Enigma - Enigma - Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits
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Free Music Notes for Enigma - Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits
Free Music Review: The stuff dreams are made of...
Hit: 5 Stars
Ah. Enigma. Savor the word. Feel it flow off your tongue. Rarely does a musician choose such a captivating alias, yet alone one that so perfectly describes the intricate music laying underneath. With this greatest hits release Love Sensuality Devotion we are taken into the mysterious world of Michael Cretu, via 18 sensational tracks laced with beauty and rinsed in atmosphere. Think of a beautiful painting, the kind that forces you to stare for minutes on end. Now imagine this painting being transformed into a song, and you should have some sort of idea as what to expect from this mastermind. Mixing dancepop beats with Gregorian chants, a diverse range of synths, and gorgeous female vocals placed here and there, Cretu never hides his love for artistic experimentation - which makes Enigma's success all the more interesting, given all the tasteless musical trends that have emerged over the past decade and a half. Perhaps it's that such hits as "Return to Innocence" and "Sadeness Pt. 1" are just so darn addictive. Who knows? But why complain?
Production-wise, the album fails on no level. It is obvious which songs have been remastered and which have been left untampered with, but they all sound great in the long run. From the calm tenderness of "Shadows in Silence" to the catchy atmo-synth of "TNT for the Brain", you will be left speechlessly dazed and entranced (especially after multiple listens, which are required for full musical comprehension). Other hits like the epic "I Love You...I'll Kill You" complete with blaring guitars, or the infectious "Turn Around" - a song exclusively written for this record - are also essentials. My personal favorite track is number 3, "Gravity of Love", fronted by angelic female singing, rounded out by an ethereal chorus and some rather enchanting operatic vocals. Actually, since there are no weak tracks to be found, the album flows pretty darn well too - a big plus in my book, especially for "best of" releases which are often muddled by poor organization.
In conclusion, LSD is an essential, comprised of pure new age classics, fit for any and all CD collections built on the foundation of good music (aka music with substance). Don't let yourself miss out on such an incredible masterpiece - you'd only be mistreating yourself. Don't believe me? Well, I'll sum this CD up in three words - find, grab, buy!
10/10
[Originally written August 1, 2005]
Free Music Review: One of the most devoted artists in the field
Hit: 5 Stars
I wrote this three and a half years ago as a 15 year old on a different amazon profile that i am deleting. here is my two cents. I didn't realize then since I was a very naive boy, but the acronym for the title of this album is (and not accidently) LSD. Yes, this album is sonic Lysergic Acid. Or THC, you pick.
Spirituality enhancing music has never been as entrancing and alluring in the history of music. Never have I been so at one and felt so at home with music as I have been with this lush comilation of Enigma's Phase One (first four albums) greatest hits. Almost all of Michael Cretu's music should be on this cd because his music is so inspiring...it takes you on a mind altering journey through sound from which you may wish never to return, simply because of its fresh, pure musical taste.
Many of the tracks that made it on this cd are there because they were on the top of the charts. Not all of them are necesarily his absolute best...I wish songs like "Between Mind and Heart" and "Callas Went Away" were here, but the exclusion of those songs doesn't deteriorate the value. Even if Curly M.C. wanted to put more tracks on his Greatest Hits, he would have had to opt for a second disc because....theres already 74 minutes of pure heaven on the single disc. Anyway, explaining M.C.'s unique vision of music is next to impossible to explain; the songs are a mix of rhythmic beats, breathy vocals, synthed orchestration, and mystical lyrics, which are refrences to the Bible in some parts. Sampling the music is the only way to discover the beauty. Languages include Latin, French, and English. The quality of the synthesized sounds sound like they could have been made yesterday, which is an example of the talent and effort put into every Enigma cd.
Now I may sound like a paid advertiser for Enigma, but I am in reality a very down to earth guy. So I tell it like it is. This review is no exeption. The samples so kindly provided by Amazon above are not the best...M.C. likes to launch each of his cds with slow orchestrations, and then he picks up the pace with the third track. Really, only allowing thirty seconds of sampling doesn't quite do the cd justice. To become absorbed into a piece, you have to listen to the whole thing.
please, dont illegally download music if you do....it hurts the artist from which you are stealing.
Free Music Review: An almost perfect retrospective of Enigmas catalog
Hit: 5 Stars
Enigma has never failed to amaze me with their mix of New age, Club, and rock. They are probably the only group who have not put out one bad song in my opinion. MCMXC had a very dark, Gothic feel. MCMXC to me is probably their best album even to this day after all these years. Sadeness mixed the use of Gregorian Chants, club beat and New Age to create one of the best New Age songs I,ve ever heard.
The follow-up CROSS OF CHANGES was almost completely different with a much brighter sound and less of the Gregorian Chants and instead incorporated some Native American and Maori chants. Return To Innocence is almost totally opposite to Sadeness because Innocence is very sunny where Sadeness was very dark.
