Review:
“After the less successful critical and commercial fortunes of her second record, House of Hope, Toni Childs jumped labels from A&M to Geffen for her third release, The Woman’s Boat, in 1994. She also enlisted a new producer in David Botrill with whom Childs shares production credits. Recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, The Woman’s Boat features an impressive array of musicians including David Rhodes, Robert Fripp and Trey Gunn” (Demalon).
“The album itself is an ambitious song-cycle exploring the female perspectives from the heartbeats of the opening track Womb through the ten-minute confessional epic Death, which closes the record. In between, there’s the sonic rush of Welcome to the World, which gracefully juxtaposes a mother’s expression of fear and optimism to her unborn child” (Demalon) and “mellow highlights Long Time Coming and I Met a Man (featuring Peter Gabriel)” (Wikipedia).
“The music edges Childs deeper into world music territory with its exotic instrumentation and rhythms” (Demalon) and also “features more programming and computer-based textures than the previous two albums, notably ‘Welcome to the World’ and the single Lay Down Your Pain” (Wikipedia). It also “contains some darker tracks such as Predator and I Just Want Affection” (Wikipedia).
“The Woman’s Boat is a rich, complex and, occasionally, meandering work that, while failing to return Childs to mainstream success, does reward the listener” (Demalon). “While the album did not elicit a lot of reviewer response, Q magazine described it as ‘epic’ in its scope” (Wikipedia) and it “she was nominated for another Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Performance” (Wikipedia).
66,000
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66,000
