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Author Topic: Voices Of Angels - My Review (Spoiler Alert!)  (Read 2715 times)
Excalibur
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« on: November 23, 2016, 10:08AM »

First of all, I've got the normal 16 tracks version so unfortunately I can't tell anything on the other bonus songs  Roll Eyes

Before listening to the album, when the preview snippets came out along with a couple of songs, I had very mixed feelings. When an album is presented as "featuring orchestra" you always have great expectation, but with Celtic Woman every album -except maybe Emerald- was recorded with orchestral arrangements, maybe not 72 elements but still orchestral, so this time I was actually expecting great things and the previews did not give me the best impression. Truth be told, I'm always a little bit worried when a new CW album comes out in these last few years, basically since the lineup went from 5 to 4 girls. I can't stress enough how important to me is the fact that CW works best with 4 vocalists, especially on big songs with powerful arrangements and more than ever when you have a voice like Eabha which provides, just like Orla did, a beautiful "ground" for the harmonies.

That being told, after a couple of listenings I have to say this new album is really growing on me. It's extremely different from Destiny, the whole group took great chances in this project and I think it's very admirable when, after almost 12 years of successful projects, musicians take a quite different road without renouncing its strenght points. The arrangements are very powerful and luscious but we can definetely hear the difference with the past, especially if we compare them with the work of David Downes. Some of the old songs may sound a little "too much" compared to their previous versions but at the same time it's wonderful to hear how, after all these years, it's still possible to breath new life in these classics and traditional tunes. I would have personally preferred to have an album with all-new material, but at least the new arrangements are actually NEW - instead of what happened on Emerald, which I consider the worst -if not useless- CW album ever. The new songs are very interesting choices and I've been hoping for a couple of them for years, so it's finally happened and I was not disappointed by them.

Song by song review:

My Heart Will Go On 5/5
This is the PERFECT piece for CW. It has a beautiful melody, it's a timeless classic and it has that "english/irish" spirit to it, so I really was hoping for CW to record it at some point. The girls gave us a very soft and soothing rendition, with just a tiny amount of power in the climax - which is fine, you don't have to sing it like Céline Dion to make it work: the original will always be unbeatable, but in a group version is fine to sing it in a softer way. Besides, I don't like our girls to scream their notes, especially Susan and Mairead, so I'm quite happy when they manage to contain their chest voice without over-doing.

Isle Of Hope, Isle Of Tears 4/5
Honestly, I'm not a fan of CW group songs that become solo songs because they tend to become less powerful or too much work for a single voice. I wasn't thrilled to hear Susan's The Call, for instance. Plus, I was hoping for Eabha to have a more upbeat song because I really loved her in Bean Phaidin and her Destiny solos were quite slow. Anyway she did quite a beautiful job on this one, I like her ornamentations that are always at the right amount. Still, I think that the orchestration is a little too powerful for her voice. Perhaps in the mixing process it could have been softened a bit, but in the end it works fine and it certainly was not a simple task to recreat the intense emotion of this song. From this point of view, Eabha did an incredible job as usual.

As She Moved Through The Fair 5/5
This song was born for CW as a Méav solo, then it was performed as a (quite awful) group version, then it was done by Mairead C on tour, then was re-recorder as a duet by Chloe and Lisa L. So it has an interesting history. I think nobody was expecting to hear Susan do it as a solo, especially since Mairead C and Méav are on this album, but I think it's quite beautiful to hear Susan in a very traditional song, just to break the rule of "you are the belting musical singer, so you stick to power ballads". I must say I love this version just as the previous ones, it's so fresh and contemporary but it still has that Celtic/World atmosphere that is required for the occasion, and the orchestra is not too intrusive. I Iove the instrumental parts with the uillean pipes, so kudos to CW and Susan on this one!

