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Rating: The year 2000 marked a time when the now former muse of the great Andrew Lloyd Webber, armed with her ethereal voice capable of transporting the listener to another dimension, after the pop/new age experimentation of "Eden," donned the guise of an icy snow queen to release an album with a concept and atmosphere very similar to Bjork's "Vespertine," which many, including myself, consider the pinnacle of Bjork's career. Unlike her Icelandic colleague, however, Sarah Brightman is not the type of artist who constantly seeks to incorporate daring experiments into her music at the risk of producing songs of not always brilliant quality; on the contrary: "La Luna" does not deviate a millimeter from the Classical Crossover infused with new age, so dear to the English soprano. Nothing new on the western front then, but music history teaches us that an album does not need to be innovative to be beautiful, and as a matter of fact, this album reaches truly high-quality peaks, both in the more distinctly pop pieces and in those where Brightman's classical background is more apparent.
Among the tracks of this type, "La Califfa," composed by Ennio Morricone, and the ethereal "How Fare This Spot," undoubtedly stand out, without taking anything away from "Figlio Perduto" and "Solo Con Te," based respectively on the works of Beethoven and Handel. However, where, at least in my humble opinion, Brightman gives her best is in songs more inclined to pop/new age, where her voice abandons the grandeur of opera singing to become, with impressive ease, warm, intimate, and almost whispered. This is demonstrated by splendid angelic ballads ("Scarborough Fair," "Hijo de La Luna," "She Does Not See Him"), as well as atmospheric mid-tempos ("This Love," "A White Shade of Pale"), and the curious yet successful jazz-oriented experimentation of "Gloomy Sunday." The whole is excellently arranged and produced, which significantly contributes to the album's quality, whose icy and wintry atmospheres are brilliantly recreated and perfectly tailored to Sarah's golden voice.
"La Luna" is thus a solid album worth listening to, perhaps on a winter evening while watching the snow gently wrap the world around us in a white blanket by the light of a crackling fireplace. If one must find a flaw in this otherwise excellent work, it could be the previously mentioned absence of novelty in a purely artistic-musical sense, but when an artist's work is so pleasantly enjoyable, I'd say this can easily be overlooked.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Scarborough Fair (04:11)
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
He once was a true love of mine
Tell him to make me a cambric shirt
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Without no seams nor needle work
Then he'll be a true love of mine
Have him wash it in yonder dry well
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Where ne'er a drop of water e'er fell
And then he'll be a true love of mine
Tell him to find me an acre of land
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Between salt water and the sea strands
Then he'll be a true love of mine
Tell him to reap it with a sickle of leather
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
And gather it all in a bunch of heather
Then he'll be a true love of mine
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme
Remember me to one who lives there
He once was a true love of mine
04 Figlio Perduto (04:37)
Muri die vento
Notte è scesa
Padre e figlio sono insiem
Con un cavallo
Vanno avanti
In questa grande oscurità
Ma ad un tratto
Il bimbo trema
Dalla paura
Freddo si fa
Padre oh padre
Tu non hai visto
Re degli elfi
Eccolo la
Figlio perduto,
Vuoi far un gioco?
Gioia ti porto
Vieni con me
Padre oh padre
Hai già sentito
Cosa mi dice
E che vuol' far'?
Figlio perduto
Se tu non vieni
Io userò la forza che ho
Padre oh padre
Re degli elfi
Mi sta toccando
Male mi fa
E il bambino,
Con occhi chiusi
Lui non si muove
Perso è già
Figlio
Figlio perduto
Se tu non vieni
Io userò la mia forza
Padre oh padre
Re degli elfi
Mi sta toccando
Male mi fa
E il bambino,
Con occhi chiusi
Lui non si muove
Perso è già
... perso è già
05 A Whiter Shade of Pale (03:39)
We skipped the light Fandango
Turned cartwheels 'cross the floor
I was feeling kind of seasick
But the crowd called out for more
The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
The waiter brought a tray
And so it was that later
As the Miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale
She said there is no reason
And the truth is plain to see
But I wandered through my playing cards
And I would not let her be
One of the sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast
And although my eyes were open
They might just as well've been closed
And so it was that later
As the Miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale
16 Time to Say Goodbye (04:05)
Sarah:
Quando sono sola
sogno all'orizzonte
e mancan le parole,
si lo so che non c'è luce
in una stanza quando manca il sole,
se non ci sei tu con me, con me.
Su le finestre
mostra a tutti il mio cuore
che hai accesso,
chiudi dentro me
la luce che
hai incontrato per strada.
Time to say goodbye. -- Con te partirò.
Paesi che non ho mai
veduto e vissuto con te,
adesso sì li vivrò.
Con te partirò
su navi per mari
che, io lo so,
no, no, non esistono più,
it's time to say goodbye. -- con te io li vivrò.
Andrea:
Quando sei lontana
sogno all'orizzonte
e mancan le parole,
e io si lo so
che sei con me, con me,
tu mia luna tu sei qui con me,
mio sole tu sei qui con me,
con me, con me, con me.
Time to say goodbye. -- Con te partirò.
Paesi che non ho mai
veduto e vissuto con te,
adesso sì li vivrò.
Con te partirò
su navi per mari
che, io lo so,
no, no, non esistono più,
Both:
con te io li rivivrò.
Con te partirò
su navi per mari
che, io lo so,
no, no, non esistono più,
con te io li rivivrò.
Con te partirò
Io con te.
17 Memory (04:09)
Midnight
Not a sound from the pavement
Has the moon lost her mem'ry?
She is smiling alone
In the lamplight
The withered leaves collect at my feet
And the wind begins to moan
Mem'ry
All alone in the moonlight
I can smile at the old days
Life was beautiful then
I remember
The time I knew what happiness was
Let the mem'ry live again
Ev'ry street lamp
Seems to beat
A fatalistic warning
Someone mutters
And a street lamp gutters
And soon it will be morning
Daylight
I must wait for the sunrise
I must think of a new life
And I mustn't give in
When the dawn comes
Tonight will be a memory too
And a new life will begin
Sunlight through the trees in the summer
Endless masquerading
Like a flower as the dawn is breaking
The memory is fading
Touch me
It's so easy to leave me
All alone with my mem'ry
Of my days in the sun
If you touch me
You'll understand what happiness is
Look a new day has begun
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