Album Review
Jan. 6th, 2008 10:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tj_dragonbladeAlbum Review
Tarja Turunen - My Winter Storm
Tarja's first solo effort since her split from Nightwish makes for an interesting listen. Overall it's sort of a goth-accented pop/metal blend with a heavy classical flavor, and it's equally hit-or-miss. I really like about half of the songs, and I'm relatively apathetic about the other half. It's a good showcase for the cold-dignified beauty of her voice, however, and is worth listening to in its entirety at least once. It's more soft than not, provided you steer clear of 'Ciaran's Well' (which is unpleasantly reminiscent of some of my least-favorite Nightwish songs, to my ear). The only real complaint I have with it, actually, is that the instrumental bits between songs that make the one flow into the other are tracked out as separate tracks, when it would make more sense to my ear if the previous track had ended partway into the 'interlude' and the next track started at that same point. And (odd as it is for me to say this) the bass might actually be a bit over-produced, and could benefit from being tweaked back a touch. But. Those are minor things, and not really about the music of it.
'I Walk Alone' is probably my personal favorite track, a lovely slow- to mid-tempo thing that sounds as if it's slated for single-success. I'm also quite fond of 'Oasis', a primarily-instrumental piece where the sparse vocals are all in what I'll guess is Finnish. 'Sing For Me' is a lovely, less-metal piece with one of those insidious little melodies that creeps into the head at random moments and can play there for a little while before one even realizes it. 'Our Great Divide', 'Minor Heaven', and 'The Reign' round out the tracks I personally like best. 'Damned and Divine' is not bad, though the 'Damned Vampires & Gothic Divine' version suits my ear better. And then there's her cover of Alice Cooper's 'Poison', which...well, it's certainly got some OMG value to it. She doesn't handle it badly at all, but it's just that...it's not entirely suited to her style, I don't think. Of course, it might just be the Alice fan in me that says that. ^_^;
So yes. Decent album overall, and conducive to wistful-melancholy sorts of moods. Nightwish fans especially will probably want to pick this one up, particularly if they're missing Tarja terribly on Dark Passion Play. ^_^
Tarja Turunen - My Winter Storm
Tarja's first solo effort since her split from Nightwish makes for an interesting listen. Overall it's sort of a goth-accented pop/metal blend with a heavy classical flavor, and it's equally hit-or-miss. I really like about half of the songs, and I'm relatively apathetic about the other half. It's a good showcase for the cold-dignified beauty of her voice, however, and is worth listening to in its entirety at least once. It's more soft than not, provided you steer clear of 'Ciaran's Well' (which is unpleasantly reminiscent of some of my least-favorite Nightwish songs, to my ear). The only real complaint I have with it, actually, is that the instrumental bits between songs that make the one flow into the other are tracked out as separate tracks, when it would make more sense to my ear if the previous track had ended partway into the 'interlude' and the next track started at that same point. And (odd as it is for me to say this) the bass might actually be a bit over-produced, and could benefit from being tweaked back a touch. But. Those are minor things, and not really about the music of it.
'I Walk Alone' is probably my personal favorite track, a lovely slow- to mid-tempo thing that sounds as if it's slated for single-success. I'm also quite fond of 'Oasis', a primarily-instrumental piece where the sparse vocals are all in what I'll guess is Finnish. 'Sing For Me' is a lovely, less-metal piece with one of those insidious little melodies that creeps into the head at random moments and can play there for a little while before one even realizes it. 'Our Great Divide', 'Minor Heaven', and 'The Reign' round out the tracks I personally like best. 'Damned and Divine' is not bad, though the 'Damned Vampires & Gothic Divine' version suits my ear better. And then there's her cover of Alice Cooper's 'Poison', which...well, it's certainly got some OMG value to it. She doesn't handle it badly at all, but it's just that...it's not entirely suited to her style, I don't think. Of course, it might just be the Alice fan in me that says that. ^_^;
So yes. Decent album overall, and conducive to wistful-melancholy sorts of moods. Nightwish fans especially will probably want to pick this one up, particularly if they're missing Tarja terribly on Dark Passion Play. ^_^
