Enigma - A Posteriori
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CD Details
Artist: EnigmaEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-09-26
Music Label: Virgin Records Us
Soundtracks:
- Eppur Si Muove
- Feel Me Heaven
- Dreaming Of Andromeda
- Dancing With Mephisto
- Northern Lights
- Invisible Love
- Message From IO
- Hello And Welcome
- 20,000 Miles Over The Sea
- Sitting On The Moon
- The Alchemist
- Goodbye Milky Way
Music reviews of A Posteriori
Music Review: Good bye milky way or goodbye enigma?
Rating: 1 Stars
I was so excited over this new album because I am a big enigma fan. But after hearing this album, I must say that I am very disappointed. Where is enigma in this enigma album? Where are the lush sounds? Where are the female vocalists? Where are Sandra's whispers? Where are the great song interludes of e3? Where are the great melodies of e2 and e3? Where is the singing? Where did Ruth Ann go? Where are the lyrics? Where are the sounds of nature? Why is the album so techno like this? Where is the enigma I can listen to before I go to sleep? This is like the stuff I listen to when I am working out. I thought I was listening to Paul okenfold throughout this album or some other club music. The only semblance of enigma in this album is goodbye Milky Way. This is very disappointing. If you thought voyageur was a radical departure from what enigma meant to you, wait till you hear this album. At least voyageur had nice melodies and great vocals. Boom boom, voyageur, following the sun, and in the shadow and in the light were all great songs. This album has nothing to offer besides goodbye Milky Way. The rest you can hear while you're on the treadmill or bench-pressing. The music on this album is not bad. It's just overall monotonic, dull, repetitive, and colorless. Hello and welcome did not need to be on the album. It is out of place and boring as heck. Things get a bit less boring with the alchemist and feel me heaven because they are hypnotic and uplifting. Some have commented that Michael cretu is not about repeating the same stuff over again, and that's great. But there is good creativity and then there is mediocre creativity. E2 is not like e1, yet both are beautiful in their own unique way. E3 is not like the previous two, and yet it is almost better than them. Good creativity is always appreciated. In fact, e3 was the pinnacle of enigma's magic and creativity. Then came e4, which has only 2 memorable tracks (gravity of love and push the limits)--note that each of the first 3 enigma albums had SEVERAL memorable tracks. How many tracks from e6 will one remember a few years from now? Possibly one and that is goodbye Milky Way. The fans who appreciated voyageur will probably also remember invisible love; Other than that, everything on this album if easily forgettable.
Word for the wise: if you want to listen to a posteriori for what it is, then skip it and get a paul okenfauld cd or listen to hypnotized by okenfold. Better yet, get something by BT or Ian van dahl or something...Now if you want to listen to a posteriori for what enigma is, then brace yourself for a major disappointment.
Moreover, this album does not come across as a collaborative effort for 2 reasons:
1-enigma doesn't sing here. It's just cretu who sings. Michael cretu has a great voice and knows how to use it--think of why, beyond the invisible, the roundabout, out of the deep. However, if cretu is to present an enigma work, then he should include the vocals of other enigma members. Otherwise, he should go solo and present the album as a solo work. There are 3 lyrical songs on this album: sitting on the moon, invisible love, and goodbye Milky Way. The first one, sitting on the moon, pales next to why and out of the deep--two songs that were also sang by cretu alone. It is very popish and commercial. The second one has a nice haunting melody but has only 8 words worth of lyrics (rescue me, my love, my invisible love, follow you....); the third is great and has the hallmarks of enigma: spirituality, enchantment, melody, and mystery. Listening to this album leaves you begging for lyrics. You would listen and listen hoping for a whisper, a chant, and some lyrics. Of course enigma is not just about singing but also about music, and I enjoy that a lot. However, the instrumental tracks here are not soothing like the smell of desire or traces (both from e4).
The alchemist and Andromeda have a gorgeous rhythm and a beautifully haunting whaling sound to them; yet those two tracks are begging for lyrics. They would have been great if andru and Sandra's vocals were infused into them.
