Barb Jungr - Love Me Tender - AudioEnz (New Zealand)

UK singer Barb Jungr first attracted my attention with the wonderful album "Chanson: The Space In Between", an album of French or French-oriented songs a couple of years back. Love Me Tender is mainly about Elvis, mainly containing songs made famous by Presley. Jungr's wonderful voice is backed by deceptively simple and often stark backgrounds by Jonathan Cooper and Adrian York, usually piano or synth based. Perhaps the best on the album is the arrangement of Are You Lonesome Tonight? Framed by a piano backdrop, Jungr slowly asks "are you lonesome?" three times, before finally finding resolution with the word "tonight". Wonderful stuff. The album slows down towards the end with two Dylan covers (on an Elvis record? Why?) and a Jungr/York original Looking For Elvis which goes nowhere. The final track, the gospel number Peace In The Valley, brings back the quality, with Jungr backed by a gospel trio. The album is a hybrid SACD, playable on both CD and SACD players. The surround on SACD is subtle. The recording is superb - of demonstration quality. In fact, that's how I first heard it - in the demonstration room of the Linn Hi-Fi distributor.