I listened to the Ancient Land album on Spotify!
Here are some of my thoughts on the digital album.
--- SPOILER WARNING ---.
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Track-by-Track1.
Ancient LandThe album opens with catchy, rolling, medium-tempo jig led by Tara. Celtic Woman has opened with some 'bigger' numbers in the past. But although this isn't as spectacular as "The Sky And The Dawn And The Sun" or "Awakening" it creates anticipation and it's effective at setting the tone of the album. It has a mysterious, almost mystic air about it. The vocal arrangement almost seemed to spread and surround me like a mist (ironically well-suited to the mist that descended during the second night of the DVD recording). Even though it's technically a group song (it was during the DVD recording anyways), it sounds on the album a bit like it's a Tara solo with some choir backing. I'll elaborate a bit more on that later.
2.
HomelandOne of my favourites from the Homecoming Tour. It's a fun, warm, catchy song that also makes excellent use of the group's full range of harmony. You can hear and appreciate each of the girls' parts during this song, even during the harmonies. This song is really fun to sing along to! I'm so used to listening to Susan's voice that it did sound a bit weird for a moment when I first heard Megan singing. But I got over that pretty quickly and started loving it! Megan's voice blends quite well with Mairead and Eabha.
3.
Moorlough Shore (Eabha)
Pronounced a bit like Moor-lock / Moore-lock, this mournful, slow-tempo song is one in which Eabha gets to show off her trademark flourishes. The backing instrumentals have a soothing quality. The song starts with a very traditional sound, reminiscent of sean-nos or an Anuna arrangement and eventually evolves into a pop song.
4.
Follow MeThis song picks the tempo back up and combines English verses with an Irish chorus. This song is of the 'head-bobber / toe-tapper' variety. The percussion and melody give this song a sort of tribal feel. Parts of this reminded me of 'Victory Celebration' from the end of the special edition of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
5.
County Down (Mairead Carlin)
This pop song has a pretty, sweeping melody and beautiful turns. Mairead Carlin's soft and utterly gorgeous voice is a perfect fit for this arrangement. The instrumental backing, especially the whistle in the instrumental bridge are among the finest expressions of Gavin Murphy's brand of genius.
6.
Love & Honour (Tara)
A pretty, but sad song. The melody has oriental undertones. There's a moment during the song when there's some low, thumping percussion which creates an effect like a heartbeat. Portions of the song are reminiscent of For the Love of a Princess. There are moments where pipes come surging into the song. I think Love of a Princess might be *slightly* more effective at getting an emotional reaction from the listener. In Love of a Princess, one might almost feel swept away by Tara's broad and breathtaking bow strokes. Love & Honour is a bit of a choppier arrangement, especially the second half. I don't think that gives the listener as much opportunity to get lost in the moment. It draws focus to the note changes and evokes a sense of excitement interjected with the emotion. It's an interesting juxtaposition, but I'm not sure it's the optimal way to achieve a tear-jerker. Tara plays this so beautifully though that I'm sure that some tears will flow during her performances.
7.
Mná Na hÉireann (Women Of Ireland)
This is a medium-slow tempo song, performed in Irish. The design of the harmony is complex is quite intriguing. I really like it! Both the solo and harmony parts have an almost hypnotic quality. The analogy of a siren doesn't quite fit with the lyrics, but it's the sort of imagery this song evoked for me. Hmm, Irish ladies enchanting us with their irresistible musical talents.
Sounds like we may know a few such Women of Ireland.
8.
SiveThis medium-tempo song, performed in Irish, is another fun head-bobber. It's a tweaked arrangement of Sadhbh Ni Bhruinneallaigh, with a cheerful instrumental opening. When the liner notes are released with the CD, it will be interesting to see if Eabha is the one playing the tin whistle. The backing instrumentals don't seem to fancy at first, but it does an excellent job of supporting the singers and adding flavour. The arrangements on this album don't have big orchestration, but there's a lot of subtle genius to appreciate.
9.
Shenandoah (Megan)
The song is arranged as a medium-slow vocal arrangement with light instrumental backing. The arrangement has several nice aspects and I like the way Megan performs it. It's a nice arrangement, but I think there was a little left on the table. I wasn't disappointed in it by any stretch, but I wasn't really amazed either and I should be amazed, because Megan is an amazing singer.
To elaborate, let me compare this version with the one that Eabha, Mairead, Glenn, and Ronan performed on YouTube a while back. The harmony in that cover was absolutely gorgeous, jaw-droppingly so. The arrangement on Ancient Land arrangement was pretty but it definitely didn't have the same wow factor as the harmony cover on YouTube.
Perhaps a bit more of a sweeping flow to the arrangement and a subtle echo for Megan's voice would have helped carry along the listener, allowing them to be swept away by Megan's lovely voice. I know some people will absolutely love it just the way it is too. More thoughts on this later on in the review.
