| re: NCJ: New Nightwish album out real soon! | |
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Posted by: |
nholland 08:57 am UTC 03/27/15 |
| In reply to: | re: NCJ: New Nightwish album out real soon! - bellminer 12:03 am UTC 03/26/15 |
| > I'm seeing Nightwish live in a couple weeks. Can't wait! I'm sure you will enjoy their show, especially with Floor Jansen doing the vocals! Now, the new album is out today, and of course right at midnight, I was probably among the first to check out the music download store of Amazon.de in order to see if the album can already be purchased. Indeed, it could, so I bought it, and what followed were two full turns listening to it. I only got to go to bed shortly after 3 am despite the fact that I had to get up again at 8 - but well, a new Nightwish album only comes along once every few years. ;-) Let me try to answer the question I raised in my original message: Is the new album better than the last one, with the last one having been my absolute favorite so far? Indeed, I think "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" - the new one - is a tiny little bit better. The only thing I had to get used to a bit was that it is, actually, a very happy album. The whole thing deals with the beauty of the world, universe, all of creation - from a scientific and not religious standpoint. That's all very noble and interesting indeed. However, what I liked most about many previous Nightwish efforts was the slight darkness and sadness / drama in their songs. We don't have too much of that on "Endless Forms Most Beautiful". Instead, it's an album of happiness, and it really, really rules on that level! The opening track, "Shudder Before The Beautiful", starts with a little spoken intro read by Richard Dawkins: "The deepest solace lies in understanding This ancient unseen stream A shudder before the beautiful" And the rest of the album beautifully continues along the lines of that quote. The second song, "Weak Fantasy", directly criticizes religion: "Fear is a choice you embrace Your only truth Tribal poetry Witchcraft filling your void Lustful fantasy Mere hypocrisy Every child worthy of a better tale" "Elan", the third song, is not so heavy and very accessible. It is also the first single and actually rather beautiful. Song number four "Yours Is An Empty Hope" is actually a bit Jim-like in the sense that Jim often writes choruses of one single line repeating over and over ... "Objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are Objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are Objects in the rear view mirror may appear closer than they are ..." ..anyone? So, this Nightwish song has a chorus that consists only of the lines: "Yours is an empty hope Yours is an empty hope" A tiny bit Jim-like! ;-) "Our Decades In The Sun", song number 5, is the obligatory slower ballad on the album. The next two songs "My Walden" and "Endless Forms Most Beatiful" are also very nice, especially with the following quote from "My Walden": "I do not wish to evade the world Yet I will forever build my own" Then comes "Edema Ruh", which I somehow found especially beautiful. The chorus "We are the Edema Ruh 2e know the songs the sirens sang Sea of stream, every tale true As we leave with you, we'll take you home" is an especially beautiful one on this album! Next, you'll find "Alpenglow", a catchy upbeat song and "The Eyes Of Sharbat Gula", a very nice instrumental track, before you reach "The Greatest Show On Earth". This track is 24 minutes long. In length, it beats any previously released Nightwish song and I guess also anything Jim has ever done. However, it's not a constantly sung-through track - there's a lot of instrumental sections and spoken parts. Hard to describe it all, but very beautiful and atmospheric! At the very end, the song and thus the album closes with the following quote from Charles Darwin: "There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." All in all, a really extraordinary, creative, beautiful and happy album. Heavy as could be expected from Nightwish. Nice orchestral work is there too. I can only recommend everyone to have a listen! If you live in Europe, you can already grab your copy today. In other countries, you might have to wait until the 31st of March. I'm rather sure you won't regret giving this stuff a spin, at least I'm totally hooked! :-) | |
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