When George Michael releases a new album, that is big news, because his last studio album (Patience) dates back to 2004. This album is not completely new either, it contains symphonic versions of a number of songs that the singer released before. Michael is accompanied on Symphonica by an enormous symphony orchestra, the same orchestra with which he undertook the Symphonica Tour in 2011. Yet this
… album definitely adds something to Michael's oeuvre. The arrangements let his old songs sparkle. He also sings a number of well-chosen covers. George Michael is a singing craftsman, as is evident from the fact that he makes a tired evergreen like Nina Simone's My Baby Just Cares For Me sound fresh again. The singer has been in the news regularly in recent years because of his health problems, but on Symphonica George Michael proves that his velvety voice is far from worn. (PdK)more
