Track Listing

1. White Tent the Raft
2. Red High Heels
3. Goodbye
4. Ingrid and the Footman
5. Lena Is a White Table
6. Walking (And Constantly)
7. Lobby
8. Bird in the Gravel

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54382 in Music
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Customer Reviews

The Walking is constantly one of the great albums by a female singer/songwriter
If you want a shining example of just how far music can be pushed using those old staples guitar, keyboards, drums then Jane Siberry,s 1988 album The Walking is the one. Okay there is some trumpet , trombone, bells and tambourine in the mix as well but this hardly constitutes a symphony orchestra or esoteric cavalcade of backing musicians. What also helps is having a voice like Jane Siberry - a soaring swooping extra sensory instrument as clear as a gargantuan Foxes, glacier mint( just listen to "Red High Heels" around 4.45 in )Her song writing isn't too shoddy either.
If pushed I would describe The Walking as a cross between Laurie Andersons eclectic art rock amalgamations but with the commercial ear of Kate Bush . Something like that . Any doubts will be dispelled by the aforementioned "Red High Heels" a gossamer light elevated pop song marvel but with canny oblique angles and little melodic feints. "The White Tent The Raft" is a clever song over nine minutes long that veers all over the place with little abbreviated pockets of hushed tones before spiralling off again. "Ingrid And The Footman " is an epic polished pop song with typical eighties glossy production and a juicy melodic choral dip before that voice rockets off into the stratosphere again.
"Lena Is A White Table" is a little clunky at first but suddenly veers off down some gleaming multi-highway of pops ideals while the title track , sort of , "The Walking (And Constantly ) " is led by crystal fragile piano notes before a luminescent vocal stretch of the vocal chords and some heavy duty percussion. The shortest track the ballad "Goodbye" and the longest track the ten minute plus art rock /op curio "Bird In The Gravel " are the two tracks on this album that see a drop off in quality but the most essential track is the exquisite "The Lobby" a ballad of sumptuous delicacy and quite gob-smacking vocal empathy. Truly this is one of the greatest female vocal performances ever ...no really . As the lyrics say "This is our finest hour.".
This album bombed on release though it , and Jane Siberry , have garnered a more respectful and justified reputation since. One of my favourite albums by a female singer songwriter ( along with Maria McKee, Judee Sill's "Heart Food" and Toni Childs "Union" ) The Walking is a rare crossing of avant garde textures and nuances with effulgent melodic sensibilities . You wont be able to whistle these tunes breezily (with maybe one exception ) but they still stick in the head.

The most beautiful voice ever?
This is one of the most brilliant albums I have ever heard. Jane Siberry sings as though truly enchanted, and her haunted tones are unbelievably beautiful. "The Lobby" is just incredible.
The songs are full of wonder and invention, and for me Jane is at her creative peak with this and her following album, "Bound by the Beauty".

More magical musings from Jane Siberry
Jane Siberry's fourth album, "The Walking" takes the complex lyricism and beautifully crafted music of "No Borders Here" and "The Speckless Sky" to some sort of conclusion. More obscure, in that the lyrics are even more intricate and the songs even more complex, but also more delightful than the earlier albums, "The Walking" contains some of La Siberry's very best work (and that's saying something), from "The White Tent / The Raft" to the intricate "Lena Is A White Table" and, for this author, the album's standout "The Bird In The Gravel", a true pocket symphony. A must for Siberry fans, "The Walking" represents a sort of conclusion to the "electronic" phase of her career (before she moves to the warmer acoustic arrangements of the superb "Bound By The Beauty" and later, jazzier works like "Maria") while retaining the humour and mystery of the earlier records. The CD release is slightly different to the original vinyl album, featuring a longer version of "Ingrid and the Footman".