Track Listing

1. Tiger
2. Where Have All The Cowboys Gone
3. Throwing Stones
4. Carmen
5. Mississippi
6. Nietzche's Eyes
7. Road To Dead
8. Me
9. Feelin' Love
10. Hush Hush Hush
11. I Don't Want To Wait

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29955 in Music
• Released on: 1997-07-14
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
After a promising but overlooked debut album, Paula Cole kept the bills paid with a fateful stint as Peter Gabriel's vocal foil on his 1994 Secret World tour. Gabriel's immersion in richly theatrical, primal vocals only magnified Cole's already fevered attack; it's obvious that his sense of adventure as a producer and writer also struck conceptual sparks with the Massachusetts singer-songwriter. This Fire, Cole's self-produced 1996 breakthrough, finds her investing her songs with outsized emotions, framed by consistently inventive arrangements built around Cole's keyboards, and reaching a zeitgeist-piercing intensity on "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" and "I Don't Want to Wait", making Cole seem very much like Fiona Apple's older, slightly less cracked sister. --Sam Sutherland

CD Description
Singer-songwriter Paula Cole bares her soul on her self-produced second album, displaying even more self-confidence than on HARBINGER. There is a sense of breaking with the past, especially on tracks like "Tiger", where Cole revisits the symbolic "Bethlehem" of her first album, singing, "I've left Bethlehem and I feel free/I've left the girl I was supposed to be". Lyrically, THIS FIRE is ferocious and unrestrained, and Cole's limber voice is suitably raw and versatile, veering from whispery-soft to edgy and emotional, delivering a fearlessly personal message.
When she sings, "You call me abitch in heat/And I call you a liar" (on "Throwing Stones"), the word "liar" emerges as a furious scream. The next track, "Carmen", in contrast, is gently nostalgic. Cole's songs are emotionally complex and open to interpretation, but theyare never deliberately vague, and her subtle wit saves THISFIRE from self-absorption.

Customer Reviews

A seriously challenging tour de force
From the first track your hair will be on end with excitement, I promise. If you can sing... try and emulate this lady, now there's a challenge! From screamingly heart tearing pain to sleepy caramel tones of love Paula and the band produce an exhaustingly intricate composition of melodies. Tiger has to be the greatest song I have ever heard - EVER!!!!! Worth it just for this one track which you will remember forever and play loudly at times of stress! :)

One of the best albums in my collection of 150plus
I first heard "Where have all the cowboys gone?" when Virgin Radio where plugging the single, having bought the single, I quickly bought Harbinger then This Fire.

Being a Kate Bush and Tori Amos fan,I was delighted to hear fresh new music with meaning and well blended melodies, without trying to mimic anyone. It is amazing that she is not so popular here in the UK.

Favourite tracks include "Me", "Mississippi" and "I dont want to wait". If you like comtemporary transatlantic female singer/songwriters, then any Paula Cole is a must have! Don't just buy this album, once you have heard her, you'll buy the lot!

in a word-fantastic
I bought this album in a sale having, vaguely remembered her previous single release with 'where have all the cowboys gone' I cannot get over how fortunate i was to discover this album it is by far one of the best albums i have ever heard. The depth of meanong in the lyrics in 'Tigerlily' to the poigniant simplicity of 'Hush Hush Hush' this album never fails to amaze.And just when you think it couldnt possibly get any better the totally heart renching lyrics of 'I dont want to wait' will have you sobbing into your pillow or at the very least saying Aww. Ever since i bought this album i loved it and i have listened to it none stop for three years (with the occasional pause for a bit of Dido or Sarah Mclachlan.) Buy this album now, you will not be sorry.