Enigma - Seven Lives Many Faces (2 CDs)
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Free Music Notes for Seven Lives Many Faces (2 CDs)
Free Music Review: More of the same...and thats good!
Hit: 4 Stars
If you thought Enigma was at their best with the first couple of releases, you will like this. Yes, it is the same old Enigma, but that's good!Free Music Review: The Many Faces of Enigma
Hit: 3 Stars
Enigma is back with their seventh foray into the pop ambient movement that began with their pioneering 1990 debut album aptly titled MCMXC A.D. which artistically infused Gregorian chant into neo-classical dance electronica with the hit singles Sadeness, Pt. 1 and Mea Culpa, Pt. 2 and instantly became internationally recognized trademarks spawning an entire Chant subculture movement whose motifs were further explored with ethnic cultural chant mixing on their brilliant follow-up album, 1993's The Cross of Changes and by 1996's Enigma 3: Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!, it seemed Enigma could do no wrong having dominated the 90's with their trendsetting ambient style continuing into the turn of the millennium with The Screen Behind the Mirror whose thematic operatic sampling of Carl Orff: Carmina Burana seemed destined to be integrated with Enigma's signature breakbeats which were already beginning to diminish. By 2003's Voyageur, all of the familiar choral motifs that had given an identity to such an Enigmatic visage were all but jettisoned in favor of Michael Cretu's heavy reliance on synergistic pop vocals. In 2006 Enigma made something of a return to innocence to their New Age electronica style with A Posteriori which abandoned the dominating Cretu vocals by embracing the spacey ambiance of trance. In 2008 Enigma releases the 2-disc Seven Lives Many Faces which is an extrapolation of many previous styles in their repertoire but again more of the same-old, same-old. You'll recognize many familiar trademarks beginning with the "Voice of Enigma" and ethnic vocals on tracks like "La Puerta Del Cielo" and "Between Generations" and vocals peppered sporadically throughout on tracks like the hip-hop sounding "Seven Lives" to "Distorted Love" and "J'Taime Till My Dying Day." Seven Lives, Many Faces sounds quite subdued compared to the evolutionary pioneering mixes that brought Enigma to the forefront in the 90's and it's certainly not as edgy as their earlier works. If you're hoping for a return to Enigma's glory days, you might be a bit let down but that doesn't mean that you'll be in for an altogether disappointment. The many faces behind the mirror are still unmistakably the same face.Free Music Review: Everything changes but the change.
Hit: 3 Stars
Like an uneven Stephen King novel or Ridley Scott film, Michael Cretu has yet to make a five star recording. A recording that, when you are done listening, knocks you off your feet. Each Enigma cd has one magnificent song surrounded, more or less, by average and downright boring songs. "Seven Lives Many Faces", Enigma's seventh studio cd is no different.
Michael Cretu incorporates a more urban feel to this new disc, and he has one truly ingenious moment on the second track "Seven Lives". That could be a hit. It's catchy and memorable and contemporary. Great song, and one I'd put on any Enigma compilation. The rest, well, is average at best. The other reasonably good songs are "Touchness, "The Same Parents", "La Puerta Del Cielo", "Je T'aime Till My Dying Day", "Deja Vu" and "The Language Of Sound". The rest is utterly forgettable album filler.
At that's my point. Michael Cretu is talented at what he does, but he doesn't quite push the envelope far enough. Others in his field, like Mike Oldfield and Deep Forest have been more experimental--the very thing Michael Cretu avoids. Cretu mildly blends the latest musical trends into each Enigma cd, but it just isn't enough. I prefer Enigma to have female vocalists, but Cretu seems to have minimalized this.
I want something fresh and original from Enigma. Surprise me, please, I'm dying here. What is the purpose in carrying on for another seven cds if you aren't going to do something different? Three stars for another average cd. Not terrible, not great, just ho-hum.
Free Music Review: Enter: Pop
Hit: 3 Stars
I'm writing as a longtime Enigma fan, from day one of this project, I've loved Cretu's music. My favorite album was Le Roi Est Morte, Vive Le Roi. If you're expecting a comeback to the level of genius that that album was, quit now while you're ahead. In A Posteriori, we saw a return of the style that Cretu was best at (not that Voyageur was a bad album, it was different and good but not what fans are used to). In Seven Lives, Many Faces, Cretu goes back to some unfamiliar territory. That is, pop music, influenced by other people rather than simply defining it himself. The album lacks the ongoing musical thematic elements Enigma's known for. Cretu didn't make songs, he made albums, but not true this time around.
That's a good synopsis of the first half. Pop music that's already been done. Very dated. That said, as you venture to the second half of the album, it gets stronger and stronger, especially in the instrumentals, and are definitely good ones to make love to (the real measure of an Enigma song). Possibly some of his better work. The later songs with singing are reminiscent of the Cross of Changes album. Pop ethnic ambient, one song is a Spanish Return to Innocence, another sounds like a French Dream of the Dolphin. When Cretu sings though, he just brings an eighties pop samurai sound to it. I liked his voice on Voyageur, not so much here. He lets down his hair in this one.
Free Music Review: Not the Enigma it was being made out to be
Hit: 3 Stars
Okay, i had high hopes for it and did something i don't normally do...i bought first, listened later. It doesn't retain the sound that catapalted enigma to popularity back in the day. There is "some" reminence here, but it still reminds me more of the voyageur sound...which i was also slightly disappointed with. I'm going to do all of you a big favor here though...The two main people from engima did a side project within the last year or so with another band that sounds like the old enigma many came to love. The CD is entitled "Achillea"...It is amazing. I promise you'll like this CD if you enjoyed enigmas first few CD's. I discovered by scouring forums a while back.
Anyway, is this CD worth buying? i'm not sure. I bought it, i don't regret it because it still has some gems and some decent sounds, but i was disappointed....and WTH was up with Track 6 "Hell's Heaven" There are some HORRID sounds placed into that song that do nothing to help the beat or overall feel of the song...If that was Hell's Heaven would sound like...then i never want to visit such a place even more so.
i really miss some of their old instrumentals...especially the one that starred in engima's "Sadness" track