Mo Ghile Mear 5/5
I'm a huge fan of the original ANJ version and I almost despised the Emerald version with half the girls, so my expectations for this song were equally huge. At the same time, I really didn't want to hear the same arrangement of ten years ago, it wouldn't have made sense. Imagine my joy when I heard the snippet and then the whole song. It's sooo different, way more Irish and with a very nice mix of soft and powerful parts. I love the new lyrics and the final part is just breath-taking, so epic and romantic and adventurous. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have Méav on this, but somehow they made it work with three vocalists. That final high note by Mairead is just wonderful, reminded me of the beautiful Hayley/Méav combo in the original version.

Ave Maria 3/5
This is one of my least favourite songs on the album. We had two versions of this by Chloe (Helix and TGJ), plus two Schubert versions (Believe-Emerald), one would think it's enough. I'm not a fan of Mairead's pronunciation of Latin (she does have the same problem with Italian) either, especially her R is not sharp as it should be, and that makes the text less important somehow, which is a pity in a song that is basically a prayer, right? She goes quite beautifully with the singings, her operatic sound is what this piece needs so anyway I would consider this better than Chloe's rendition - actually I consider Mairead a better singer than Chloe under every aspect, both technical and interpretative, but that's a whole different story. The orchestra surely adds something to this version, but my overall impression is that we did not really need another Ave Maria, or at least not this version. I think it would have been nicer to have the one by Vavilov/Caccini, which is more challenging for a voice like Mairead and more interesting when done with a big orchestra.

For The Love Of A Princess 4/5
Very interesting to open with a vocalist the first solo for Tara Cheesy I think it might be Eabha in her higher register, but who knows... Anyway it's nice to have a quite long, slow air for violinist solo, I think the first and last one was The Last Rose Fantasia back in 2009/2010, which was quite underrated in my opinion. This is a very beautiful piece, it showcases Tara's espressivity with her instrument in a very nice way and I love the use of uillean pipes, it gives the Celtic sound that the violin by itself is not always capable of doing. Overall, it's a very hard task for Tara to step in Mairead Nesbitt's shoes, she may not have the same experience and stage presence but this is a great start (she's so young!) and she does not lack the talent to do great things in CW just like Mairead did.

Time To Say Goodbye 4/5
Another song that I've always wanted CW to record. I'm quite happy they did it completely in English because, as I mentioned, Mairead's Italian scares me almost to death (to be honest, there are very few English-speaking singers that have a decent pronunciation, even Sarah Brightman's is quite awful) Cheesy At first I thought that most of the song was sung by Mairead, but then I realized the second verse is by Susan :O Their voices can sound very alike in some parts! I would have loved to hear more by Eabha apart from the harmonies, perhaps they could have given her the first verse which is more quiet... The arrangement is lovely and, just like MHWGO, not extremely powerful so the song is more soothing and relaxing than other versions, which is nice. That final note by the orchestra, though... It sounded like a fart to me XD Anyway, great song. To make it perfect, please more Eabha and MEAV, PLEEEEEASE MEAV Cheesy

Dulaman 4/5
I had very mixed feelings about this one: the ANJ version, then two Lisa L versions (German Believe and Emerald). It would have been interesting as a solo for Eabha, in my opinion, since I love to hear her sing in Gaelic and with a little beat. Instead Méav took her signature song back just like she did with Si Do Mhaimeo I last year Cheesy Well, you can never go wrong with Mèav, right? She does an incredible job as always and the new arrangement is stunning. Truthfully, the theme of the song (seaweed) is not something that you would think fitting for such a powerful and rich arrangement, it's like someone made a movie called "Raiders of the Lost Seaweed" Cheesy But as I said, no song can feature Méav without being awesome, so I still consider it a great addition to the album. That said, now I really want Méav to sing something completely new if she continues to work with CW. She has come back three times and every time one of her songs was a piece she already did in the past. It's not fair for the one that I consider the most talented member CW has EVER had.

Walk Beside Me 3/5
In my opinion there was no need for a new version of this song. We had the original just last year and it was very beautiful already - one of the highlights of the whole album. Now it's been turned in a full group song instead of featuring Susan and Mairead only at the end. This is actually a good idea because I think this song could finally replace You Raise Me Up as a closing number on tour. The one thing I really don't like in this particular arrangement is the instrumental part with the uillean pipes (or are they bagpipes this time?): leaving that out would have made this version more distinct from the previous one and would have given more sense to the big orchestra.

