like a more traditional jazz torch song I think about the life I live, I think about the life I lost, the things I gave away. Here here voice shines and has some emotion behind it. She also does some great using of her voice to imitate an instrument.

I also enjoyed "When Springtime turns to Fall" with its gentle piano intro and Shanks voice expressing loss with drawn out words held out to linger in the air. Since the recording approaches perfection, her words truely do hang in the air too, because the atmosphere recreates a room empty of sound except for Shank and the musicians.

Kendra's cover of the Beatles "Let It Be" was interesting, although I can't say that I loved it, I did like it. She slows the song down a lot, and only a somber piano accompanies her voice.

The final cut on the album "The Silence of a Candle" adds some nice acoustic jazz guitar that sounded very nice.

Summary Although I find Kendra Shank to be a very competent singer, she lacks the emotion that I enjoy in great music. I would rather listen to a singer less perfect but more emotional (like Billie Holiday's later recordings). Although the album is perfect from a technical standpoint, the lack of emotion gives this album 3 stars.

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