cds: albums: music:
Top row: Joe Sent Me, Make You Love, Dear John Coltrane
Bottom row: Slow to Burn, Zipless, Head Music
"Fusing jazz, pop, dance grooves, and sexually explicit lyrics, Vanessa Daou may be one of the most daring new artists of the millennium." Billboard
"[T]he electronicized cabaret-stomp of "Black and White" unfurls in a silver spray of ghostly piano licks and burlesque horns. In addition to being the album's most accessible track, it also features some of the most inspired lyrics Daou has ever penned." PopMatters
"[E]xploring a weird ambient hinterland between ambient pop, jazz, soul and electronica." The Quietus
"On an album where grime and elegance rub shoulders, Daou fosters a musical space where her electro-grooves and acoustic set-ups coalesce. Daou's ghostly vocals billow and swirl like a thick, phosphorous dream; they don't so much inhabit the songs as haunt them, spilling over into sonic atmospherics. ... It's a album of jazz, for sure, but the aesthetic at work here is almost punk; sound and poetry are layered like graffiti." Inside Entertainment, Canada
"Electronica, smooth jazz, drum-and-bass. Poet, chanteuse, painter. Vanessa Daou is one artist who thrives on not being pigeonholed. ... The absinthe-inspired trance of Daou's vocals is married to the rhythmic typewriter on "Hurricanes", where she steps forth as the sultriest person at a beat cafe. ... over the interlacing of jazz and electronica. Continuing to morph her artistic approach with minimalism and spoken word, Joe Sent Me is a comeback for Daou that ought to be celebrated." Windy City Times
Best Of 2008 - "Sensual and poetic texts, languorous electro-jazz of an almost palpable softness, Joe Sent Me feel is a small marvel in its genre." Discordance, France
"If Louis Malle were alive and making films, this would be the soundtrack. I am instantly transported to the streets of Paris and Jeanne Moreau is walking in the rain whispering je t'aime...je t'aime..." Collin Kelley: Modern Confessional
"Gorgeous & strangely intimate..." Jonny Mugwump & the Exotic Pylon, Resonance 104.4 FM, UK
"Fusing jazz, pop, dance grooves, and sexually explicit lyrics, Vanessa Daou may be one of the most daring new artists of the millennium." All Music Guide
"On her fourth solo album, [Vanessa Daou] continues to follow the beat of her own drum, bucking the norm for her own artistic integrity. Drawing from electronic, pop, and jazz, Make You Love drips with romance, sensuality, and much love." Billboard
"I can think of no musical precedent for Vanessa Daou's fifth solo CD, "Make You Love" ... Since her 1994 debut, "Zipless" Vanessa Daou's songs have personified sensuality. That steamy first CD is almost a sexual companion to this new release; they're equally the epitome of late-night bedroom music. ... Daou's breathy, half-spoken vocals are soulful as always." Bay Windows
"The arrangements on her new album Make You Love are soft-core trip-hop while her sublime hooks and refrains will make the best songwriters sit up and take notice. But it's really in her softly seductive vocals and lyrics that Ms. Daou really shines. Her subliminal psycho-sexual innuendoes are not for the faint of heart but they take you where you want to go - to that turned-on state of musical nirvana. One listen and it's obvious Ms. Daou is a hopeless romantic in love with life." mwe3
"[V]isitors to Dawsonscreekcds.com can create a custom album from more than 50 selections, including cuts from singer/songwriter Aimee Mann, jazzy electronic dance diva Vanessa Daou..." MTV
"In the late '90s, the songstress released Plutonium Glow (on the Internet-based label Daou Music) and Dear John Coltrane (on Oxygen Music Works). Last November, EMI Music France issued Vanessa Daou's Make You LoveÑeasily the artist's most honest, pop-leaning, and (dare we say) best collection to date." MTV
"Dear John Coltrane is one of the most soothing albums to come along recently. It's very relaxing due to its ambient sound which mixes guitars, saxophones, acoustic pianos, and keyboards. Vanessa's phantom-like voice ... sounds like an ancestral voice quietly calling you back to a time long past." Technique
"Part R&B, part spoken word, Vanessa's breathy but strong voice compliments her prose in this shimmering but lucid tribute to the famed jazz legend. ... closer to a Sade album than a dance one. ... an open letter to keep reading over and over until every comma and pause is savored and memorized." Mixer
