Signature

Signature

"Theme from Harry's Game," sung with Moya Brennan's original band, Clannad, set the stage for the Celtic renaissance of the 1980s. But Brennan has always been more than gothic choirs, and Signature highlights her songwriting as much as her heavenly voice. This is her first album in a while that breathes. On albums like the soporific Whisper to the Wild Water and epic Two Horizons, she smothered her songs in overproduced layers of synth pads and vocals and a heavily compressed sound that pushed it to stridency, despite some beautiful tunes. But Brennan and co-producer/guitarist FionÃ¡n de Barra strip away a few of the layers, giving her songs a sense of space, depth, and contour. She sings of redemption, salvation in the face of lost hope, and love over all through a meticulous weave of Celtic harps, Irish flutes, and fiddles, bodhrÃ¡ns, and uillean pipes. There's just enough production sheen and rhythm loops to take it out of folk terrain, but enough passion and edge to keep it from sliding into easy-listening treacle, although sentimental love songs like "Always" sure make an effort. Most of the songs tend toward chant-like ballads, but she lifts the roof off with the album-opening "Purple Haze." It isn't the Hendrix song, although the skeletal lyrics might obliquely refer to Brennan's born-again rejection of her wild youth. It's a powerful merging of tribal Celtic percussion and her impassioned vocals splayed against an avenging choir chanting like a Druid ritual in an Irish cove. Signature offers more evidence that Moya Brennan is the voice of contemporary Irish music, hopefully more than the smarmy cotton candy of Celtic Woman. --John Diliberto
Country USA
Brand Cmg
Manufacturer SPA
Binding Audio CD
UnitCount 1
UPCs 094638170327
EANs 0094638170327
ReleaseDate 2007-09-25

Country	USA
Brand	Cmg
Manufacturer	SPA
Binding	Audio CD
UnitCount	1
UPCs	094638170327
EANs	0094638170327
ReleaseDate	2007-09-25

You might also like...