Track Listing

1. If I Fall
2. Baby's Fine
3. Breathe Tonight
4. Inside of You
5. Sweet Fantasy
6. Too Late Now
7. The RIght Time
8. The Sunlight Song
9. Three Colours Blind
10. Forget What I Said
11. Nothing Is Forever

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21822 in Music
• Released on: 2002-11-18
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Daydreams is Alice Martineau's debut album. A new addition to the recent plethora of young female singer-songwriters, Alice at least has a more interesting background than most, her uncle (Tom Allom) having been Judas Priest's house producer throughout the 1980s. Martineau also has the misfortune to suffer from cystic fibrosis, a condition that will eventually require heart, liver and lung transplants. Musically speaking, Martineau has been described as landing somewhere between Bjork and Natalie Imbruglia. That's about right, if "between" means one foot from Imbruglia and 2000 miles from Bjork, for this is thoroughly mainstream stuff.

Martineau has a sweet and fairly affecting voice, but as yet it's unschooled and lacks idiosyncrasy and drama. Nevertheless, there are some fine moments, occurring almost exclusively during those tracks produced by Marius De Vries (co-incidentally one-time producer of Bjork). Here De Vries draws together the album's chugging beats and pleasant programming, adds strings and techno riffs and lends depth to Martineau's voice. The result is a lush and altogether more satisfying whole. Stand-outs include the big production of "The Right Time" and the quirky summer-pop of "Forget What I Said". So, there is potential here to move far beyond what is just a tolerable debut. --Dominic Wills

Customer Reviews

Lucky to have it
Alice completed this recording only months before she succumbed to cystic fibrosis, a lifelong burden she affected to wear lightly as is clear in the BBC TV documentary The Nine Lives Of Alice Martineau, filmed when she had by her own estimation used up about six of them.

Alice wrote or co-wrote all the songs on the album, and there is not a duff one among them. On the contrary, they are filled with interest and bear repeated listening. The CD is also an immense credit to her co-writers, producer, arranger, voice coach, and the Sony team who had the gumption to give Alice a contract. The BBC programme showed how badly Alice's CF impeded her breathing. To hear her sing you would never know it, which is another of this album's mini-miracles.

In my opinion, Baby's Fine is the outstanding track on Daydreams. Packed with imagination and musical professionalism, it encapsulates what a great team Alice had, in this instance including co-writer Howard Toshman and arranger Chris Elliott. A credit to all involved, and Alice an inspiration to all.

Beautiful Music
'Daydreams' is my favourite album of all time. Alice's sound is unique. Her voice is beautiful and she writes all her own songs. Alice suffered from Cystic Fibrosis and sadly died earlier this year but her music continues to inspire many. She had a wonderful attitude to life which is reflected in her songs. She describes her music as some where in between Natalie Imbruglia and Dido- but I think she is far better. All the tracks are amazing but perhaps the best is 'Inside of you'. You MUST buy her album, it won't leave your CD player!

Fantastic CD!!
...This cd hasn't left my player in over a week and I hear new elements with every listen. 11 fantastic songs here, all with great production and soaring melodies. Fans of Beth Orton, Dido, EBTG, Mae Moore will be thrilled by this. I think the Bjork comparison comes from a particular tone in Alice Martineau's voice which does indeed remind one of Bjork.

The lead off single "If I Fall" is actually my least favorite track here. Give track 4 a listen and fall in love. Enjoy!