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An Ancient Muse
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CDN$ 18.99 |
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| Editorial Reviews: | | |  | | It's been nearly a decade since Loreena McKennitt's last studio album, The Book of Secrets, but An Ancient Muse picks up the caravan exactly where she left off on her mystical journey through the cultures of the Middle East and northern Sahara. The Canadian singer opens this album the same way as she did her last two recordings: with an incantation, calling out in a wordless voice across an echoing space, cleansing the air and the mind. What follows is a lot like those albums as well, a pan-global excursion centered on Middle Eastern themes and instruments cast into a dramatic exotica. Oud, dumbek, kanoun, hurdy-gurdy, duduk, nyckleharpe (a Swedish-keyed fiddle), and other ancient sounds from the region and beyond ornament her music, though "ornament" might no longer be accurate. With the exception of Hugh Marsh's gypsy violin solos and a handful of other players, it's the Western instruments that serve as ornaments on An Ancient Muse. McKennitt long ago evolved the Celtic sound that launched her career. She's virtually abandoned the harp, which hasn't appeared on her CDs since 1991's The Visit. The lone uillean pipe on "Beneath a Phrygian Sky" sounds like an echo calling from the McKennitt's past. Nevertheless, the Celtic ballad form remains central to her music, and she still draws inspiration from ye olde writers of the British Isles. Lyrics from Sir Walter Scott adorn "The English Ladye and the Knight," recalling "The Lady of Shalott." But despite McKennitt's soaring alto, the tale drags under the dirge-like meter and ponderous arrangement. The epic track of this album is the aforementioned "Beneath a Phrygian Sky," with distorted electric guitar accents and an acoustic guitar melody carrying McKennitt on another journey into her romanticized version of the ancient world. --John Diliberto | |
| Custom Reviews: | |
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| Another relaxing and surreal moment with Loreena McKennitt | |
| | I have been waiting for another CD from Loreena McKennitt. And it was well worth the wait.
This CD is just as beautiful and wonderful as all the rest of her CD's have been. She creates moments of bliss and wonderment.
Thanks, Loreena, for another wonderful CD.
| | | I'd been looking and hoping for a new Loreena McKennitt CD for years. I'd given up hope. Stopped looking...
Then -- there in The Lyric (the Baltimore opera house) -- Loreena McKennitt on tour! First I bought the tickets. Then I bought AN ANCIENT MUSE.
Having moved on from my "new age" phase of some years back my head's been in different musical spaces: serious/wondrous jazz, guitar virtuosos, classical music... So when MUSE arrived... I was in the wrong "gear"...
But with a concert fast approaching I had to find the set list, compile my own iTunes version of the concert, "get ready." And what a world Loreena McKennitt weaves! Ahh... I'd forgotten...
MUSE has been on repeat all afternoon as I worked and thought about what to say. (Ahh... I'd forgotten...)
Once you're in the right musical head space -- world music not jazz, poems set to music not motif development upon development, etc. -- Loreena McKennitt stirs the heart like few others. For me it's her voice, the courage to set long poems to music, the richness of the instrumental sounds... and did I mention her voice?
Having devoured her earlier CDs -- I've got them all! -- I feel confident when I say AN ANCIENT MUSE is right up there with the best of them!
Enjoy... and feast your ears!
Dr. Kirtland C Peterson
| | | My first impression of this album was that it was pleasant enough, though too predictable, and that nothing stood out or beckoned me back. With further listens I sometimes forget that I am listening to the much anticipated new album, easily mistaking tracks for others from Loreena's back catalogue, or simply observing the at times astonishing similarities to certain other works of hers as they drift languidly by. This feeling still pervades and leads me to thinking that Loreena is playing safe on this release, looking backwards for inspiration within her previous work rather than forwards towards growth and experimentation. That familiarity, of course, is bound to appeal to many, and there is no questioning the slickness and sweetness of this album. I however find this disappointing. To me The Book Of Secrets was a genuine and exciting development upon it's predecessor and I was hoping to see more advances here.
Incidentally, the melody in the instrumental "Sacred Shabbat" bears a striking resemblance to "Ra Ra Rasputin"...(!)
The big budget slickness, flawless (and perhaps stifling) production, the careful timing of release to co-incide with Christmas (when Loreena typically recieves the most airplay), coupled with the sense that we are being treated to tried and tested formulas rather than genuine musical exploration, bring out the cynic in me I'm afraid, and the album itself isn't strong enough to overcome that feeling.
| | | I was a little disappointed with this CD. Such a long wait for songs that sound so much like previous recordings in The Books Of Secrets and The Mask And Mirror. I was hoping for newer sounds. Loreena is an outstanding artist nonetheless. It won't stop me from buying her next CD whenever that may be.
| | | Have to agree with the Amazon reviewer - I have nearly all her albums and although it holds some of the mystery and exoticism of her previous album - this one is indeed dirge-like and that has put me off a bit. Not one I'm going to be playing much. I'd like to hear it in a live concert to see if that might change my mind. I must admit I miss the harp, but I know artists must move on.
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