LE MOR EST MORT VIVE LE ROI! was like the child of the two previous albums with the brightness of CROSS mixed in with the Gregorian sounds of MCMXC and with some new sounds that resulted in an album with a sort of aquatic sound. Child In Us is the best song on the CD. I almost call it the daytime version of Sadeness.
SCREEN BEHIND THE MIRROR is completely different from CROSS or LE ROI EST MORT. It had a much more sultry industrial medieval sound. I almost compare it more to MCMXC. The title track borrowed the drum loop from Sadeness.
This collection of songs from each of those albums showcases among some of the best works Cretu has ever come up with plus the songs still blend well even though they are from different albums. I never thought Mea Culpa could blend well into Push The Limits.
The big bonus to this CD that makes it stand out so well from other Greatest Hits CDs is the remixing of some of the tracks to give them a totally different feel. TNT for the Brain on it's parent album has a relatively poppish sound. The version on here, The Midnight Man Mix has a much darker, more ambient, sound and sounds far superior to the original. The same goes for Principles of Lust. It's the remixing of some of the hits or singles that makes some greatest hits so wonderful(Madonnas Immaculate Collection is an example).
There are two new tracks, The Landing and Turn Around neither of which catch you immediately like their older stuff.
[This] is a worthy collection. Believe me it's worth owning just for the remix of TNT for the Brain and the whole disc runs at over 76 minutes.
Free Music Review: I Love This, I feel Sensual and am wholly Devoted to It
Hit: 5 Stars
Spirituality enhancing music has never been as entrancing and alluring in the history of music. Never have I been so at one and felt so at home with music as I have been with this lush comilation of Enigma's Phase One (first four albums) greatest hits. Almost all of Michael Cretu's music should be on this cd because his music is so inspiring...it takes you on a mind altering journey through sound from which you may wish never to return, simply because of its fresh, pure musical taste. Many of the tracks that made it on this cd are there because they were on the top of the charts. Not all of them are necesarily his absolute best...I wish songs like "Between Mind and Heart" and "Callas Went Away" were here, but the exclusion of those songs doesn't deteriorate the value. Even if Curly M.C. wanted to put more tracks on his Greatest Hits, he would have had to opt for a second disc because....theres already 74 minutes of pure heaven on the single disc. Anyway, explaining M.C.'s unique vision of music is next to impossible to explain; the songs are a mix of rhythmic beats, breathy vocals, synthed orchestration, and mystical lyrics, which are refrences to the Bible in some parts. Sampling the music is the only way to discover the beauty. Languages include Latin, French, and English. The quality of the synthesized sounds sound like they could have been made yesterday, which is an example of the talent and effort put into every Enigma cd.
Now I may sound like a paid advertiser for Enigma, but I am in reality a very down to earth guy. So I tell it like it is. This review is no exeption. The samples so kindly provided by Amazon above are not the best...M.C. likes to launch each of his cds with slow orchestrations, and then he picks up the pace with the third track. Really, only allowing thirty seconds of sampling doesn't quite do the cd justice. To become absorbed into a piece, you have to listen to the whole thing.
please, dont illegally download music if you do....it hurts the artist from which you are stealing.
Free Music Review: Love - Sensuality - Devotion
Hit: 5 Stars
Look back at the history of Enigma. It did something no one else did. It was something nothing else could be. It changed the way we looked at pop music. With Enigma's first album, MCMXC a.D., Enigma took hip-hop / dance floor beats, and melded them with Gregorian chants, which resulted in such #1 hits as Sadeness and Mea Culpa. The reason for the success of the album is that these songs were different. They were original. They took chances. Enigma had been born.
With Enigma's 2nd album, The Cross of Changes, Michael Cretu (Engima's mastermind) took a much poppier sound than the previous album, and infused it with ethnic chants from around the world, which resulted in hits such as Return to Innocence and I Love You, I'll Kill You.
Enigma's third album, Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi, marked the 'end of a chapter' to Cretu. Enigma took the elements that made the first two albums so successful, and combined them, while adding in the voice of Cretu himself. This resulted in a more laid back, relxaing, yet captivating 'look at life', says the German composer.
Enigma's latest album, The Screen Behind the Mirror, used samples of Carl Orff's famous opera Carmina Burana, namely O Fortuna, perhaps the most well known work of Orff's. Enigma blended this with slow and fast electronic beats, and gave the songs a bit more of a 'rock edge', to create what is perhaps the best Enigma work to date.
Now, along with the release of a brand new single, Turn Around, Michael Cretu has released Love - Sensuality - Devotion (LSD), a compilation that reflects his 'memory of the future'. Taking from the first four Enigma works 15 tracks, and adding in a new introduction and Turn Around, LSD is a must have for anyone who likes music in general. There is such a wide variety of music in this compilation, yet many people have not heard Enigma before.
This compilation marks the end of the 1st world of Enigma. But Cretu assures as that there will be another world - he won't be out of ideas for a long, long while.