The first track on the album is what Michele B. calls a guzinta: two songs sung in their entirety back to back so that one song guzinta the next. This is different from medley which is bits of many songs (often far too many, but usually at least three) strung together into some sort of cohesive whole. A guzinta is more like a two act play. Each song tells a different part of the same story that when put together becomes a seamless whole.
I’ve always thought of the Breathing (Amanda McBroom & Michele Brourman) and So in Love (Cole Porter) guzinta as a story of resistance and surrender. The first song is about resisting the pull of the one you cannot help but be drawn. Even though this is the last thing you want or need you are consumed by both the desire to let them in and keep them out at the same time. By the end of the song you are powerless to do anything but surrender. So in Love picks up where you have reached the place that no matter what happens you cannot be moved. The decision has been made and there is no going back now.
The honesty of the lyrics astounds me. There is no coyness, no flirtatiousness only (to steal a line from another famous Amanda McBroom song) endless aching need. From Amanda & Michele's I breathe in and you are there as necessary as the air to Cole’s …taunt me, and hurt me, deceive me, desert me, I’m yours till I die a soul is laid bare before you.
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