Café Naturale is the seventh studio album by singer Wendy Matthews, released by BMG in Australia on 24 May 2004. It is an album of cover songs chosen by Matthews and the album's producer, Michael Szumowski. Matthews enjoyed recording this album and felt the songs came together naturally, and felt she broke down some personal barriers. The album yielded only one single, "All I Need".
In 2002, Matthews moved to a coastal haven outside Coffs Harbour, New South Wales. She spent a lot of time in her favourite cafe listening to records, and explains "there’s nothing like a song to bring you back to a specific moment or feeling in time."[1] This led her to name the album Café Naturale.[1]
She was surprised by some of the song choices. "Once we got into the studio the record started to reveal its personality to me. It all came together and the songs, these very melodic songs, started to make themselves known. It just worked."[1]
The thought behind the album's cover artwork comes from a painting of a woman on a wall on Edgecliff Road in Sydney, Australia by Bruno Dutot in 1987.[1] Matthews approached Dutot and she asked him to commission a painting of this woman for her cover. She states "basically, he's painted her as me with a chopstick in her hair and my dog at the feet. Every time I'm in Sydney I have to go and check the lady on the wall, what colour dress she's wearing this month, whether she's changed and she looks so cafe society to me, so I'm thrilled and honoured that he actually did a painting for this cover."[2] Matthews says the painting has come to symbolise Sydney for her.[1]
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Original artist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "All I Need" | Beth Hirsch | Air | 4:20 |
| 2. | "Early Morning Rain" | Gordon Lightfoot | Gordon Lightfoot | 4:12 |
| 3. | "Love and Happiness" | Al Green | Al Green | 3:43 |
| 4. | "Slave (Just for Love)" | Zekuumba Zekkariyas | Womack & Womack | 5:03 |
| 5. | "Short Note" | Matt Moffitt | Matt Finish | 4:03 |
| 6. | "This Time" | Tim Kellett, Robin Taylor-Firth | Olive | 3:52 |
| 7. | "All That It Takes" | Ed Baden Powell, Steve Marston | 2:53 | |
| 8. | "Moon Beneath My Feet" | Naoise David Sheridan | 3:41 | |
| 9. | "A Kiss to Build a Dream On" | Oscar Hammerstein II, Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby | Louis Armstrong | 3:36 |
| 10. | "One" | Adam Clayton, David Evans, Paul Hewson, Larry Mullen | U2 | 4:33 |
| 11. | "Protection" | Grantley Marshall, Robert Del Naja, Tracey Thorn, Andrew Vowles | Massive Attack | 4:36 |
| 12. | "The Wing and the Wheel" | Nanci Griffith | Nanci Griffith | 3:16 |
Charts
| Chart (2004) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[3] | 42 |
References
- ^ a b c d e "Wendy Matthews - Australian Music Online profile". Amo.org.au. Retrieved 3 August 2009.
- ^ "ARCHIVED WENDY NEWS - APRIL / AUGUST 2004" Archived 2011-02-17 at the Wayback Machine. Wendymatthews.com.au. Retrieved 3 August 2009.
- ^ "Australiancharts.com – Wendy Matthews – Café Naturale". Hung Medien. Retrieved 14 October 2017.