A Stunning Follow Up To Telescope - Drastic Fantastic is KT Tunstall s 2nd studio release. After the enormous success of Eye To The Telescope it would not have been surprising if Tunstall had released a 2nd CD that was somewhat less inspiring. Drastic Fantastic is a superb release and is better in many ways than her debut. Her influences are widely varied while she still has the ability to maintain a very original voice. In her songs one can hear influences including but not limited to, Sinead O Connor, Amy Grant, Christina Amphlet(Divynyls) Debbie Harry and Blondie, The Cardigans, Nora Jones,and Rickie Lee Jones to name only the most obvious. This composite of influences demonstrates an artist of extraordinary gifts and depth, something very rare in todays flavor of the month pop music landscape.My favorite tracks are the 2 folk numbers White Bird, and Someday Soon. White Bird evokes vintage Phoebe Snow and perhaps a bit of McCartney Lennon on 1968 s White Album and Black Bird. Someday Soon is reminiscent of Joni Mitchell and/or Rickie Lee Jones and is perhaps the best track on this excellent CD. The Rockers are also very well crafted and Little Favours is perhaps the shining example of these tunes as it reverts from a minor Key verse section to a major key chorus thus offering a nice contrast of tension and release. It is very reminiscent of songs from Sinead O Connor s Lion and the Cobra cd released in 1988 though with a great deal less angst and anger. Hopeless is a 60 s style Pop tune with a great hook and nice vocal vibrato from Tunstall. There truly are no clunkers on this excellent CD and I would definately buy it if you haven t already. You will NOT be disappointed!
Good Sophomore Effort, But Takes A Slightly Different Direction - I was impressed with KT Tunstall s previous CDs Eye To The Telescope and KT Tunstall s Acoustic Extravaganza, and I was eager to see what Drastic Fantastic had to offer. While I like this CD, I didn t find it to be a step forward based on her overall body of work. I am going to have to disagree with the Editorial Review about the implications of the cover of the CD. Drastic Fantastic has a much more electric/overproduced sound to it that Tunstall s previous CDs. While Funny Man and Saving My Face are listed as having been recorded for Eye To The Telescope, they seem to fit much more with this collection of songs. Even the more low key songs such as Beauty Of Uncertainty come off rather polished.Tunstall has not lost her lyrical edge, though. On If Only we find the gem For hearts tell the truth/It isn t just a piston in an engine. Then on White Bird she writes Half of you is heavenly/Showing off your purity/The rest of you is from the street/Like a line where they both meet. Others are more straightforward such as I Don t Want You Now that finds the more edgy side of Tunstall that we saw on Ashes from Acoustic Extravaganza.At the end of the day, I expect that people will have a mixed reaction to Drastic Fantastic. People expecting a sequel to Eye To The Telescope will probably be disappointed. That does not make Drastic Fantastic a bad CD. It is just different. There are just as many catch songs here - see Hold On and Saving My Face - as her previous work. It just has a different feel to it. New listeners will enjoy the music at face value, but they will also be in for a bit of a surprise if they go back to her earlier material. There s room for all of Tunstall s CDs to be good so do yourself a favor and try them all.
KT Tunstall_ one of the greatest female artist of all time - (In America) it is incredibly hard to know who the real artist are. The industry promotes so many over glamorized puppets, that we start to assume that all good looking artist must be fakes. This is not the case with KT Tunstall. Like Elvis, she has incredible musical talent, singing talent, and happens to be good looking. I was lucky enough to see her recently in concert and I swear she sounds (vocally and musically) even better live than on her album. Drastic Fantastic is a really great album, which compliments her first album Eye to the Telescope very nicely. All of the tracks are good, but my two favorites are If only and Hopeless. If you liked the great alternative sound of the 1990 s, give KT a listen.
Almost Fantastic - KT Tunstall has become one of my favorite female artists quite quickly. I loved the Telescope CD, the Acoustic CD, and then with Drastic Fantastic here it continues to add to the catalog of great songs.I still have a difficult time getting into slower tracks like White Bird, Someday Soon, and Paper Aeroplanes even after repeated listens I tend to skip those tracks. I do appreciated the slower songs, it s just the mood perhaps set by the other tracks that makes me wanna avoid the detour into this area. It s not that the songs are bad, it s just not my speed...but in time I may come to appreciate them....I just have a good time rocking out to her more upbeat tunes more often than the others.My fav right now is If Only, that one along with Little Favour is a great way to kick off the CD I think, Saving My Face, and Funnyman are a couple other up tempo favs along with I Don t Want You Now. Hold On is a song I like somewhat, but it doesn t grab me quite like the other up tempo songs.Overall some nice material that is continuing on what she accomplished on Eye To The Telescope. Which is the better CD I m not really sure at this point, both are near perfect....not quite there yet perhaps, but she s putting out so much great material so soon, it s hard to keep up perhaps.She has a great voice, great talent. It s nice to hear the real deal more often, there are more and more female artist out there who are making their own music their way, and it s good to know it can be done, and KT along a handful of others are in a class by themselves right now.
Couple of good tunes. - I think KT kicks major a--.Drastic Fantastic feels a little rushed.There are a couple of good tunes, perhaps if she took a little hiatus she can return to her greatness, but lets face it, great songs are a rareity and KT has already had many moments of greatness.Mr. GLM White Plains, NY