I’ve recently had the opportunity to listen to the new Enigma CD Seven Lives Many Faces released on Sept 30, 2008. I have read many differing opinions on the new CD and am not surprised at the range of reviews from “This is the worst of Enigma…” to “This is one of the best… There seems to be many of the opinion that Cretu used too many of his past clips. However, I tend to disagree with this. There is no way I can do justice in writing about the CD, if you are an Enigma fan, you will need to listen for yourself, preferably with headphones, as you will miss much of the experience without. I will only go into a quick explanation of each track.
Cretu opens the CD with his usual great introduction track. borrows a few clips from earlier CD’s and mixes it with a new style. “Encounters” leads straight into “Seven Lives”, a rock strings piece with Andru Donalds on vocals. An interesting bit of trivia – “Seven Lives” was featured on German TV as the theme for their 2008 Olympics in Beijing coverage. The harder edge of “Seven Lives” breaks up the CD between two easygoing tracks, but fits in well between the “Encounters” intro and my second favorite track, “Touchness”.
My favorite track of the CD is “The Same Parents”. I’m not sure what it is about the track other than it having a slow, steady beat. It’s also hard not to get drawn into and actually listen to the lyrics.
The fifth track, “Fata Morguna” is also one of the best tracks. This track starts off with a very dreamy atmospheric sound, slowly introduces a deep bass, and then brings in a deeper bass that really pumps up the song. Then everything is in reverse and leaves you in a quiet, silent mood again. This is a great track and is more than likely my second favorite track.
Seven Lives Many Faces’ sixth track is “Hell’s Heaven”. This is a heavily synthesized track that blends nicely into “La Puerta Del Cielo”, which is the first single to be released from the CD.
“La Puerta Del Cielo” introduces us to the powerful voice of Margarita Roig, a 61 year old native Mongolian. Her voice adds a great tone to the song.
“Distorted Love” is probably my least favorite song on the CD probably because it seems to break the rhythm of the CD in a different way than “Seven Lives”, but on the other hand, some may state that it adds to the CD because it is different and offers a break from the routine.
“Je T’aime Till My Dying Day” is another great slow and steady track with Donalds on vocals. Again, Donalds voice really adds a great feeling to the song. It is amazing to me that Cretu is able to develop so many different sounds and feelings, with the same type beat throughout many of his songs.
“Deja Vú” is more of an instumental piece with a few blended vocals. Great Track.
The eighth track, “Between Generations”, also includes the tribal vocals from Roig.
And the final track, “The Language of Sound” is a another great track that is full of various voice samples with a female bluesy twist. This track reminds me a little of some of Moby’s earlier material.
In my opinion, this is definitely one of Cretu’s best Enigma CD’s. I can only hope that this CD will produce some great additional remixes for more listening pleasure.
Next, I’ll be reviewing the second CD from the Limited Edition set, which contains five bonus tracks AND a remix edit of “The Language of Sound” . Stay tuned…
Tracklist
- Encounters
- Seven Lives (Andru Donalds)
- Touchness
- The Same Parents(feat.Sebastian & Nikita Cretu)
- Fata Morgana
- Hell’s Heaven
- La Puerta Del Cielo (feat.Margarita Roig)
- Distorted Love (feat.Andru Donalds)
- Je T’aime Till My Dying Day (feat.Andru Donalds)
- Déjà vu
- Between Generations (feat.Margarita Roig)
- The Language of Sound