1. I Love Your Lovin' Ways
2. Four Women*
3. What More Can I Say
4. Lilac Wine
5. That's All I Ask
6. Break Down and Let It All Out
7. Why Keep Breaking My Heart
8. Wild Is the Wind*
9. Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair*
10. If I Should Lose You
11. Either Way I Lose
A+
Nina Simone is one of the true giants. Her skill as an arranger and pianist was extraordinary, and she was blessed with one of the greatest voices ever captured on record. Her versatility was also almost unmatched - she could do sweet ("Pour a Little Sugar in My Bowl"), sexy ("Feeling Good"), just plain evil ("I Put a Spell on You"), and everything in between. And this range is perfectly captured on Wild Is the Wind, which embraces everything from straight R&B on "I Love Your Lovin' Ways", to gentle ballads like "That's All I Ask", and the storming, sui generis "Break Down and Let It All Out". And, admittedly, the result is a somewhat uneven album. The high points, however, are so towering that even if Simone had only released this one album she'd still be regarded as a legend.
And about those high points: let's start with the strange and haunting "Four Women". Over a simple groove, Simone sums up in a few words a cross section of African-American stereotypes - an old slave, a child of white-on-black rape, a prostitute, and an angry modern woman named, of all things, Peaches. It's a strange song and difficult to analyse, seeming to highlight the strength of these women in bearing their lots, while at the same time condemning society for marginalising them. The song was, unlike the other pieces on this album, actually written by Simone, and it captures perfectly her famous anger.
The next great song is a cover of "Lilac Wine", a song about lost love and drinking too much that is extremely pretty and moving. It's not especially deep, but it has a lovely arrangement and shows Simone's matchless ability to convey tender emotion. And there's also the beautiful folk ballad "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair", which is a love song but which Simone approaches almost spiritually, singing in clear tones over a spare piano accompaniment.
The real standout, however, is the title track. A reworking of an old pop song, Simone transforms it into a classical aria. Over a bed of piano that calls to mind Rachmaninov in its romantic swirl and intense, complex build to dizzying crescendos, Simone lets loose with a vocal performance so desperate and heartfelt that it's been known to bring tears to my eyes. "Wild Is the Wind" is, in my humble opinion, one of the finest recordings ever made.
The rest of the songs on this album are all pretty great, too. I'm not going to complain that an album only contains four perfect songs. It's mostly lighter, tender pop ballads that flow into one another and create a mood of longing and regret. Reading about Nina Simone in preparation for writing this, I learned that she was quite the tortured, potentially even unhinged woman, who struggled with bipolar disorder. I don't want to reduce her to a stereotype, but I've known a few people with bipolar, and the sometimes frightening shifts between moods almost angelic and demonic definitely comes through in Simone's music. I suppose living with her disorder, and the frequent difficulties she encountered in life, contributed to her astonishing understanding of emotion, and her ability to convey it so brilliantly in her music. In any case, this is a wonderful, strange, whirlwind of an album, and definitely worth seeking out.
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