Rating:
* *
The talents of Teddy Tahu Rhodes are best experienced on stage and in the concert hall rather than through the recording studio.
You'll Never Walk Alone
, his new duet album with Australian tenor David Hobson, is a major miscalculation. Here is a collection with ambitions, touting itself as a set of "much-loved songs of hope, faith and glory" recorded "as if in defiance of the glum mood of the times brought on by the world economic crisis".
Alas, it would take much more than this sorry disc to raise the spirits of the crestfallen. In fact, some listeners may not make it past the first few phrases of Rhodes plodding through the title number, dutifully shadowed by strings and harp of Sinfonia Australia.
Leonard Cohen's
Hallelujah
, enunciated to within a syllable of its fragile life by Rhodes, is an object lesson of why the operatic set should be wary of this repertoire.
Rhodes and Hobson have been rifling great-grandmother's piano stool for ballads like Stephen Adams'
The Holy City
but they prove no match for the resounding contralto of Dame Clara Butt, who would have been shocked by the casual amble of the song's verses.
Albert Hay Malotte's juicy setting of
The Lord's Prayer
is such an over-the-top mishmash that I sought refuge in the scratch-laden haven of the original John Charles Thomas recording.
When the duo gambol on the pop side, there is the choice of a heartless swing through
Morning Has Broken
or a lethargic grind through
The Little Drummer Boy
, with Rhodes playing Bing Crosby to Hobson's David Bowie as well as snare drum courtesy of Ravel's
Bolero
.
An equally culpable partner in this project is Jessica Wells, whose slick arrangements are as predictable as they are unimaginative. In fact, one of the less grating tracks is the traditional
Go, Tell It On The Mountain
because for a few God-given minutes, harp and strings are given a rest.
William Dart
Pictured above: Teddy Tahu Rhodes. Photo / Supplied
The host has been spotted across the Atlantic post-election.