If You Love Me Let Me Know album review
By Jim Lombard
Two of the most exciting young voices in music today are Linda Ronstadt and Olivia Newton-John. The strength and quality of these young ladies’ voices is surpassed only by their looks. Unfortunately, the odds against either one of them making it are slight. Though few vocalists, male or female, today can compete with either of them, Linda and Olivia both suffer from poor production, outrageous arrangements, inexcusable mismanagement, and poor song selection.
The last is probably the most severe deterent to success. To make it big today, it seems like you have to have a top 40 number or two every year or so to keep the general public happy.
If you do that, you can continue to record meaningful music. Many very fine artists like West, Bruce & Laing, the Nice, Buffalo Springfield, and Kalidscope, have fallen by the wayside because their records didn’t sell well enough.
Many of you have heard two of the songs from Olivia Newton-John’s newest LP. “If You Love Me Let Me Know”. “I Honestly Love You” and “If You Love Me” are two of the three best songs on the album. The other is “Changes”, a tune which Olivia wrote herself. It is the only song she wrote on the album and judging by the other ones, she should have written more. “Country Girl”, “Home Ain’t Home Anymore”. and “Free The People” are fairly good songs, but the others are downright awful.
As is the case with Linda, Olivia’s voice, clearer than Linda’s, is suffocated by over production. Those who sit in the chair of decision on those matters seem to have a fedish for percussion. Throughout her songs the drums and other percussion instruments are everywhere, so much so that some of them turn out sounding like early tribal rituals.
Olivia has a quality that is rare in singers, the ability to sing a song with emotion, to make you feel as if she’s singing that song to you. She can take a song and turn it inside out and wring every bit of emotion possible from it.
As soon as these two ladies have a producer who knows their strengths, they’re going to be big stars. Felix Pappalardi where are you?