Delerium - Chimera

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Free Music Notes for Chimera

Free Music Review: An excellent but somewhat uneven album.
Hit: 5 Stars

"Love" starts with haunting echoing opera like vocals for the first few seconds and worldly beats but then becomes a New Age/pop hybrid song with a pleasant atmosphere and a highly pop-oriented sound. This song could make for a wise single in the future as I can see this song making an impact on the pop charts. Still, this is a very good song and a great one to start the CD off. "After All", the first single off this album, shares several similarities to the previous track but with less of a straight-out pop sound and some of the New Age twist found on their previous albums. "Just A Dream" starts with a haunting female Gregorian Chant but then tapers down into a warm pop-oriented song that reminds me of that hit single from Sixpence None The Richer (I forget the single name) with similar melody and a very bluesy-pop feel to it. It's a nice song. "Run For It" is somewhat similar to "Dream" but not quite as good and while it's not really filler, I sometimes skip this song because it doesn't rank up with most of the others. "Truly" is a high energy dance number with a modestly dark atmosphere and haunting female vocals by Nerina Pallot. This is an awesome song and one of the best on this CD. "Serenity" may sound like a mellow song based on the song title as it starts with a haunting and enchanting melody and eerie chanting but instead turns into an intoxicating danceable track with a fast, high-energy rhythm and a mix of dark and light atmosphere meshed in. The odd pause from around 4:07 to the 5:02 mark is just breathtaking and makes the song one of the strongest tracks on this CD. The fadeout outro of the song is haunting and addictive. "Touched" is too poppy to belong on a Delerium and feels more like something that I would hear from Sixpence None The Richer. Still, this is quite a good song on it's own, compared to most pop music out there, but by Delerium standards, it falls a bit short of what've done in the past and feels kind of out of place against most of the other songs on here. Still, this is a pleasant song. "Forever" starts with an odd eerie intro but then blasts into a gorgeous blend of the pop elements of this album but also of the oddness of the previous three albums to create a very intriguing song. "Fallen" starts off with an interesting aquatic intro but becomes a relatively unremarkable pop-oriented song that doesn't do a whole lot for me. The album picks back up again with "Orbit Of Me". This is a jazzier song with a more DJ-oriented twist with a very strange mix of New Age, electronica, and a sound that almost reminds me slightly of the lighter elements of Massive Attacks "Protection" album. "Magic" is a very odd, acoustic, almost wintery sounding song with haunting vocals and a very jazzy sound to it. This is a decent song on it's own but forgettable by Delerium standards. The centerpiece of this album is the nearly 10 minute epic "Eternal Odyssey". Those who are disappointed at the pop nature of this album will get a treat with this incredible track as it's a dark, very mysterious, if sometimes even scary sounding song with a highly dark ambient tone and some Middle Eastern or Asian flute playing, giving the song a haunting feel, not unlike some of the darker moments on "Karma" and "Poem". Those who are turned off by the light nature of this CD will dig this track as it has a lot of the darkness of their previous three albums. The Final closing track "Returning" I feel, is where the lighter pop elements of the album perfectly fall into place resulting in a dramatic, haunting but also highly enjoyable song with haunting vocals courtesy of Kristy Thirsk. This is a very good song to close out this CD. Upon the song title, I just hope that Delerium will be `returning' to the darker more ominous territories of "Morpheus" and "Semantic Spaces" on their next outing.

Now for the two bonus tracks:

The first bonus track "Stopwatch Hearts" is a beautiful orchestral song similar to "After All" but with a perkier, more celestial sound to it with the sprinkling keyboards in the background. The second bonus track is an Andrew Regus remix of the single "After All". This is a very interesting remix that makes the song more intense and more spacey than the original version on the regular disc. This is a good reworking of the song but becomes a bit redundant towards the ending.

I feel that while this may not be among the bands strongest albums, the negative reviews are a bit harsh and unconstructive. Even though it's a step down from "Poem", it's still a very good platter of music, despite a couple of sub par tracks. Hopefully, they will return to their darker, more ominous roots with their next outing.

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