O, America! 4/5
I love the pipes in this one, again they help to make the song more "Celtic" and that is important in a piece sung by Irish people for America. This version is way more delicate in the beginning, especially thanks to Méav and Eabha, then it grows in a beautiful orchestral and harmonical crescendo just like a national anthem should do. As I've said previously, it's beautiful to hear all the girls sing so softly without screaming the heck out of the notes, to prove that belting is not everything. I like the slower beat on this version, but the harmony of the choir in the final part is not too beutiful to my ears, somehow it gives me a sense of 'darkness'. Luckily, the girls save the finale with a wooonderful old-fashioned finale with harmonies and high notes (even though Méav could have gone every higher, you know what I mean) Cheesy

A Time For Us 3/5
To me, this song suffers the same problem that Like An Angel had on Destiny. Beautifully sung, some beautiful high notes there, a lot of feeling, but it lacks power. If Mairead had another, more powerful song on the album, it would not have been an issue, but the other one is Ave Maria. I mean, come on, she can do such wonders with her chest voice and she gets a slow, sad ballad? I was really tempted to skip this song every time it started, because I knew it wouldn't have taken me where Mairead is capable of taking me with her voice. I almost prefer the instrumental part, which is a little sad in a sung piece Sad

Across The World 5/5
Lovely the first seconds, with a very classical feel to them. Then the piece starts just like most of the violin solos we're used to, but this time there's something different and it's not Tara Smiley This piece actually reprises the melody of The Rocky Road To Dublin in the first part. Did anyone else notice that? I love that, it brings so much traditional sound to the piece. The rest of the song is basically the classic fast violin piece that every CW album must have, so there's not much to say about if not that, even this time, Tara proves she's capable of giving us what Mairead N gave us until this year. I'm sure it will not be the same on stage, but that's fine because she doesn't have to act like a clone of Mairead, and since this review is about the song and not the performance, I have to say I'm very very happy with it and it's just as good as how Mairead would have done it.

Teir Abhaile Riu 5/5
Of all the "ceili" songs, Teir Abhaile Riu was my less favourite. Way too different from the traditional version, way too "acted" in Believe and I think I'm one the few people that HATED the Emerald version - well, even Nil Se'n La was awful on Emerald if compared to SFTH, in my not-so-humble opinion. So this one was like a lighthouse for me, the chance to finally see this song done as it should have been done from the beginning. This is the Destiny Tour version with an orchestral arrangement, but it's actually very fresh if we consider it's the only one which we already knew in its entirety, so one again kudos to CW for being able of giving us something that works and that really sounds like an Irish traditional song should sound, without lacking the "epic" factor at the end. The only missing things are perhaps the spoons and the accordion (we still have the tin whistle), but in my personal listening experience the song doesn't suffer from that.

Joy To The World 4/5
I'm not too enthusiastic with CW putting Xmas song where they don't belong, I get that the album is out in late November and some of these songs will probabily be performed on the Symphony tour, but they still seem out of context to me. This particular song was posted on Youtube before the album was out so I already had a chance to hear the new arrangement. At first I was not thrilled, right now I have mixed feelings everytime it starts, but then it gets better and I really enjoy it. I would not say this is better than the HFC version because that one is absolutely gorgeous, but this one is very good as well. Again, PLEASE MORE MEAV if you want perfection.

Silent Night 3/5
We had two different versions of this song on Christmas Celebration and Home For Christmas, both by Méav. This time we have a group version, but this one really doesn't grow on me. The only thing I  like is the violin part which is actually the melody from Eleanor Plunkett by O'Carolan (you may know it as The Songline To Home by Méav). Apart from that, I consider this version quite boring, maybe because this piece is soooo overdone by everyone and we hear it so much around this time of the year and it's also very slow itself. I'm giving it three points out of five just because the girls sing it and play it beautifully just like they always do, but the rest is not interesting to me.

