Enigma

Le Roi Est Mort Vive Le Roi

Highly Recommended

Review Score:

(10/10)
I found this cd an absolute joy to listen to when I first bought it, and it never left my CD player for a good 3 months. Enigma retained much of the contemplative ambiance that made it's music famous with it's 1990 release MCMXC A.D., yet still managed to further vary it's influences from Gregorian chants to Mideastern and even Asian influences. It's a comfortable departure from MCMXC A.D. and Cross of Changes, but not such a drastic change as to warrant a totally new audience.

To merely classify this as good background music for easy listeners doesn't really give the album ,or Enigma, for that matter, justice. Such a statement amounts to stating Beethoven's 5th symphony would make a good theme for a sit- com.

The tone and mood of the songs ranges from the seductive yet fast paced "T.N.T. for the Brain" to the slow flowing, contemplative "Morphing through Time", to the nostalgic, almost eulogic and beutifully performed "Child Within Us." "Child Within Us." is my personal favorite and makes me shed a tear with it's nostalgic style. It can best be described as a eulogy for the lost innocence of childhood. That song alone is worth the entire cost of the album.

There is no song on this album that I dislike. Each one is expertly performed and mixed, and there are a great many gems on this album.

But then, what else can one expect from the man who thrust New Age into the spotlight with a commentary about the Marquis de Sade sung entirely in French which he sold to an American audience?

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