Gigs - Reviews by JPGR&B

Gigs - Reviews by JPGR&B

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
JPGR&B SUBS 10th Apr 2020		Live Music Rumer @ World Café (2015)	Review Jeff Gemmill's review. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 6th Feb 2020		Live Music Rumer @ Barbican Centre (2015)	Review Owen Peters watches bestselling singer-songwriter Rumer play a pitch perfect set to an enraptured audience at the Barbican in London. Penny Black Music review of the concert by Owen Peters, 12 April 2015. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS 20th Oct 2016		Live Music Rumer @ Cadogan Hall (2016)	Review FIRST NIGHT REVIEW Pop: Rumer at Cadogan Hall, SW1 When the British vocalist went through the easy-listening songbook she was untouchable, but it didn’t work so well with her own material Will Hodgkinson October 19 2016, 12:01am, The Times ★★★☆☆ It takes a high tolerance of schmaltz to include a slide show of wedding photographs at your concert, but that’s Rumer. Since the release of her 2010 debut album, Seasons of My Soul, this British singer has become a modern Karen Carpenter, heading fearlessly towards the middle of the road and making the kind of mid-1970s-style easy listening that goes well with a cocktail, an evening dress and a prescription of tranquillisers. Now living in Arkansas and married to Rob Shirakbari, who is also her pianist, Rumer returned to the UK to present a show that was the musical equivalent of a relaxing back massage. “This is one from the new CD,” said Rumer, managing to make a CD sound like something that had just been invented, before singing Bacharach and David’s Balance of Nature. When Rumer went through the easy listening songbook she was untouchable; there’s something about not just her voice but her very being that makes her the perfect vehicle for smooth standards such as Walk On By and Jimmy Webb’s PF Sloan. It didn’t work so well with her own material. Pizzas and Pinball was a portrait of an American childhood that listed such pursuits as eating candyfloss and slurping on a Slurpee; not quite up there with Hal David’s way of evoking deep emotional truth through everyday language. Nevertheless, Rumer is a likeable performer and, in her long black gown, a convincing chanteuse. “Look at him. He’s so small,” she said of her husband, pointing to a photograph of Shirakbari with Dionne Warwick. Backed by an orchestra as well as a band, she brought soporific charm to the best of her own material, such as the peerlessly sad Aretha, and to an encore of What the World Needs Now Is Love. It was anything but challenging, and therein lay the appeal. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?