Ah,
love! Thank you Nightwish for not being dead to me, thank you for making
beautiful music once more and for giving me the chills once more. After
Storytime (which I absolutely detested), I expected nothing good from this
album, so now that I listen to it, I'm not head over hills for it and I won't
pretend it's like nothing I've ever heard, that it's amazing, incredible,
fantastic or anything, but I really really like it. It's fresh and pleasant and
while there are a bit too many ballads, I like them all. They're nice to listen
to and there are some really uplifting moments that remind me why I love
Nightwish. So all in all, it's a very pleasant surprise and I'm glad they
showed me they still have it in them. I like that for the most part it's not
overdone and over-drowned, they added some really nice things without putting
too much together and being too bombastic (I'm so happy they avoided their
"too much" tendency in this one, they have a gift of making simple
music sound beautiful and pure and fresh, thank God they remembered that talent
of theirs).
Even
Anette is ok. She still sounds like a tortured cat to my ears once she goes
past a certain height, but fortunately she doesn't pass it too often. I'm
absolutely thrilled they used her lower register more, she's way better like
that and for the most part I don't mind her singing at all (there are even
parts when I actually like it). She still makes me cringe sometimes, but it's
rare enough.
Taikatalvi
– the instrumental is so sweet and gentle, I love the music-box sound and the
choir and of course there’s Marco. It’s a beautiful and uplifting song and the
instrumental is gorgeous. I also like the cut to Storytime (if only I’d like Storytime
too…)
Storytime
– it has a nice intro, but then those terrible repetitive riffs that haven’t
changed since the beginning of their career enter, and then Anette with her
screechy voice enters (when she says “every memory”, I die, why can’t she
always sing like she sings “searching heavens for another earth”?) and then I
skip the song. No seriously, the melodic line of both the verse and choirs is
actually nice, but Anette’s voice and the background instrumental ruin it for
me. The lyrics are interesting too and I like the bridge (even though it sounds
way too much like Sahara), but to get
to it, I have to go through the mayhem of the rest of the song. And the ending
vocalizing… oh God, please stop.
Ghost River –
the intro is very old school heavy metal, could it be that they’ve finally
learned that the use of a guitar is not to make the same distorted “we’re so
heavy” irritating sound over and over again? I’m not the one to freak out if
there aren’t any “metal” guitars in a song or even on whole album, but if
you’re going to use them, use them well. If not, start an acoustic band :P And
then Anette starts singing and I die a little bit inside once more. I detest
her high voice with a passion. Thank God there’s so little of it on this album.
Again the bouncy bouncy Amaranth
rhythm, which fits the song… absolutely no way at all. It’s about the river
taking your only child down down down and I suppose it’s meant to be the sort
of Tim Burton creepy yet colourful and funky, but it’s weird to have those
lyrics together with the bounciness. I love the instrumental and the children
choir, it’s very epic and I can already picture the movie that goes with it.
And it’s catchy.
Slow love slow
- I don’t have much to say about this song, except that it’s great and that
I’ve been singing it for ages after I first listened to it. I love the melody,
the instrumental, the atmosphere, the way Anette sings (hats off to her, she’s
pretty versatile and seems to fit very well in everything that’s not typically Nightwish),
the guitar solo, the growing of the song, the tic-tac at the end, everything except
for the vocalising. What can I say, I don’t like it when people vocalise
(especially Anette). Anyway, it’s awesome and I can’t believe Nightwish did it.
When they kept talking about the jazzy song, I expected a slight touch of jazz
like a sax (and by that I mean *just* a sax), but they outdid themselves with
this.
I want my tears back
– the most terrible beginning of a song ever. That bass & guitar riff I
detest and singing “I want my tears back” like he’s saying “let’s go to a
party”…. *cringes* I was tempted to skip it, but I’m glad I didn’t because the Irish
instrumental is soooo pretty (I’m such a sucker for Irish music). I kinda like the
song overall because it’s so happy and bouncy and a good-mood giver, especially
the chorus and the instrumental, but for crying out loud, it’s about regret, it
shouldn’t be so happy! Aaaand just after the second chorus, around minute 3
someone seems to have channelled his inner Steve Harris. That sounds way too
much like Dance of death from Maiden.
Anyway, since it’s Irish and bouncy and pretty I’m happy with it. Even if the
rest of the instrumental is so simple and repetitive…
Scaretale
– I know a lot of people consider it very creepy, but I don’t see the
creepiness in this song, for me it’s more of a fun song, where Anette is
playing the wicked witch and Marco the evil circus owner and all is in good
humour. Ok, the beginning is creepy and then very epic (I’m so in love with the
epicness of this album, it all sounds like a massive soundtrack and even if
it’s already been done by dozens of film/game score writers, I love it), but
after that it makes me think of a comedy about a horror house and not of a scary
movie about the horror house. I think it’s meant to be Tim Burton-esque again
and not traditionally creepy and scary and I like it better that way. I like
the way they’re all playing on this album. It’s by far the most varied and
experimental thing they’ve done, I admire them for stepping out of their
comfort zone, especially since they were starting to limit themselves with the
more “traditional” things they were doing.
