Ritchie Blackmore is literally a living legend of hard rock, having been not only the key guitarist for
Deep Purple and inventing one of the most recognizable riffs in music history ("Smoke on the Water") but also brought to life Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, that broke new grounds where metal was concerned. However his reign of rock guitar god came to a self imposed screeching hault after 1995's sizzling overlooked true final vinyl for Rainbow, "Stranger In Us All". He got caught up in love and hung up the Fender Stratocaster in favor of an acoustic and set off with his singing woman, the blonde and considerably younger and attractive Candince Night, to tour castles, Renaissance faires and small pubs along the way, sweeping the tiny dim lit corners of our world with a resurrection of.medieval music. Bard tunes. We're talking the real golden oldies.
So Blackmore's Night, as the marriage of singer and guitarist is called, has earned some recognition from the music community in certain circles, and being difficult to pigeon hole as well. Their collabortion has been successful enough to spawn a handful of albums and an upcoming live DVD is the works but has been promised for some time without it surfacing. This is not your typical genre of music. How many people are striving to create all new tunes in that medieval flavor these days? And of course the Japanese love it as well, B's Night being what you might even call quirky, with its true old school nature. The original old school perhaps? So it comes to no surprise, with the Japanese eating it up, that a compilation of sorts would surface after a time.
Gathered together here is a diverse selection of ballads that often simply croon about love, the magical unearthly romance of the ye olden times, and so forth. Bits of electric guitar pop up unexpectedly but quite welcome from time to time, and becomes a coveted guilty pleasure admist the true-to-the-era (for the most part) instrumental trappings. The string picking is as nimble and soulspoken as ever, proving that while guitars with holes in their middle are receiving the majority of attention these days, the Strat is not just a dust catcher.
I'll also likely catch it for this, but
Candice Night is not the greatest female vocalist on the planet. Her range is really nonexistant, she glides through every song without much deviation, smooth, calming, pleasant, just lacking theatrics, range and depth. She seems to rarely break out of her usual tone which grates after the fifth or six go-round with a sticky sweet, slower paced ballad.
What I like best about the music is the wistful peacefulness of it all. The mood is light and relaxed, although many of the songs mimick each other and start to blend together after awhile. It is nice mood music and makes for a great soothing background on a lazy afternoon.
There's a reason this has been nicknamed "The Wedding Album" because really, it's all about love in the backdrop of what some consider to be the most romantic period of our times. For a taste of what to expect, there's the lovely and wistfully sorrow tinged,
"Wish You Were" about long distance love from the debut disc, the edgy (atleast for this disc)
"I Still Remember",
"Ghost of a Rose" from the album of the same name is brimming with magic and majesty, and there has likely never been an instrumental as heartbreakingly gorgeous as the inspiration for this compilation's namesake,
"Beyond the Sunset". The new song is nice too,
"Once In A Million Years", but seems to lack some of the other tracks' originality and emotion.
Besides Candice's crooning and Ritchie's acoustic tinkerings, there is a cornicopia of other instruments and sounds to spice up the usual bardic plunkings. Wind instruments are prevalent, so are a wide variety of rhythm keeping devices. And if you listen closely, could that be a mandola? Or a tambourine? These flourishes keep one from wanting to stab out their eardrums halfway through the disc. The music is pleasant enough, that's for sure, but sometimes reaches heights that are only achieved by the songs graced with being chosen to pump their inoffensive pap in elevators, family friendly eateries, and other public places that fear the wrath of the SUV driving soccer mom. This means your grandmother might like it, the neighbors surely won't mind, and you likely won't feel compelled to jam the volume up to eleven to blow your speakers anyway.
So in a nutshell, "Beyond the Sunset - The Romantic Collection" is a collection of songs that fans already have heard in standard "greatest hits" type fashion, along with a newie recorded just for this release. If the disc was simply that, and that was it, it would likely be condemned as a way to make a quick buck out of the legions of Blackmore-ites lurking out there. Especially since the admitted worshippers of Ritchie will snap up anything assocated with the original Man In Black (with a hat.and a Strat), but as a saving grace there are three more songs enclosed of the Holiday persuasion that will get you revved up in the spirit of the season before even the midpoint celebration known as Christmas in July. There's also a handful of videos of live performances on a bonus DVD that is included which actually ends up making this one sweet little saccharine package that's worth a look even if you think this kind of music isn't your thing. Give it a chance, it just might grow on you.
Written by
Alanna Friday, April 29, 2005
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