Once In Royal David's City 3/5
Same problem as the previous one: boring Xmas song, too slow to result interesting and too lullaby-ish. It has even chimes in the arrangement Cheesy Just not my cup of tea in a CW album which has so many strong and interesting pieces. This sounds like something they could sing in a special appereance on Catholic TV, not something to put on an album and most certainly not as the final song. For being one of the new song, it was quite disappointing to me. I would have preferred another new arrangement for an old song, perhaps The Parting Glass or The World Falls Away.

OVERALL RATING: 4/5
Voices Of Angels is a very nice album, better than I hoped in some points and worse than I expected in other points. Definetely not the best CW album because I still think we're not at the level of the first years, but it's certainly not the worst one - as I said, that would be Emerald to me. Considering that it's basically a big experiment - it was recorded with a new violinist and it features bigger orchestral arrangements - it could have been much worse under so many aspects, so I think it came out nice after all. Some of the chosen songs and some aspects of the arrangement do not convince me at all and I wish Susan, Eabha and Meav were given more space, but I suppose you can't have perfection with an experiment, no matter how big it is Smiley
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CWazyTom
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One CWazy Canadian! Chlovër for life!


« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2016, 02:18PM »

First of all, I've got the normal 16 tracks version so unfortunately I can't tell anything on the other bonus songs  Roll Eyes

I am thankful.

Before listening to the album, when the preview snippets came out along with a couple of songs, I had very mixed feelings. When an album is presented as "featuring orchestra" you always have great expectation, but with Celtic Woman every album -except maybe Emerald- was recorded with orchestral arrangements, maybe not 72 elements but still orchestral, so this time I was actually expecting great things and the previews did not give me the best impression. Truth be told, I'm always a little bit worried when a new CW album comes out in these last few years, basically since the lineup went from 5 to 4 girls. I can't stress enough how important to me is the fact that CW works best with 4 vocalists, especially on big songs with powerful arrangements and more than ever when you have a voice like Eabha which provides, just like Orla did, a beautiful "ground" for the harmonies.

I agree that 4-5 singers would fill out the sound and add power, but they do still sound beautiful.

That being told, after a couple of listenings I have to say this new album is really growing on me. It's extremely different from Destiny, the whole group took great chances in this project and I think it's very admirable when, after almost 12 years of successful projects, musicians take a quite different road without renouncing its strenght points. The arrangements are very powerful and luscious but we can definetely hear the difference with the past, especially if we compare them with the work of David Downes. Some of the old songs may sound a little "too much" compared to their previous versions but at the same time it's wonderful to hear how, after all these years, it's still possible to breath new life in these classics and traditional tunes. I would have personally preferred to have an album with all-new material, but at least the new arrangements are actually NEW - instead of what happened on Emerald, which I consider the worst -if not useless- CW album ever. The new songs are very interesting choices and I've been hoping for a couple of them for years, so it's finally happened and I was not disappointed by them.

I was thinking the same thing about Emerald. It was basically one new singer and minor tweaks. Liked it a lot and Parting Glass, Mo Ghile Mear, and YRMU were better on Emerald than the originals in certain respects. I too lived that VoA, if it was going to cover old songs, tried to do them very differently. I think the risk worked out very well as far as the 16 tracks are concerned.

Song by song review:

My Heart Will Go On 5/5
This is the PERFECT piece for CW. It has a beautiful melody, it's a timeless classic and it has that "english/irish" spirit to it, so I really was hoping for CW to record it at some point. The girls gave us a very soft and soothing rendition, with just a tiny amount of power in the climax - which is fine, you don't have to sing it like Céline Dion to make it work: the original will always be unbeatable, but in a group version is fine to sing it in a softer way. Besides, I don't like our girls to scream their notes, especially Susan and Mairead, so I'm quite happy when they manage to contain their chest voice without over-doing.

That's a good point about them not having to scream to sound amazing...although I did love it when they were just belting out a finale on the classic CW albums.

Isle Of Hope, Isle Of Tears 4/5
Honestly, I'm not a fan of CW group songs that become solo songs because they tend to become less powerful or too much work for a single voice. I wasn't thrilled to hear Susan's The Call, for instance. Plus, I was hoping for Eabha to have a more upbeat song because I really loved her in Bean Phaidin and her Destiny solos were quite slow. Anyway she did quite a beautiful job on this one, I like her ornamentations that are always at the right amount. Still, I think that the orchestration is a little too powerful for her voice. Perhaps in the mixing process it could have been softened a bit, but in the end it works fine and it certainly was not a simple task to recreat the intense emotion of this song. From this point of view, Eabha did an incredible job as usual.

I agree about the orchestration. She has a strong voice but it's deep and there was a bit too much orchestration for her particular voice at times. She is truly amazing though and I think this turned out pretty well.

As She Moved Through The Fair 5/5
This song was born for CW as a Méav solo, then it was performed as a (quite awful) group version, then it was done by Mairead C on tour, then was re-recorder as a duet by Chloe and Lisa L. So it has an interesting history. I think nobody was expecting to hear Susan do it as a solo, especially since Mairead C and Méav are on this album, but I think it's quite beautiful to hear Susan in a very traditional song, just to break the rule of "you are the belting musical singer, so you stick to power ballads". I must say I love this version just as the previous ones, it's so fresh and contemporary but it still has that Celtic/World atmosphere that is required for the occasion, and the orchestra is not too intrusive. I Iove the instrumental parts with the uillean pipes, so kudos to CW and Susan on this one!

My initial reaction was I liked the new arrangement but that Susan deserved a more powerful song. You make a good point though that it's nice to have her sing traditional songs too for a change.

Mo Ghile Mear 5/5
I'm a huge fan of the original ANJ version and I almost despised the Emerald version with half the girls, so my expectations for this song were equally huge. At the same time, I really didn't want to hear the same arrangement of ten years ago, it wouldn't have made sense. Imagine my joy when I heard the snippet and then the whole song. It's sooo different, way more Irish and with a very nice mix of soft and powerful parts. I love the new lyrics and the final part is just breath-taking, so epic and romantic and adventurous. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have Méav on this, but somehow they made it work with three vocalists. That final high note by Mairead is just wonderful, reminded me of the beautiful Hayley/Méav combo in the original version.

Yes!

Ave Maria 3/5
This is one of my least favourite songs on the album. We had two versions of this by Chloe (Helix and TGJ), plus two Schubert versions (Believe-Emerald), one would think it's enough. I'm not a fan of Mairead's pronunciation of Latin (she does have the same problem with Italian) either, especially her R is not sharp as it should be, and that makes the text less important somehow, which is a pity in a song that is basically a prayer, right? She goes quite beautifully with the singings, her operatic sound is what this piece needs so anyway I would consider this better than Chloe's rendition - actually I consider Mairead a better singer than Chloe under every aspect, both technical and interpretative, but that's a whole different story. The orchestra surely adds something to this version, but my overall impression is that we did not really need another Ave Maria, or at least not this version. I think it would have been nicer to have the one by Vavilov/Caccini, which is more challenging for a voice like Mairead and more interesting when done with a big orchestra.

I'm a massive Chloë Fan, but in this particular case, I do think Mairead's version had a bit of an edge over Chloë's original version. Chloe was young then. Mairead has power, range, but also more vibrato.

For The Love Of A Princess 4/5
Very interesting to open with a vocalist the first solo for Tara Cheesy I think it might be Eabha in her higher register, but who knows... Anyway it's nice to have a quite long, slow air for violinist solo, I think the first and last one was The Last Rose Fantasia back in 2009/2010, which was quite underrated in my opinion. This is a very beautiful piece, it showcases Tara's espressivity with her instrument in a very nice way and I love the use of uillean pipes, it gives the Celtic sound that the violin by itself is not always capable of doing. Overall, it's a very hard task for Tara to step in Mairead Nesbitt's shoes, she may not have the same experience and stage presence but this is a great start (she's so young!) and she does not lack the talent to do great things in CW just like Mairead did.

Agreed and well articulated.

Time To Say Goodbye 4/5
Another song that I've always wanted CW to record. I'm quite happy they did it completely in English because, as I mentioned, Mairead's Italian scares me almost to death (to be honest, there are very few English-speaking singers that have a decent pronunciation, even Sarah Brightman's is quite awful) Cheesy At first I thought that most of the song was sung by Mairead, but then I realized the second verse is by Susan :O Their voices can sound very alike in some parts! I would have loved to hear more by Eabha apart from the harmonies, perhaps they could have given her the first verse which is more quiet... The arrangement is lovely and, just like MHWGO, not extremely powerful so the song is more soothing and relaxing than other versions, which is nice. That final note by the orchestra, though... It sounded like a fart to me XD Anyway, great song. To make it perfect, please more Eabha and MEAV, PLEEEEEASE MEAV Cheesy

The last note was a little goofy, but I didn't mind it.

Dulaman 4/5
I had very mixed feelings about this one: the ANJ version, then two Lisa L versions (German Believe and Emerald). It would have been interesting as a solo for Eabha, in my opinion, since I love to hear her sing in Gaelic and with a little beat. Instead Méav took her signature song back just like she did with Si Do Mhaimeo I last year Cheesy Well, you can never go wrong with Mèav, right? She does an incredible job as always and the new arrangement is stunning. Truthfully, the theme of the song (seaweed) is not something that you would think fitting for such a powerful and rich arrangement, it's like someone made a movie called "Raiders of the Lost Seaweed" Cheesy But as I said, no song can feature Méav without being awesome, so I still consider it a great addition to the album. That said, now I really want Méav to sing something completely new if she continues to work with CW. She has come back three times and every time one of her songs was a piece she already did in the past. It's not fair for the one that I consider the most talented member CW has EVER had.

Raiders of the List Seaweed. Haha! Love it!

Walk Beside Me 3/5
In my opinion there was no need for a new version of this song. We had the original just last year and it was very beautiful already - one of the highlights of the whole album. Now it's been turned in a full group song instead of featuring Susan and Mairead only at the end. This is actually a good idea because I think this song could finally replace You Raise Me Up as a closing number on tour. The one thing I really don't like in this particular arrangement is the instrumental part with the uillean pipes (or are they bagpipes this time?): leaving that out would have made this version more distinct from the previous one and would have given more sense to the big orchestra.


O, America! 4/5
I love the pipes in this one, again they help to make the song more "Celtic" and that is important in a piece sung by Irish people for America. This version is way more delicate in the beginning, especially thanks to Méav and Eabha, then it grows in a beautiful orchestral and harmonical crescendo just like a national anthem should do. As I've said previously, it's beautiful to hear all the girls sing so softly without screaming the heck out of the notes, to prove that belting is not everything. I like the slower beat on this version, but the harmony of the choir in the final part is not too beutiful to my ears, somehow it gives me a sense of 'darkness'. Luckily, the girls save the finale with a wooonderful old-fashioned finale with harmonies and high notes (even though Méav could have gone every higher, you know what I mean) Cheesy


A Time For Us 3/5
To me, this song suffers the same problem that Like An Angel had on Destiny. Beautifully sung, some beautiful high notes there, a lot of feeling, but it lacks power. If Mairead had another, more powerful song on the album, it would not have been an issue, but the other one is Ave Maria. I mean, come on, she can do such wonders with her chest voice and she gets a slow, sad ballad? I was really tempted to skip this song every time it started, because I knew it wouldn't have taken me where Mairead is capable of taking me with her voice. I almost prefer the instrumental part, which is a little sad in a sung piece Sad

Across The World 5/5
Lovely the first seconds, with a very classical feel to them. Then the piece starts just like most of the violin solos we're used to, but this time there's something different and it's not Tara Smiley This piece actually reprises the melody of The Rocky Road To Dublin in the first part. Did anyone else notice that? I love that, it brings so much traditional sound to the piece. The rest of the song is basically the classic fast violin piece that every CW album must have, so there's not much to say about if not that, even this time, Tara proves she's capable of giving us what Mairead N gave us until this year. I'm sure it will not be the same on stage, but that's fine because she doesn't have to act like a clone of Mairead, and since this review is about the song and not the performance, I have to say I'm very very happy with it and it's just as good as how Mairead would have done it.