Arabesque
– again the epicness! I have no idea how this fits in with the rest of album
and it reminds me of a lot of other things, but overall it sounds really good
and I like it and that’s all that matters. I don’t think that’s the weakest
song of the album at all as the general opinion seems to be (and it’s not just
because I’m saving that title for Storytime, which is the only actually bad
song of the album if you ask me).
Turn loose the mermaids
– every time I read this title I couldn’t help but think of My Dying Bride’s Turn loose the swans. But beyond the
cheesy cheesy title, it’s such a pretty ballad. And Anette has a pretty and
warm voice when she’s singing low and calmly like that. It reminds me of
something I used to listen when I was little. I don’t know what it is, but it’s
so dreamy and it gives me such a pleasant uplifting feeling. That’s how an
orchestra should be used, not the bam-here-bam-there-bam-all-over-the-place Poet style. I like they’re using the Irish
touch more and more, there can never be enough Irish music in the world.
Rest Calm
– if that’s a My Dying Bride-type funeral march, I’ll eat my shoe! But it
shouldn’t have to be, because it’s a good enough song on its own feet and I
have no idea why they had to market it like that. Again with the infamous riff!
Also, I don’t like how the words flow (I noticed this in a lot of songs on this
album), they don’t naturally fit the music, they’re a bit forced in there and
there are some weird pronunciations in order for them to fit the rhythm. I
don’t really like the cut from the first part to the “every little memory”
part, it’s too sudden, but the “every little memory” chorus is so pretty I
quickly forget I didn’t like the cut. Especially when the children sing it*love*
Also,
I don’t think I mentioned enough times how much I adore Marco and his voice, so
now’s the time to do it. And Anette makes a really good duo with him. Except
when she vocalises, please please please stop doing that. Everything was so
gentle and sweet and then there’s the noise again and the overused orchestra
again. Not DPP high, but still, enough to break the pleasant feeling.
The Crow, the owl and the dove
– oh the love!!! I adore this song, it’s the best of the album and I can’t get
enough of it. It’s so pretty and gentle and sweet and beautiful and soft and
yet uplifting and gorgeous! I especially adore the “a swan of white” part, it’s
so moving and powerful! I’m not too fond of Troy’s bridge, it’s a bit
anti-climatic, breaking the growing feeling of the previous bridge, but then
there’s the Irish instrumental and all is right in the world again. And the
lyrics are simply beautiful and everything is so soft and gentle and I’m going
over the same adjectives all over again because this is too beautiful to
explain through words.
Last ride of the day
– ah the epic choir!!! It reminds me a bit of Dark Chest of Wonders. It even has the staccato on the first
verses. It’s bouncy and catchy, but I can’t stand Anette’s high vocals, they
still make me cringe. I’m glad they discovered the use of guitars for solos and
not just for a background noise and I like the power in it (it the song, not
the guitar), but overall, it’s one of the least memorable songs of the album.
Song of myself
– I expected this song to not be about explicitly about Tuomas (you know, the Poet style), but more about the self of
humans in general and it seems I was right. The “All that great heart lying
still” sequence is awesome, it’s powerful and epic and even though Anette sings
high, she’s not being screechy anymore, I can finally hear the power and aggressiveness
in her voice. And I like the vibrato she uses on the end of the verse. Then the
“Piano black” is good too, but it reminds me soooo much of another Nightwish
song, though I can’t put my finger on it. And then there’s the poem... It’s
music, it’s not supposed to have spoken words in it. Or if you want a nice
touch, use only a few words, not enough to occupy half of the song. I may have
bad attention span, but it bores me. It’s too long and it stops the epicness
and power of the rest of the song like a nut in a wall. Not to mention it’s
infinitely cheesy and cringy. An old man gets naked and kisses his doll? Thank
you for that image.... And how in the world does going to dinner alone make her
more beautiful? It sounds more like pity to me instead of the „have love for
everyone and stop judging” message I suppose it was meant to be. The second
part has better verses and the background instrumental is nice, but still....
way too long, a nice touch is supposed to be just this, a touch. There are some
beautiful messages, like the one about the child going to play instead of work
or about not saying I know how you feel”, but they get drowned in a sea of cliches
and it’s simply too much. And then there’s nothing more at the end. I kept
expecting it to burst into something beautiful and majestic like in Dead Boy’s Poem. There’s a crescendo in
the instrumental and then you find it goes nowhere... Anti-climatic again.
Imaginaerum
– I love the rendition of the major themes of each song, how it starts with Taikatalvi, then continues with Storytime, then Ghost river and Scaretale
and the rest… It’s a gorgeous and inspiring instrumental interpretation. For
most of the album I could only think of the atmosphere of a pure and epic
story-like almost fairytale movie, like Edward Scissorhands for example, and
this is a perfect nice remembering of the whole journey this album was.
*this review was originally posted on the official Nightwish forum
*this review was originally posted on the official Nightwish forum
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