Mandy Moore

The Best of Mandy Moore
$8.99
"Only Hope" by Mandy Moore is a wonderful and sweet song. However it is ruined by people talking over the music. In the movie "A Walk to Remember" from whence this song came, there are words spoken right *before* she begins her song. Alas the producers of the music moved these words *into and after* the start of the song. Likewise, they reach way back at the end of the movie, lift some words spoken there, and dump them down into the end of this sweet song. It is distracting, unwanted, and not even the way the song aired in the actual movie itself. What a waste of a great song. It would be five stars without those two disruptions, but alas they really ruin this version of the song.

Update & partial solution (for Mac users): I imported the original audio from this album into Garageband. (Note: Amazon MP3 audios work better for this ironically than Apple iTunes AAC files; I've had Garageband refuse to import and edit iTunes audios. Over-application of copyright fears? I own a purchased legal copy, after all.) Anyway I trimmed off the last portion containing the worst of the two voice-overs. I then found a YouTube version of that song from the movie in HQ and downloaded the video in MP4 format. Garageband will import movie clips and automatically separate the video & audio tracks. I deleted the video track, and trimmed almost all of the movie audio as well, leaving only the last few seconds ruined by the original voice over. After a bit of timing alignment and volume adjustments between the two tracks, a quick export created a pretty good audio file. I can tell the difference where they were spliced together but I bet most wouldn't if they weren't told what I did.

Too bad I had to do this. Why the producers couldn't have just left this song alone is beyond me. If I want to watch the movie, I'll watch the movie. If I want to listen to the song, then let me hear just the song. But what they sell contains a mix-up of song, plus movie commentary which as stated above doesn't even appear in the song to begin with! Frustrating, but at least now it's "better".

Wild Hope
$18.98
...Moore's best up to 2007. Not quite an "original" 'Coverage'but dare I say her adult career really begins with this album.
1. Extraordinary-An upbeat pop song with a good message, sounds like female John Mayer back when he was good. A great way to start off the album and let her fans know that Candy, I wanna be with you, and 'Cry' it ain't. 7/10
2. All Good things-Better than 'extraordinary', has a good message and still manages to be upbeat even though its a goodbye song. 8/10
3. Slummin' in Paradise-One of the highlights on the album, slightly forgettable on the first listen and more memorable on the second.7/10
4.Most of Me-Song that really had the potential to be great but is slightly lacking just a bit more push overall. 7/10
5.Few Days Down-Filler song, good but slightly forgettable compared to the album's real highlights. 7/10
6.Can't You Just Adore Her?-Very good lyrics (I like my chocolate in the morning and my coffee late at night), I really like this song its a highlight among the two previous bland and slightly boring songs-Most of Me and Few Days Down. 8/10
7.Looking Forward to Looking Back-I can relate to the title of this song alone-very good title. The album was losing steam at this point until this song picks the pace back up, one of the highlights. 8/10
8.Wild Hope-Beautiful Song. 9/10
9.Nothing that You Are-The best song on the album. The strongest in chorus and tempo-just an overall good song and possibly the only song on this album that you can listen to over and over again. 10/10
10.Latest Mistake-The pace is slowed down once again with Latest Mistake, which is not a bad song but the fact that the overall tempo of the album goes up and down without any consistency is one of its flaws. Good song. 8/10
11.Ladies' Choice-An upbeat slow tempo song with very good lyrics. 8/10
12.Gardenia-When the reviews all first came out back in '07, this is one of the songs they considered one of the highlights. Moore sings like she means it and sings it well, and its a confessional song to listen to when you are in that mode but if you haven't broken up with your boyfriend lately I'd say Wild Hope is a better song to listen to and if you're in the mood for upbeat 'Nothing That You Are' is the song for you. Its a highlight if you're in the right mood otherwise its a been too intense to ignore for casual repeats overall. Still its a highlight. 8/10
Bonus Target Track-Could Have Been Watching You- A good pop song, glad I have it. Better than most of me and few days down. 8/10

Bland, Boring, and Beautiful can all be used to describe this album,so it gets a B-not at all a masterpiece, and not at all a failure, but definitely a step towards the right direction. Looking forward for Moore.

Amanda Leigh
$5.00
"Amanda Leigh" is not 'Candy Mandy'. This is Moore's masterpiece. With an album-length 70's vibe, Mandy and musical partner Mike Viola channel vintage Van Dyke Parks in opening number and instant classic "Merrimack River", a song of dazzling subtlety with a forget-me-not melody. "Fern Dell" is filled with playful time changes- delightfully cabaret. If current radio was any good at all, "I Could Break Your Heart Any Day Of The Week" would be a huge hit. Mandy expertly channels Joni Mitchell in the breathtaking "Song About Home", a song that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Mitchell's "For The Roses" or "Court And Spark". For me, "Song About Home" and the following "Everblue", a flowing and intimate gem are also instant classics. One can practically feel a gentle breeze blowing through "Love To Love You Back" and "Indian Summer". "Nothing Everything" is the last classic with a wonderfully inventive arrangement, especially the ending background vocals. "Bug" serves as a perfect coda to the preceding music. It has echoes of Cat Stevens.

The lyrics throughout are inventive, honest and relatable. Mandy's emergence as an artist to be reckoned with began with "Wild Hope" and flowers on "Amanda Leigh". Delicious!

Dedication
$14.95
It's rare very rare in these days to explore forgiveness and grace when you are speaking of romance. The persona of both the main characters in the love interest here Mandy Moore and Bill Cudrup are excellent choices by the casting crew.

Both of them are extremely suited for their roles, Bill Cudrup as the product of a typical abusive childhood and Mandy Moore as the product of a "normal" childhood. Immediately the audience can relate to two personal emotions in this romance, frustrated manhood for Henry Roth (Cudrup) and unrequited love for any young woman Lucy Reilly(Moore) great hair. Cudrup is great because even if he is socially handicapped he remains attractive (think James Dean) and Moore is of course the wonderful girl next door.

The antiheroes that keep popping up are the alter egos of Bill's character and Mandy's old rotten boyfriend Jeremy. The ex boyfriend Jeremy is everyone's ex boyfriend who could not or would not be the man he was meant to be. Jeremy keeps for selfish reasons trying to get back to the place he was before, proving that brilliance as a writer does not make you smart or likeable. Lucy Reilly has moments with her overanxious and over bearing mother played quite convincingly (dianne Weist)and with perfect timing. Through the interestind scenes all Lucy never loses her ability to love or to maintain her own dignity more importantly her sense of self in the plot. It is not cloying but timely, and you can see how the lovers begin to long for each other as they walk into their love scenes. Even without overt chemistry but with thorough acting they accomplish a believable romance between Henry and Lucy.

Although the movie is rated R it is thankfully not for explicit sexual content but more for foul language.

Yes there is still for many people a sense of propriety. You can look at romance as something that happens between two people or you can choose to look at it as something that happens on a much higher level. It is the level just above the heart, the one that chooses to be good for another person as the expense of ones self. You can easily and naturally see this in Mandy Moore's character which attracts men to her like a magnet, and you can see it in Bill Cudrup as he dares to leave his mental obsessiveness for the one love he "can" long for.

The only people that could hate this movie are the ones that have been made perfectly cynical by life. Given the crude nature of romance in Hollywood these days it is not suprising that this was not much bigger at the box office the sound track is very well done for anyone in their 20's. It's Hollywoods loss, and highly recommended.