CD Review & Giveaway: Renee Fleming - Dark Hope

I love going to the Opera. The costumes, the voices, the beautiful stories - this is more entertaining to me than a trip to the movies. Unfortunately since we've moved to Port Orchard, we haven't been able to attend any performances - it's the kid and ferry combo.

When I was approached about Renee Fleming and her new album Dark Hope, I happily jumped on board. Renee Fleming has a beautiful soprano voice that I could listen to all evening - even if you are not a fan of Opera music, you cannot help but admire her voice range.


The new album Dark Hope is all cover songs, from a cover of Jefferson Airplane's "Today" to Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes". Now I'm a big fan of Tears For Fears song "Mad World" so I was intrigued when I heard that Renee covered it. The best cover I've heard of it was Gary Jules' cover - it's almost as beautiful as the original - but I've heard a couple of absolutely HORRIBLE covers of it too. I want to be honest, I was on the fence listening to Renee sing it - it's not that I think she butchered it, I just think the song doesn't suit her beautiful voice.

That's just the thing about the whole album - it makes a great crossover for those who are new to her music, but for those who know that Renee has an incredible voice fit for the Opera, it has a little something missing. The songs that were chosen just do not suit her voice to me - I totally do not want to come off being negative, because I really like her voice. The best way to say it, is ignore that Renee comes from a different genre and just pretend this is all you know of her, and you'll love it. Please don't let the word "Opera" in my post scare you!

Here's the track listing:

1. Endlessly (Muse)
2. No One's Gonna Love You (Band of Horses)
3. Oxygen (Willy Mason)
4. Today (Jefferson Airplane)
5. Intervention (Arcade Fire)
6. With Twilight As My Guide (The Mars Volta)
7. Mad World (Tears for Fears)
8. In Your Eyes (Peter Gabriel)
9. Stepping Stone (Duffy)
10. Soul Meets Body (Death Cab For Cutie)
11. Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)

"Hallelujah" is definitely my favorite song on the album - it's definitely staying on my iPod.

Renee Fleming’s new CD Dark Hope is available now at your favorite music store, or you can download it at sites like iTunes. The suggested retail is $17.99, but Amazon has it for $12.99 as of this posting.

Win it! Would you like to win a copy of Dark Hope? To enter, tell us which song off the CD you're looking most forward to hearing.

As always, you can receive extra entries for:

-Subscribing to my feed or following my blog
-Blogging about this giveaway with a link back
-Tweeting about this giveaway (leave the link or @psychotichouse)

That's four (4) possible entries! Giveaway ends July 17th at 11:59 PM PST, and please leave your email address in your entry or have it available in your profile. US only, sorry :( Good luck everyone!! :)

I received a download of this CD to listen to in order to share my thoughts. One winner will win the prize stated above.