All that said, while the song didn't show off Megan's awesome power, it did allow her to express the gentle beauty in her repertoire. Furthermore, having Megan belt out a verse of Shenandoah wouldn't have fit well with the rest of the album. The first time I heard it, I wasn't sure what to think. But the more I listen to it, the move I love it.
Let me make one thing clear too: Megan sounds amazing!
I'm sure will get to hear her dazzling high notes soon on tour.
10.
Long Journey HomeI really love this song and next to Homeland, this may have been my favourite group song on the Homecoming tour. The lyrics are powerful and like Homeland, this song makes clever and effective use of harmony. Of all the group songs on the Homecoming tour and the Ancient Land DVD recording, this one might have affected me the most emotionally. The melody is sooo good. The instrumental backing was simple, but so effective. The bridge with the pipes was outstanding. Every thing about the song is immensely satisfying and I absolutely love the ending, especially live!
11.
Tara's Tunes (Tara)
This is another of my favourites from the Homecoming tour. It bears some similarities in melody and progression to Across the World. I absolutely love the last tune (Hunters House), perhaps even more than the epic conclusion of Across the World. The melody hops energetically all over the place, while also rolling up and down beautifully like an Irish hillside. It's hard to resist smiling and clapping along to Tara's Tunes!
In case anyone's wondering, here are the names of the three individual Tunes in Tara's Tunes:
* Spatter the Dew
* Farewell to Ireland
* Hunters House
12.
Ae Fond Kiss (Mairead Carlin)
Another absolutely beautiful, relaxing slow song from Mairead Carlin. I'm not sure I know anyone that sings these types of songs better than her. The melody, while nice, is as perfect to my ears as County Down (Ae Font Kiss hops around a little more, whereas County Down has astonishingly beautiful flow). I know some people will like this song even more than County Down and that's fine. It is unquestionably a very nice song.
13.
Faith's Song (Megan)
A nice medium-slow tempo pop song. Megan does a fantastic job with this song! As I'll touch on a bit later, I don't think she has to blow the roof off the place to win over our hearts. This is yet another song with very nice, soothing string instrumental backing. This is the kind of song that has mainstream potential!
14.
Garden of Eden (Eabha)
This is a really good pop song, made even more special by the fact that Eabha wrote it! She performed it at the concert in New York in support of Kylemore Abbey in 2015, just before she became a member of Celtic Woman. Her voice and the arrangement have grown even more beautiful since then. It has an engaging beat, it's catchy, and it's extremely fun! This song has mainstream potential as well! I haven't decided on my favourite track for this album yet, but this definitely a top contender. Well done Eabha. I like a lot of Gavin Murphy's arrangements on this album but of all his brilliant work, this might be my favourite. <3
15.
Be StillOne of the shortest songs Celtic Woman has ever done (I think Hush Little Baby was the shortest). This is a really beautiful slow song with excellent harmony! I'm not sure if this was the intent, but the fact that the song is so short, made me cherish and appreciate every moment of it even more. I love it! <3
16.
Going HomeThe last song on the digital version of the album is another favourite from the Homecoming Tour. This was soooooooo epic live at Johnstown Castle! They did manage to capture some of that feeling on the album in the bagpipe bridge.
Like Long Journey Home, this song has moments of really satisfying harmony and like it did live at the castle, it made me feel sad that the experience was almost over ... that I would have to leave their beautiful and Ancient Land and go home to mine. While I love my country, there will never be be another experience that will touch me like my trip to Ireland and the time I saw my favourite group in the world perform at a beautiful castle. I think a piece of my heart stayed there in Ireland with them after hearing this song live and hearing it again on the album brings back a lot of amazing memories I'll cherish forever. <3 <3 <3 <3
Comparisons with Voices of Angels and Destiny:For some reason, my mind wants to compare this album to Voices of Angels and Destiny, which were quite different albums.
For the most part Ancient Land has much lighter orchestration than Voices of Angels. It's a sound reminiscent of Destiny, with some moments of 'bigger' sound that Destiny didn't have. This album (like Destiny), has a much more Irish flavour than Voices of Angels did and has a down-to-earth, traditional feel. Ancient Land is without question more like Destiny than any of the preceding Celtic Woman albums.
Voices of Angels made a point of incorporating powerful orchestration and percussion to achieve an epic sound. When I listened to Voices of Angels for the first time, there were a lot of jaw-dropping moments and I could barely stay in my seat I was so excited. Ancient Land is a different album than Voices of Angels. But what it conceded in terms of spectacular power and sheer exhilaration, it made up for in beauty.
One critique I have of both Ancient Land and Voices and Angels is that in several instances, the backing instrumentals seemed unnecessarily overbalanced, to the point where the girls sounded like they were just singing backing vocals to the instruments. That seemed most noticeable to me in the tracks 'Ancient Land,' 'Follow Me,' and 'Long Journey Home' to name a few. It didn't seem that imbalanced live at the DVD recording. I don't know of if that was a conscious decision made during mixing (or whatever process regulates the volumes of the different sources of sound). I still have a bit of a cold, so it's possible that parts of the sound spectrum are getting muffled more than others, so I'll re-evaluate in a couple of weeks, but it definitely seemed like they dampened some of the vocal parts for the album compared to the instruments.
