THE CELTS is the 1992 re-release of a 1987 album simply titled ENYA, containing 15 selections originally composed for a BBC series of the same name. Although a number of the tracks sound dated, several others, including "To Go Beyond (II)" are notable for how they locate the origins of the classic Enya sound, far removed from earlier Celtic efforts…
In 2006 Enya released her most subtle and song-oriented album to date. Amarantine may have paled in comparison to Watermark or Shepherd Moons, but its under-produced (in Enya-world) balladry was a small leap forward for the reclusive Irish superstar. 2008's And Winter Came follows in the same footsteps as Amarantine, but it hints at the grandeur of earlier recordings, specifically 1994's Christmas EP. Enya's ferociously multi-tracked recording style lends itself well to the season, filling in the simplistic lyrical holes with small avalanches of vocal harmonies and the dated but reliable keyboard patches that have come to define the singer/composer's work over the years…
The eighth studio long-player from the audacious Finnish symphonic metal outfit, Endless Forms Most Beautiful is also the first Nightwish outing to feature new vocalist Floor Jansen (After Forever, Revamp), who joined the group on the road in 2012 after the mid-tour departure of Anette Olzen. Nightwish has endured numerous lineup changes throughout its nearly 20-year career, but the band's sound has remained remarkably consistent, due in large part to the stabilizing presence of project founder and chief songwriter Tuomas Holopainen, whose overall vision for the band remains unchanged…
Rare 1994 US promotional only 6-CD pack produced to recognize WB executive Mo Ostin, with exclusive George Harrison song 'Mo'…
Legendary Deep Purple and Rainbow guitarist Ritchie Blackmore (b. April 14, 1945, Weston-super-Mare, England) shifted his musical focus away from hard rock in the late '90s and started concentrating on his love of Renaissance-era music. He formed Blackmore's Night with his fiancée, vocalist/lyricist Candice Night (b. May 8, 1971, Hauppauge, Long Island, New York), and recruited other musicians from around the world to combine elements of world music, Renaissance, new age, folk, and rock & roll…
You kind of get the sense from the Dark Tenor that anything other than 100% effort simply will not do. The marketing campaign is elaborate, slick and edgy, drawing in who-knows-what kind of audience and the voice and music matches it. The build up has been going on for some time; he's accumulated over 30,000 likes on Facebook before he even had a bar of music available for purchase. This is exciting stuff. The mysterious, masked Dark Tenor is signed to a major label, doing new things and creating larger than life arrangements and interpretations of classics we've always known but seldom recognise on his debut album Symphony of Light…
Alphaville's second album, produced for the most part by Peter Walsh, found the group creating something close to a concept record, in overall atmosphere and structure if not in specific storyline. That Alphaville wanted to aim high can be gauged from the credit list – the three core members "composed" the album, while no less than 30 musicians and singers helped perform it…