Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Barbra Streisand called Susan's voice "like a poet singing". On this album she displays that unique ability to inhabit and interpret a song like no one else on the music scene today. Her voice goes from soft and smoky to a soaring cry of need in "Unchained Melody", she is bluesy and softly sexy in "Lilac Wine". In "Both Sides Now", she has given us a freshly interpreted song with insights into a life of someone who has seen it all and still doesn't understand "life" or "love". In "Return", one of the songs written just for her, she soars with longing and emotion. "This Will be the Year", another original shows us a woman who will always prevail. "You Have to Be There" resonates with everyone who has had a crisis of faith, but in the end, embraces hope and trust. I was skeptical about "Mad World" and "Enjoy the Silence". Neither one would have been a choice to listen to. That said, Susan shows her considerable emotive talents in these two songs perfectly. "Autumn Leaves" is about grief and sadness, true, but as in YHTBT, ends with the hopeful knowledge that loved ones never completely leave us. I would have loved "Someone to Watch Over Me" to be longer. If I have any disappointment in the album, that would be it. Miss Boyle has grown incredibly in vocal prowess and technique in a scant 2 1/2 years. Her versatility, her range, her emotive abilities, all these shine in this incredible album. Billboard says she "has arrived". Personally, I believe she had already "arrived" by selling 14 million albums in 14 months, but I agree that, with this album, she is firmly set as a professional singer who is here to stay for a very long time. And all we who are music lovers are the better for it.