Natasha Marsh – Amour (2007)

It was strange that this album should be released by EMI in the middle of February. Subtitled The Voice of Romance, Amour was the debut album by classical crossover's brightest young hope (don't they have a lot in that genre?), but it was released too late for Valentine's Day and EMI should have known that this sort of material really only sold well at Christmastime. Katherine Jenkins knew that, and timed her releases accordingly. With Natasha Marsh having been touted as the next big thing, Amour was a mixture of standard classical works and film music sung in a style suited to a soprano. The classical pieces included Satie's Gymnopedie No.1, in which Marsh did not actually sing any words but warbled up and down the scale, as she also did on final track Vocalise, Delibes' Les Filles de Cadix, and Verdi's Si un Jour, which was used in the film Jean de Florette and was therefore a crossover between the two genres. From the film world she also included "Ai Giochi Addio" from Romeo and Juliet and "Mi Mancherai" from Il Postino. Amour also featured Natasha Marsh's soprano voice on the contemporary pop songs "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "He Moves, and Eyes Follow," which she turned into operatic arias (not suiting the songs), and "Autumn Leaves," which was one of the highlights of the album, beautifully sung.