Accidentally, this happened to be the very first Nina Simone album I have ever heard. Her major 1960s LPs were not available at the time and this was something current, so I bought it with my pocket money - this was time when you actually had to purchase albums to listen the music at home - and the introduction was lukewarm, as I didn't know what to make of it. Curiously, there were some very positive reviews around and I felt perplexed why the magic of this particular album eludes me.
Fast forward several decades later, re-visiting "Baltimore" again. At this point its an old friend. By now I know who is Simone, where she comes from, the source of material, what producers probably wanted to achieve. In fact, I am pleasantly surprised that I appreciate everything that I had initially disliked - namely her idiosyncratic voice, random song choice that goes from reggae to gospel, folk and pop - now I pay much more attention to classical touches on piano, excellent backing vocals, production. And with amusement I note how it was via this album that I first heard majority of these songs and THAN much later found out the originals. I would not recommend it as introduction to Simone, because this was not really representing her best points - for that you might turn to anything from 1960s - "Baltimore" is more like phase where producers tried to modernise and update her sound. It feels as a hybrid between what Simone wanted - artsy piano ballads - and what producers had in mind - pop music. Very probably it was frustrating for both sides. To be honest, I cannot find any faults with Simone's albums in general - she is fascinating artist - its just that this might be not her strongest point. If you are familiar with the rest of her discography, this might be rewarding little gem.
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