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SEE ALSO
RELATED COMPOSITIONS:
Streets of Berlin
Bent
RELATED FILMS:
Bent by Sean Mathias
ALTERNATE SLEEVES:
Punishing Kiss
(2000)
Ute Lemper
CATALOG:
Decca
TRACKS:
| 1 | Case Continues |
| 2 | Tango Ballad |
| 3 | Passionate Fight |
| 4 | Little Water Song |
| 5 | Purple Avenue |
| 6 | Streets of Berlin |
| 7 | Split |
| 8 | Couldn't You Keep That to Yourself |
| 9 | Punishing Kiss |
| 10 | You Were Meant for Me |
| 11 | Part You Throw Away |
| 12 | Scope J |
NOTES:
Despite her roles in mainstream musicals such as Cats and Chicago, Ute Lemper
has never been a typical Broadway baby. Her long association with the works
of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht, as well as her one-woman shows based
on the repertoires of Edith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich, has always marked
her as a maverick in a world overpopulated by bland belters and cute inge'nues.
Lemper's distinctive voice isn't an instrument for easy listening. At full
tilt, it's dangerous and edgy. In subdued mode, it's dark, ironic, and
despairing. The cruelty that runs through many of her interpretations is
taken on the chin. Lemper deals in defiance rather than submission. With
just one, edgily updated Weill song ("Tango Ballad") and a host
of contributions from Nick Cave, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Philip Glass,
and the Divine Comedy's Neil Hannon, Punishing Kiss is a modern, bleak
look at love in the 21st century. At times the tone is murderous, even
apocalyptic ("The Case Continues"). The duet "Split," sung
with Hannon, is a grimly humorous riot of punches and counterpunches in
a disintegrating relationship. There's fleeting, poignant beauty too, in
tracks like Waits's "Purple Avenue." Essential listening for
anyone who likes their torch songs blood-stained, not just dampened by
a few tears.
— Piers Ford (Amazon)