By Heart
Jim Brickman
Windham Hill Records, 1995
REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 09/19/2001
Usually, when I've had a rotten day, there's two types of musicI gravitate to. The first is full-throttle heavy metal - hey,better doing damage to my ears than punching out drywall. Thesecond is on the opposite side of the musical spectrum - soft,instrumental music, usually featuring solo guitar or piano. Itallows me to try and find my "happy place" - which, on any givenday, is occupied by someone along the lines of Kathy Ireland.
In the case of By Heart, the sophomore release from new-age pianist JimBrickman, there's something fundamentally different about this discfrom his debut effort No Words. Sure, there's a little more instrumentation nowthan just solo piano, but that's not what I mean. Sure, there's theintroduction of vocals on one track, but that's not what I mean.There's even a shift in the style of instrumental work frommourning reflection to light-hearted reminiscing, but even that's not what I mean.
No, what I mean is that By Heart is a pretty enough album, but it doesn't quite grabat the heartstrings like No Words does. Whether this is an intentional shift onBrickman's part or not, I don't know... but the album loses alittle bit of an edge as a result.
Whereas many of the songs on No Words almost had the feel to them like they were the sadmemories of looking back at a time past, By Heart almost challenges itself to be the polar opposite.From the opening notes of "Angel Eyes," this disc feels likeBrickman is trying to hit a different emotional note with thelistener. There's the slight hints of Beethoven's "MoonlightSonata" on "In A Lover's Eyes". There's even the daring move oftaking a children's song and trying to give it relevance inadulthood with "Little Star".
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