What Are You Listening To Now? 5.0

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Niki & The Dove - Lost UB

That's some Stevie Nicks realness right there!
 
W.A.S.P. - The Last Command

So good. Okay, some of the lyrics are a bit cringeworthy (Lookin' atcha, "Jack Action"), but overall a great listen.
 
My cat (who hates music) lightly snoring in the chair next to me.

Sigh, I prefer writing to music but sacrifices must be made.
 
Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep (Deluxe version)

Spock's Beard

The beast has arisen - time for music!
 
The Gentle Storm - The Diary (both versions)

So, Arjen Lucassen of Ayreon fame and Anneke van Giersbergen, once the voice of The Gathering, did a full album together. The trick here is that you get each song twice, once as a folk-rocky, acoustic version and a hard rocking version. I'm not so sure the whole ordeal was worth it though.

The Good:
The lyrical concept about a seafaring man and his wife in the 17th century is well-written and a beautiful tragedy, wonderfully conveyed by Anneke's vocal lines. The sound of both versions is warm and room-spanning, with some decent kick in the fiercer passages. Speaking of which, the "Storm" versions of the songs have some fantastic guitar and drum work, plus earworm melodies.

The not-quite-so-good bits.
I had hoped for some bigger differences between the "gentle" and "storm" versions of each song. You don't need to be a studio magician to realize that the vocal tracks had been done once and the arrangements were the only things altered. Don't get me wrong, it's not like the latest Nightwish record, which had an "orchestral version" packed in (which were the normal songs sans guitars and drums). All songs get an acoustic reworking, which even sounds fantastic in places, but no amount of Jethro Tull fanservice can hide the fact that there's no change in tempo or structure between each version of a song. Some of the acoustic versions also clearly feel like the weaker of the two on offer, with "Shores of India" the most obvious. So instead of being an integral part of the project, the acoustic half feels more like a bonus than anything else.
And one last thing - Arjen has a distinct "signature", both in terms of songwriting and production. It is very obvious on this album, with whole passages of the "Storm" half evoking strong flashbacks to his own back catalog, to the point where my lady love and I were throwing album titles back and forth. Here's hoping he found some more inspiration for his next upcoming Ayreon album.

The Verdict: Intriguing, but hardly essential. The "Storm" half is clearly the superior record, but it may sound a bit stale to Lucassen completionists. Anneke's voice has only gotten better with age though and is a high point.
 
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