Loreena McKennitt
A Midwinter Night's Dream

THE REVIEW

In 1995 Loreena McKennitt released "A Winter Garden," a Christmas EP with 5 songs. This year she decided to expand it with 8 new tracks, turning it into an album featuring traditional songs and compositions by the Canadian musician.
"A Midwinter Night's Dream" is an album with pleasant winter atmospheres, without falling into the stereotype of reindeer and jingle bells.
The cover image, depicting animals in a forest, is curious. To me, personally, it reminds me of the cartoon "The Adventures of the Little Forest."
I'll say right away what the album's flaw is: there's only one true new track, and it's the song "The Holly & The Ivy", which isn't even the most interesting track. The other pieces composed by McKennitt had already appeared in "A Winter Garden," while the remaining tracks are reinterpretations of traditionals.
The tracks do not differ from the sounds of the artist's previous works, it almost seems like a summary of all the albums produced so far.  Two of the most interesting tracks are: "Un Flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle" and "Snow".
This album might go unnoticed, also because it's being released just before Enya's album "A Winter Came," the Irish singer to whom McKennitt is often compared. It's notable that both albums feature the same traditional track, "Emmanuel", but the sounds will surely differ.