Editor’s Note: The Albumism staff has selected what we believe to be the 50 Greatest Live Albums of All Time, representing a varied cross-section of genres, styles and time periods. Click “Next Album” below to explore each album or view the full album index here.
BIC RUNGA | Live in Concert with the Christchurch Symphony
Sony Music (2003)
Selected by Quentin Harrison
Solidified by her first two multi-platinum albums—Drive (1997) and Beautiful Collision (2002)—as the favorite musical daughter of her native New Zealand, Bic Runga was definitely in a position to celebrate. Subsequently, her second live album Live in Concert with the Christchurch Symphony was a rightful veneration of Runga's talents not only as a songwriter and arranger, but as a singer.
Recorded on October 3, 2003 and released one month afterward, the batch of songs featured on the album are culled from her first two recordings with a few of her personal favorites from Rose Royce (“Wishing On a Star”), Dionne Warwick (“Anyone Who Had a Heart”), and Jacques Brel (“Ne me quitte pas”) appearing too. Runga's vocal tone, striped in both fragile and robust colors, plays well against the symphonic reworkings of the compositions earmarked for the live presentation. Of merit was the inclusion of a then new song, “Say After Me,” included on her dark masterpiece Birds (2005). Here, in its embryonic form, the song possesses all of the sweep and gravitas it would when recorded for Birds proper.
As its own body of work, Live in Concert maintains Runga's genteel, but probing artistic essence outside of an established studio recording space.
