Loreena McKennitt rides the fine line between hopelessly
\npedantic and richly intellectual on most releases; sometimes she
\nprovides intelligent commentary and textured world music, and
\nsometimes she gets lost in a sea of liner notes and clever quotes.
\nHer 1998 CD,
\nThe Book Of Secrets<\/i>, contains the closest she’s had to a hit
\nso far in the States (“The Mummer’s Dance”), so often it’s the
\nfirst CD people know of hers. It’s also by far, in this reviewer’s
\nhumble opinion, her best work.<\/p>\n
McKennitt is a musical polymath whose influences are difficult
\nto trace. A native of Canada, she spends as much time traveling the
\nworld setting up charitable and educational efforts and studying as
\nshe does performing music; she has always produced, written and
\nrecorded her own work. She calls her own genre ‘eclectic Celtic,’
\nbut in my opinion that’s stretching it; she is doing whatever she
\nlikes, and whatever sings to her.<\/p>\n
On
\nBook of Secrets<\/i>, this creates a powerful and coherent
\nmusical statement. From the opening bars of “Prologue” to the dying
\npiano at the end of “Dante’s Prayer,”
\nBook of Secrets<\/i> is brilliant — and McKennitt’s
\ncomprehensive liner notes tell her inspirations for her work
\n(including powerful snapshots of rail trips across Siberia,
\nexploring Venice’s Jewish quarter, and tracking down myth and
\nlegend in Ireland). “Skellig” is a heartbreaking tale of knowledge
\nbeing kept against the darkness, and “Mummer’s Dance” is a haunting
\nweaving of legend and mystery. McKennitt calls these songs a
\nmosaic, carefully fitted together — and indeed, they do make a
\nseamless whole.<\/p>\n
\nThe Book of Secrets<\/i> is a modern classic. Don’t miss it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":26378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6854],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-37609","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-loreena-mckennitt","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37609"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37609"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}