Wild Is The Wind – NINA SIMONE****

I Love Your Lovin’ Ways/Four Women/What More Can I Say/Lilac Wine/That’s All I Ask/Break Down & Let It All Out/Why Keep Breakin’ My Heart/Wild Is The Wind/Black Is The Colour Of My True Love’s Hair/If I Should Lose You/Either Way I Lose

Nina Simone’s romantic and soulful Wild Is The Wind comprises mostly blues tracks taken from a number of separate recording sessions during 1964 and 1965. (US:110)

"Its hard to describe how good this album is. Its romantic, soothing, soulful, dramatic, with a beautiful vocal that at times is silky soft and at other times is remarkably aggressive."

"An album made to be played in a smoky dimly lit bar in the early hours of the morning, once the buzz of the alcohol has worn off and the hazy fog of depression has kicked in. Half finished drink on the bar becoming acquainted with your elbow, hand propping your head up, cigarette ash falling to the floor. You sit there, thinking about past romances, missed opportunities and unrequited love."

"The majority of the songs on here are just astounding, with Simone's voice and piano being the most obvious basis for most of the songs." "Wild Is The Wind might have been cobbled together from leftovers of old recording sessions, but it hangs together as an album almost as well as Sinatra's carefully designed In The Wee Small Hours."

"1966's Wild Is The Wind comprises leftovers from sessions in 1964 and 1965 but retains a thematic sense of intimacy and urgency throughout. The sequencing keeps it all sounding like an album rather than a random collection of disparate songs, with the arrangements varying from full-band numbers to lushly orchestrated ballads and smoky solo standards. Ultimately Wild Is The Wind is, against the odds, one of Nina Simone's most cohesive and intriguing albums."

"This album has some of the finest songs you will ever hear sung by a woman. Take Lilac Wine, the original has so much more essence than the covers. I like the low tempo songs with only her and some strings the most, instead of the more swinging songs like the first. Nonetheless, this is a great album."