Megan:Megan has a warm and soothing voice and she blends in really well with the other girls. It only took me a moment to get used to her sound in place of Susan's familiar voice. I was really hoping they would let Megan show off the full power of her voice in one of her solos to help fans fall immediately in love with her. They didn't fully unleash the power of her voice in this album, but they don't often do that with any of the girls in their solo parts. I think they used her pretty effectively and the beauty of her voice definitely came across on the album.
The more I think about it, there's plenty to love about her voice in this album even though she isn't going into 'Meav mode' with spectacular high notes in her solos. I worry sometimes when new girls join the group that people won't appreciate how amazing the new girl is unless they really let her show off her full range and power right away. A little part of me is always afraid that people will just think: "she's ok, but nothing special." Us devoted fans of course know that Megan is very special. But how sad would it be if fans missed out on appreciating her voice just because Celtic Woman didn't let Megan do enough to show herself off in her debut album with the group.
EDIT: Maybe the choice to have her sing pop songs instead of showing off her classical range and power was a wise one. Megan's voice has soothing beauty to it, but it's also filled with reassuring strength. The style of her solos on the album uses those qualities in her voice. So even if the album doesn't showcase all the astonishing things her voice is capable of, she is a pleasure to listen to.Reaction?I'm a bit curious to see how the average fans will react to Ancient Land. I'm certain there will be the usual "where's Lisa and Chloë," "what happened to David Downes" and "it's just not the same" nonsense. Some people won't give it a chance and will miss out on this beautiful music. That's their loss. What I'm most curious about though is what fans will think of the softer sound (including the lack of strong orchestra backing). That was one of the criticisms some people had of Destiny.
I'm also curious how the critics and fellow musicians will react. This album shares a lot of the same qualities as Destiny. I think Destiny got a big boost in attention during Grammy Nominations because its release coincided with the Easter Rising centenary. I don't know if Ancient Land will get nominated or not. It's certainly a great album from a musical and cultural standpoint, but that's not always enough to get it the attention and recognition it deserves.
Overall:I loved Ancient Land and every time I listen to it, I find myself adoring it even more! There weren't really any songs I didn't like, even though I did think they could have done some things (including the Shenandoah arrangement) even better. I don't think the instrumental volume overpowering the singers at certain points is too big a deal (I hope it isn't for other people either). Overall this is going to be a nice relaxing album for a lot of people. The harmony is great and it has a good balance of rousing, fun songs and slow, enchanting songs. Hopefully other fans enjoy the album at least as much as I do. Thanks for another great album, Celtic Woman!
Addendum: Ancient Land CD
Cover and Liner Notes:Now that the album is finally in my hands, I'll write what I thought the moment I saw this album cover artwork while in Ireland: this is my favourite Celtic Woman album cover of all time! The colours are great and the picture of the castle just brings it to a whole new level of epic, given that I was there. The artwork has a warm, somehow soothing quality to it. The pictures of our ladies on the inside of the booklet look gorgeous and they really pop!
Some of the text on the inside of the booklet was a little tricky to see in places where there was dark text against a dark background, but how often am I going to need to read those sections of the liner notes? It's not a big deal at all.
Caroline Nesbitt did the liner artwork / design in case anyone was wondering.
CD Bonus TracksThe CD version of the album had two bonus tracks compared to the digital version:
The Enchanted Way
Ballroom of Romance
Ballroom of Romance was from the Homecoming Tour and The Enchanted Way was a new song.
Both songs did a fantastic job of projecting fun and energy!
These two additional songs actually add quite a bit to the album. The digital album had a soft sound overall. With these two extra songs, the album now has a lot of upbeat numbers, adding more balance to its remarkable variety:
- Homeland
- Follow Me
- Tara's Tunes
- Garden of Eden
- The Enchanted Way
- Ballroom of Romance
The two bonus songs are top notch and it is definitely worth getting the CD to hear them!
Overall ImpressionI never thought I would say this but for me, this album is in a dead head heat right now with A New Journey as my favourite album ever! It's certainly top 2 if not alone at the top.
There's so many new songs to fall in love with. It has some really beautiful slow songs and lots of songs with great energy too!
If you haven't heard "The Enchanted Way" or "The Ballroom of Romance" (the two bonus tracks from the CD), I think you'll love them. They're so much fun!
For those getting the album (and those that have already received it), look at the liner notes. There was something in there that was so beautiful I almost cried. I hope what Mairead said at the show on night 1 makes it to the DVD, I really do. <3
I hope you enjoy, everyone! The girls are so proud of this album and they should be. In my opinion, it's some of Celtic Woman's most beautiful work.
<3 <3 <3 <3
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... that makes me even MORE impressed with their live sound!
but for those who aren't:
