I hate writing reviews like this.<\/p>\n
See, there’s not much wrong with the latest solo effort from
\nKaran Casey, the lead vocalist for Celtic band Solas.
\nUnfortunately, it suffers from a common problem to the ethereal
\nfemale Celtic vocalist style of music; there’s not much notable
\nabout it, either.<\/p>\n
Like a good number of CDs in this genre, it’s quickly listened
\nto, and just as quickly forgotten, smooth and vaguely mystical like
\na
\nten-dollar tarot reading at a traveling carnival. There’s
\nvery little distinctive about it. Yes, Casey has a beautiful voice.
\nOne wishes they’d give her something to sing that’s distinguishable
\nfrom Enya, and one wishes for a little less beauty and a little
\nmore soul.<\/p>\n
\nThe Winds Begin To Sing<\/i> is at least well produced; Casey’s
\nvoice is that lovely, a clear, ethereal presence that lingers over
\nwords lovingly. The musicianship is competent, though nothing
\nstands out. Production is minimalist, which is usually the right
\nway to go on music of this kind; nothing gets between you and the
\nvocals and
\ninstruments. Unfortunately, after about four songs, you wish
\nsomething would get between you and
\nThe Winds<\/i>; say, a double espresso.<\/p>\n
Casey’s biggest weakness is that she seems utterly dispassionate
\non this CD, as if she’s mailing in the performance because it’s
\ntime to do another solo album. (My sudden mental image of the
\nDunkin’ Donuts guy from the eighties mumbling ‘Time to do another
\nsolo album’ should probably be considered evidence that I’m
\nwarped.) Her performance on traditional selections like “Who Put
\nThe Blood”, “The King’s Shilling”, and “Eppie Morrie” seem to lack
\nany real soul, and traditional songs like these were designed to
\ntell stories and evoke emotion. In that,
\nThe Winds<\/i> fails.<\/p>\n
It’s only when Casey sings in Gaelic that she seems to be more
\ncomfortable. “Eirigh Suas A Stoirin” is a very good track, and
\n“Buile Mo Chroi” a great one. I almost wonder if Gaelic is her
\nfirst language and English her second, though I believe that’s
\nalmost impossible nowadays, even in Ireland. She also turns in a
\nwonderful performance on “You Bought Me Up” and “The Snows They
\nMelt The Soonest”.<\/p>\n
A final track deserves mention, if for nothing else for its
\noddness. Casey covers Lewis Allen’s “Strange Fruit”, a song about
\nlynchings in the American South. While she does very well on it,
\nit’s still somewhat jarring in the middle of a CD full of Celtic
\nmusic.<\/p>\n
\nThe Winds Begin To Sing<\/i> is, taken in toto, not much better
\nthan average. It has its high points and its low points, but in the
\nlong run suffers from having too little personality in it. Next
\ntime, one can hope Casey takes that achingly beautiful voice and
\nshows some feeling with it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":28116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7635],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-39511","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-karan-casey","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39511","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=39511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39511"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}