Track Listing

1. It Doesn't Matter Anymore
2. Fever
3. Who Knows Where the Time Goes?
4. You've Changed
5. Imagine
6. Still Not Ready
7. Early Morning Rain
8. Tennessee Waltz
9. I Can Only Be Me
10. Danny Boy

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30533 in Music
• Released on: 2006-08-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
For anyone who suspects the record companies will soon be releasing Eva Cassidy's ansaphone messages, it's extraordinarily pleasing to note that Imagine is more than just a bottom of the barrel scraping exercise. All of these tracks are previously unreleased and most are live recordings, but listeners who already own Live At Blues Alley will know just how refreshing Cassidy's live performances were. Here the quality of the recording varies noticeably from track to track, and there are a few awkward fade-outs, presumably to remove audience noise, but still the sparkling music-making comes across vividly. Check out her take on Sandy Denny's "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?" to feel a shiver of delight at another effortlessly ideal cover version, or her laid-back "You've Changed" from the Blues Alley sessions to experience more of that effortlessly soulful jazz. Elsewhere, the solo acoustic "Early Morning Rain" shows what a good guitar player she was, and if "Imagine" doesn't ever scale the heights of her "Over The Rainbow" it demonstrates she still had something new to say about a familiar standard. Studio recordings "Still Not Ready" and "I Can Only Be Me" are, perversely perhaps, the least successful cuts. Happily the album concludes with another lovely solo standard, "Danny Boy". Imagine isn't the best place to discover Eva Cassidy for the first time, but established fans will welcome this new collection warmly. --Mark Walker

Album Description
Album compiler Bill Straw writes: Imagine continues our tradition for showcasing Eva Cassidy's genius for mixing and matching various musical genres with an unerring sense of style that transcends their differences. Among the highlights in this collection of previously unreleased tracks are Eva's interpretation of "You've Changed", the jazz standard most associated with Billie Holiday, a version of "Fever" that is more reminiscent of the 1956 Little Willie John original R&B hit than the Peggy Lee pop cover two years later, a haunting redefinition of Sandy Denny's classic "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?", Eva's starkly moving tribute to John Lennon's masterpiece, "Imagine", her "true to the original spirit" expansion of the country/pop standard "Tennessee Waltz" and her diva version of Stevie Wonder's "It Can Only Be Me".

Customer Reviews

Cream of the crop
I was really unsure about buying this cd as I felt that the last couple of releases from Eva were scraping the bottom of the barrel but this album is back to the cream of her output. Buy! Buy! Buy!

I always worry about covers of classics but Eva can take a song you know from childhood and insinuate herself into it so that the original is forgotten and her version becomes the definitive one in your mind. You have to be mad or have an enormous ego to think that you can improve tracks like "Imagine", "Who knows where the time goes" or "It doesn't matter anymore" but each time the song is subtly changed and she does it with great skill and delicacy.

I am not sure whether it is her naive quality, purity of voice or exuberant joy of performing but these tracks have the indefinable quality of the songs featured on "Songbird". I just wish that there were more in the Cassidy's collection that matched these...

So pour yourself a glass of wine, put the cd on the player and know that you will finish listening to this album feeling mellow, contented and sated.

Imagine a great song being sung by a great voice
I bourght this CD album on the strength of Eva's unique interpretation of classic songs and the fact that she was covering one my favourite artists.

I have not been disappointed with her interpretation of Lennon's Imagine or the other tracks on the CD which really make the goose bumps on your arms and hairs on your neck stand up. For anyone whose listened to her music before you will know what I mean.

I think that this is one of the strongest compilations of her songs that have been put together.

It starts very well with Paul Anchor's 'It doesn't Matter Anymore' which you can't help but sing or whistle along to, you'll then find your fingers tapping to 'Fever' and at the end you'll be joining in with the old Irish favourite and National Anthem 'Danny Boy'.

The tempo rises and falls from track to track very nicely and you will just want to relax, close your eyes and listen not only to her wonderful voice but the great musicians backing her.

You won't realise that 70% of the tracks were recorded 'live', the quality is fantastic if not better than normal studio version because of it being performed in front of an audience.

You won't be disappointed if you purchase Imagine, you'll just play it time and time again.

stop the comparitive b.s.!!
moan, moan, everyone keeps saying it does not live up to songbird! well, guess what, if you release a few albums there will always be a peoples choice no matter who you are! i personally think that it's as good and i do prefer some of the songs on imagine to some songbird tracks. personal choice folks!
as i own nine different eva albums i can certainly tell you that imagine is one of the better ones and if you are a fan then you cannot go wrong, if you are not a fan buy it anyway and become one! eva definitley had the ability to reach down your throat and grab your heart every time she exercised those golden vocal chords and this album is no exception. we should also remember that there is little, if any, of evas recordings left to release and we should be grateful for everything that has been captured during the short life of what will surely be noted in history as of one of the greatest voices of all time.