| CD REVIEW Blackmore's Night |
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Band : Blackmore's Night Màn, what a wonderfully beautiful album this great band has given us yet again! What with me getting the promo copy well in advance, and working on release date rather than on the date I get things (hey, gótta work that way with the load of reviews I take upon my shoulders every month, you know), I've of course had the chance to have a couple of preview listening sessions, but even from the very first sessions some of the songs on Secret Voyage have been able to move me to tears!!! Tears of joy and bewilderement of the beautiful tunes on offer, I asure you! Tears which first fell freely with the amazingly beautiful rendition of Rainbow's "Rainbow Eyes" (what with that song already appearing on the DVD of last year, I'd already been wondering when the song would finally make it onto a studio album as well). The musical make-over is already incredibly emotional-laden in its own right and combined with Candice Night's ethereal voice the song is simply méant to move people to a positive emotional outbursts! Of course, "Rainbow Eyes" does not carry the whole album by itself, and just as usual you'll get some very nice instrumentals...beginning with album opener "God Save The Keg" (another being the acoustic guitar solo "Prince Waldock's Galliard"), the opening tunes of which are also used for album closing song "Empty Words"...which I'm convinced is yet another cover, but I have been quite unable to place it! In between, you get the band's usual play with both the more organic and electric musicmaking. In other words, they'll play about with more vintage instruments at the one moment, and go for the Rock approach at the other. The keyboardist has a somewhat prominent role this time around, playing a variety of sounds going from clavichord at the beginning of the album opening track, going to more orchestral stuff over pure organ. And, of course, as usual Candice with her wonderful voice and occasional bit of double reed flute (a shawn, is it?), backed by the two other Ladies in the band. Besides the Rainbow cover, there's also a very beautiful rendition of "Can't Help Falling In Love", previously brought by a variety of artists, starting with Elvis Presley (and then there were also UB40, Hall & Oates, Andrea Bocelli, Corey Hart, Britney Spears, A-Teens...and U2 has been known to having take the tune quite regularly in their live set). Another very nice moment is the somewhat Gypsy-ish "Toast To Tomorrow" (a feeling induced through the use of accordeon)...but I could say something nice about évery track on this album. Best you go out to the record store to have a listening session...well, if you've already been seduced by this band, there's really no reason why you shouldn't ust buy the album and run home with it to listen to it, except that a listening session at the store would be sooner! Check out the difference with the limited first edition (no info was given with our promo copy, so duh!), and fans of the older music carrier will be pleased to find out Secret Voyage will also know a vinyl release! Ya-hoo!!! 98/100 Tony. Band : Blackmore's Night Hum...somewhat weird, this one: an EP with 3 tracks taken off Blackmore's Night's recently released new album Secret Voyage (review of which probably posted at the same time as this due to the fact that the Concrete Web PC had yet another crash thanks to some new computer virus – I sometimes wonder what silly-ass crazy idiots put their time in inventing new viruses all the time...I mean, just whàt kind of sick nut do you have to be to derive any pleasure from that at all...unless it's a ploy from the virus scan makers to have us keep updating on their products, of course? - and wasn't re-installed by the time the editor-in-chief left for a two-week "work-holiday" in the States). The songs all are album versions, so there's no added value, and even the cover artwork (simply lacking the album title) is almost the same. The only sense is such a release is the value for the record company to send the thing off to radio stations...because they have to pay less author rights when compared to a full-length CD, and also have a way of manipulating the radio program editors with the limited amount of songs included. Well, if you happen to come across this EP in some second-hand store (be sure that some people wíll try to make an extra buck by selling this thingy, if spite of the fact that it IS meant for promotion, and not for sale!), know that all songs are also on the album. If you decide to buy it anyway, you'll possibly find the songs are somewhat familiar to you, which is normal as all three are re-arranged versions (say covers) of traditionals (well, "Can't Help..." can be seen as a traditional by now, I would say, seen as it was originally written some 50 years ago)! Tony. |