"Dear John Coltrane is a sensual ode and tribute to the great man as only Daou could do." VICE Magazine
"References to John Coltrane in Popular Culture from Answers.com
"All music gude: similar albums music.com
"Every month, five of our music programmers choose their ten favorite albums..." Tom Schnabel, DJ Picks, Café LA, KCRW
"Being the groundbreaking artist that she is, Vanessa was one of the first artists to sell merchandise through her Web site, where this spectacular was initially available. Also she beat Madonna and Kylie Minogue to the electronic break-through punch with this collection. ... Daou collaborated with French hunk Etienne Daho reworking "Make Believe" on his album Corps et Arms, making her a sensation in France." Windy City Times
"Vanessa Daou sounds even more dynamic in this setting. Vanessa Daou has a voice like a feather that literally floats off into the crisp night air..." Answers.com
"Vanessa Daou's Jazz an Pop make an exhilarating mix... Built on piano, synthesizers and Daou's mesmerizing, Billie Holiday-like vocals, Zipless strikes an exquisite balance between pop and jazz by weaving together the strengths of both styles. ... The music conjures up the cool mood of an urban nightscape." TIME Magazine
"Daou's breathy vocals are perfect for this and other songs, conveying an intimacy that perfectly matches the words. She could just as easily be lying in bed with a lover, singing her desires to them, as recording the song in a studio." laurahird.com
"Daou's rolling drum mixes and incisive lyrics defy categorization... Daou bounces between jazz and trance music, equalizing genres... Her voice can sound like Fiona Apple without the bitterness, and then turn breathy like an old-school diva. ... This is sexy, volatile stuff." Daily Bruin
"[Vanessa's] smoky whisper is vulnerability itself, pure late-night allure that is chilling because it acts as a spectral knife-edge, both empowering and dangerous." Music.com
"Vanessa Daou's breathy, intimate vocals stride clear across the jazz-inflected dance-pop of Slow to Burn... Funky and ethereal, dreamy and articulate, Daou's flow is embellished by the deft, insinuating rhythms of the music." VIBE
"Combining elements of jazz, blues, and alternative, Vanessa Daou has emerged as one of the most musical and provocative vocalists on the pop scene." KCRW
"Zipless is the poetry of Erica Jong set to music... a breathtaking trip that can barely contain its own sensuality." All Music Guide
"Pleasure" and "pain"-two words that describe the process of gathering participants for our sex panel. ... Once we assembled our seven fearless panelists-Andre Benjamin... Nona Hendryx... vibeologist Roy Ayers; Soopaman Luva Redman; Luke Campbell, ex-leader of 2 Live Crew and host of the TV prog ram Luke's Peep Show; saxophonist James Carter; and sultry vocalist Vanessa Daou..." VIBE
"We here at Slant Magazine believe that there aren't enough lists. So we've decided to create another one. "Vital Pop" is a list of 50 of the most essential pop albums..." Slant Magazine
"Voice an rhythm move past each other with the formalized grace of ballet. [The band creates] darkly ethereal shapeless lullabies, while Vanessa Daou whispers into the mike." The New York Times, Sunday Arts & Lesiure
"The most intriguing feature of this recording is singer Vanessa Daou. She may very well be the first jazz-rock-fusion singer I've heard. ... exquisite phrasing and choice of tones by Vanessa..." >New York Daily News
"[T]heir music is reminiscent of the "hieroglyphics" of graffiti. It's incredibly beautiful music that won't be accessible to everyone just because it junks cliches in the effort to forge a new language. It's distinctly urban, drawing from disparate sources (jazz, rock, House) to form a whole, but allowing none of the seams to show." The Village View
"Imagine Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell on a date, entering a folk club only to discover its turned into an avant-garde underground club. Jazz, dance, folk and rock mingle and become indistinguishable [Vanessa] Daou merges diverse musical styles and comes up with an album easier to listen to than categorize." URB
