With Like an Old Fashioned Waltz, Sandy Denny expands on the more polished
moments that her previous work, Sandy (1972), had suggested. The tone
throughout most of the record is melancholy and personal, with gentle
piano, rich strings, and barely a trace of her British folk roots. "Solo,"
one of her best songs, opens the album with a sense of apprehension and
yearning, while cuts such as the beautifully vivid title track, the longing
"At the End of the Day," and the evocative closer "No End"
nicely follow suit. The Ink Spots covers "Whispering Grass"
and "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" break the mood a bit,
but it's a testament to the breadth of Denny's talent that she's able
to make this sort of jazz-inflected pop work for her. These two songs
seem to hint at a new direction that never really materialized in her
final years, though an entire album of Ink Spots tunes was actually rumored
at one point. As Sandy Denny's last solo work for four years, Like an
Old Fashioned Waltz remains an intimate and moving record.
(by Brett Hartenbach, AMG) |