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Rating: The career and image of Maggie Reilly are those of a perfect anti-diva: a decade spent as a voice for hire with many collaborations, and when she finally decides to take the plunge into a solo career, she fails to go beyond a response that's just lukewarm, a victim of external factors that only partially relate to the (more than good) quality of her offering. It's true that this sweet Scottish lady has shown some rather evident objective limitations, but it's not just for this reason that, after the moderate success of her first album "Echoes," she quickly ended up in oblivion. Sad but true, her physical appearance surely played its part: in a more "plastic" landscape, if we want, but also a more colorful and open-minded one of the '80s, it might have been an asset, just as it would be today considering the success of the late Amy Winehouse or even the crude, insipid, and tone-deaf Beth Ditto (sorry Maggie, just to illustrate the point), but in the early '90s, it would hardly have worked. Not quite a pin-up silhouette, chubby and smiling face, elegant dresses often complemented by colorful hats were something already anachronistic for those years of great "maledict" rock revival, not to mention younger female competition, more "engaged," more avant-garde, and especially better at marketing themselves. Even though very personal and immediately recognizable, Maggie Reilly's sound was perceived as dated for those years: it was essentially a traditional pop/soft rock with Celtic and electronic hues that had in its great strength the care and style of the arrangements, always very rich and prominently featured, all things that for the commercial diktats of the era sounded like remnants of the ancien regime.
Certainly, the "Reilly doctrine" could not form the basis of a long career at high levels; starting with the soporific "Starcrossed" of 2000, Maggie got lost in an emptiness of mannerism and self-recycling, proving unable to reinvent and innovate herself. But in her first three albums, for those like me who couldn't care less about appearances and market trends (all more or less contrived), there is much to appreciate and rediscover. "Midnight Sun" from 1993 is the immediate follow-up to the successful debut "Echoes," representing a logical and natural continuation; it contains what I personally consider to be the most representative, brilliant, and inspired song of her solo work, "Every Single Heartbeat", a danceable uptempo with a particularly well-crafted and catchy melody, perfect sound quality, pop sensitivity, impactful atmosphere, and a clear and pleasant vocal delivery; all the best aspects of the "Reilly doctrine" are enclosed in the five and a half minutes of this little gem. "Midnight Sun" is an album structured in a very precise way, which conveys solidity and balance but also a pleasant sense of naive candor and sincerity; no distortion, no forcing, you can feel "to the skin" that Maggie Reilly was born to do this, to interpret this type of music and songs. Pleasant atmospheric ballads, among which the intense "Oh My Heart" and the tender "Once In A While" stand out, alternate with more lively episodes, such as "I Don't Wanna Lose" with its pleasant sax and funky bass, the lively and almost rockish "Sunlight" and "Only Love", a balanced midtempo with a very '80s pop taste. There are also some more imaginative and characterizing moments, like the aforementioned "Every Single Heartbeat" but also the ethereal and dreamy "Wind On The Water", the evocative crescendo of "Follow The Midnight Sun" and the naturalistic idyll of a long and articulated "Silver On The Tree (Angel Tears)", a fine weave of electronics, flutes, strings, and guitars that flows elegantly between captivating refrains and moments of peaceful calm.
All in all, "Midnight Sun" is a work of prestige and great honesty, the manifesto of a humble artist always very pleasant to "dust off" from time to time; an excellent voice, light, clear and serene, and a string of beautiful songs truly deserving of respect. A consistently pleasurable full immersion into enjoyable radio pop with a touch of captivating new age atmospheres, yet not going overboard with affectations and convolutions, free of the conceit and "angelic" self-contemplation of an Enya or similar; in its small way, a "monument to good taste" (a quote from a "colleague" reviewer famous for his fanciful semantic acrobatics) that deserves rightful recognition and celebration.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Follow the Midnight Sun (04:25)
Many turned to see the light
Wondering if tomorrow would they know
Rainbow-coloured
Jewel-bright
Glowing through
The softly falling snow
You can call for a way
Turn night to day
Chorus:
And follow the midnight sun
Midnight sun
Verse:
Ever since the madness fell
Captive of a never-ending daze
Stranded in a timeless spell
And held inside a gilded maze
I wonder how long must it take
Till the sleeping awake
Chorus:
To follow the midnight sun
Midnight sun
Verse:
You can call for a way
To turn night into day
Chorus:
And follow the midnight sun
Midnight sun
You follow the midnight sun
Midnight sun
Verse:
Mirrored in a frozen pool
Images of a long-forgotten past
We all share fragments of a memory
The answers held
Within thiscrustal glass
I wonder how long must it take
Till the dreaming awake
Chorus:
To follow the midnight sun
Verse:
You know if you look you will find
In your soul, peace of mind
Chorus:
And follow the midnight sun
Midnight sun
And I'll follow the midnight sun
Midnight sun
Music: Kemmler
Verse lyrics: Reilly / Hodgson
Chorus lyrics: Kemmler / Hirschburger
06 Don't Wanna Lose (03:57)
I don't wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose your love
I don't wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose your love
Last night when we were talking
I saw the look of sadness in your eyes
Last night I took you walking
And wondered if somehow I could make things right
Please don't you throw our love away
I couldn't bear to lose it
Hang on, trust me one more day
I'll come around
I don't wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose your love
I don't wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose your love
I knew, that you'd been crying
I promise, I won't tell another lie
Please don't you throw our love away
I couldn't bear to lose it
Hang on, trust me one more day
I'll come around
Oh my love
Can't you understand
How I'm feelin'
How I'm feelin' deep inside
Oh my love
Can't you feel
The way that I'm feelin'
That I'm feelin' deep inside
I don't wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose your love
Last night when we were talking
I saw the look of sadness in your eyes
Please don't you throw our love away
I couldn't bear to lose it
Hang on, trust me one more day
I'll come around
I don't wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose your love
I don't wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose your love
Last night...
I don't wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose
When we were talking...
I don't ever wanna lose your love
I saw the look of sadness...
I don't wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose
In your eyes...
I don't ever wanna lose your love
Last night...
I don't wanna lose
I don't ever wanna lose
I took you walking...
I don't wanna ever lose your love...
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