All the things I wanted to say but didn't say as well.

Teir Abhaile Riu 5/5
Of all the "ceili" songs, Teir Abhaile Riu was my less favourite. Way too different from the traditional version, way too "acted" in Believe and I think I'm one the few people that HATED the Emerald version - well, even Nil Se'n La was awful on Emerald if compared to SFTH, in my not-so-humble opinion. So this one was like a lighthouse for me, the chance to finally see this song done as it should have been done from the beginning. This is the Destiny Tour version with an orchestral arrangement, but it's actually very fresh if we consider it's the only one which we already knew in its entirety, so one again kudos to CW for being able of giving us something that works and that really sounds like an Irish traditional song should sound, without lacking the "epic" factor at the end. The only missing things are perhaps the spoons and the accordion (we still have the tin whistle), but in my personal listening experience the song doesn't suffer from that.

I really liked the Believe/Emerald version and this one.

Joy To The World 4/5
I'm not too enthusiastic with CW putting Xmas song where they don't belong, I get that the album is out in late November and some of these songs will probabily be performed on the Symphony tour, but they still seem out of context to me. This particular song was posted on Youtube before the album was out so I already had a chance to hear the new arrangement. At first I was not thrilled, right now I have mixed feelings everytime it starts, but then it gets better and I really enjoy it. I would not say this is better than the HFC version because that one is absolutely gorgeous, but this one is very good as well. Again, PLEASE MORE MEAV if you want perfection.

Silent Night 3/5
We had two different versions of this song on Christmas Celebration and Home For Christmas, both by Méav. This time we have a group version, but this one really doesn't grow on me. The only thing I  like is the violin part which is actually the melody from Eleanor Plunkett by O'Carolan (you may know it as The Songline To Home by Méav). Apart from that, I consider this version quite boring, maybe because this piece is soooo overdone by everyone and we hear it so much around this time of the year and it's also very slow itself. I'm giving it three points out of five just because the girls sing it and play it beautifully just like they always do, but the rest is not interesting to me.

Once In Royal David's City 3/5
Same problem as the previous one: boring Xmas song, too slow to result interesting and too lullaby-ish. It has even chimes in the arrangement Cheesy Just not my cup of tea in a CW album which has so many strong and interesting pieces. This sounds like something they could sing in a special appereance on Catholic TV, not something to put on an album and most certainly not as the final song. For being one of the new song, it was quite disappointing to me. I would have preferred another new arrangement for an old song, perhaps The Parting Glass or The World Falls Away.

I enjoyed all 3 Christmas songs. Silent Night was my least favourite of the 3, but I thought they tried some different things with the harmony in that song and they worked!

OVERALL RATING: 4/5
Voices Of Angels is a very nice album, better than I hoped in some points and worse than I expected in other points. Definetely not the best CW album because I still think we're not at the level of the first years, but it's certainly not the worst one - as I said, that would be Emerald to me. Considering that it's basically a big experiment - it was recorded with a new violinist and it features bigger orchestral arrangements - it could have been much worse under so many aspects, so I think it came out nice after all. Some of the chosen songs and some aspects of the arrangement do not convince me at all and I wish Susan, Eabha and Meav were given more space, but I suppose you can't have perfection with an experiment, no matter how big it is Smiley

Thank you! This is a really well written review and I agree with a lot of what you said. Great points and we'll articulated.
« Last Edit: November 23, 2016, 08:24PM by CWazyTom » Logged

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« Reply #2 on: November 23, 2016, 08:04PM »

Cant wait   
Although I will have to. 

 I am told it will be Christmas morning before I will have the chance to hear it. 
 Smiley
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=)  yes!! We got to go ! 
Then there was Atlanta !
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« Reply #3 on: November 23, 2016, 08:25PM »

Cant wait   
Although I will have to. 

 I am told it will be Christmas morning before I will have the chance to hear it. 
 Smiley

Yikes.

There's always Spotify I suppose.  Wink
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