2-monotonality:
Dreaming of Andromeda and the alchemist are really one song. Eppur si muove and 20,000 miles are one song. The rest is just redundant, which leaves one wondering whether the artistic input of gad, Sandra, Donald's, and Ruth was included. It really seems that Michael cretu made this album as one long track on a single long summer afternoon; I am sure he worked on it more than that but that is the impression one gets even after several complete listens.
I am all for innovation. But make it good innovation. Otherwise, stick to what you do best. I feel that many people would be more than happy to hear a new enigma album that would apply the same tricks and sounds of e3, e1 and e2 to new melodies and new lyrics. Old good tricks are better than new mediocre tricks.
I keep editing this review because every time I listen to this album, in an attempt to appreciate it, I get more disappointment and feel a bitter yearning for the enigma of e1, e2, and e3--heck even enigma of e4 and e5 would have been great. Fortunately, e1, e2 and e3 are timeless so I can keep listening to them until enigma returns, or until Michael cretu quits the Look of Today and returns to the classic and timeless enigma he introduced to us and kept us yearning for.
Message for cretu: if you no longer have it in you, just go solo or stop. Nobody is perfect. Good writers stop when they have nothing good to write; it is called writers' block. Please do not tarnish the beautiful image of enigma with this trance/club/metro sexual lounge/club music; leave that stuff to the DJs, and at least spare us the sweet memory of the earlier albums.
I am giving this album one star because I am observing the high standards that Michael cretu has set up for enigma.
The Milky Way is staying; it's enigma that has left us...
Goodbye enigma
P.S:
to those who are giving this album 4 stars:
do you realize that the screen behind the mirror got 4 stars? when you give this album 4 stars, do you realize that you are equating it to the screen behind the mirror? and if you are, is it fair to do so? how can you equate the gravity of love, push the limits, silence must be heard and traces to the stuff on this album? please consider objectivity and SINCERITY in reviewing this album so that michael cretu would understand that his older work is indeed better; this in turn would hopefully influence his next enigma album. some of you criticize the album and then go ahead and give it 4 stars. this is ridiculous!!! please put your stars where your mouth is. if you give 4 stars whether the album is good or mediocre, then how do you expect the maker/artist to take your reviews seriously when he/she is making their next album?
thank you
Description of A Posteriori
There are no black holes in Enigma's musical universe. Nothing ever just vanishes here. It's been 16 years since October 1st 1990, when Enigma's debut, "Sadeness Part 1," rocked the earthly airwaves and hit the top of the charts with sounds the planet had never heard. All of a sudden Enigma was no longer a UFO but the most famous spaceship of world music - and the music world. On September 22nd, 2006 A Posteriori, the sixth album of Michael Cretu's Enigma project was released.You can get an idea of where A Posteriori is heading from song titles such as "Dreaming Of Andromeda," "Message From Io" and "Goodbye Milky Way." It takes you on a voyage through a multilayered soundscape, to the limits of your sonic experience, but always stays true to the essence of Enigma. The album will carry any hitch-hiker along to explore extraordinary new galaxies aboard the sound-ship Enigma. There is also the overture that, as on the five predecessors, welcomes the listener to Enigma's latest album, before creating the first tonal Fata Morgana 30 seconds later. Wafting through a soft carpet of sound come mysterious voices suggestive of power, shouting something Latin into this new sound-sphere?a sphere where A Posteriori will linger. Enigma once again create associative sound-signals that embed themselves in your head forever like a mental tattoo.
Enigma Photos
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More from Enigma
 Love Sensuality Devotion: The Greatest Hits |  MCMXC A.D. |  The Cross of Changes |
 Voyageur |  Enigma 3: Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi! |  MCMXC a. D. - The Complete Album DVD |
Sixth in a series of never-quite-the-same recordings from Michael Cretu, the Bucharest-born electronic musician/studio wiz known as Enigma, A Posteriori has the capacity to delight one camp of Enigma devotees while it perplexes another. Less overtly sensual than earlier recordings and devoid of female singers in lead-vocalist roles (no Ruth-Ann, no Sandra), A Posteriori nevertheless stands as a worthwhile recording that at its best moments handsomely displays Cretu's talents for effective songcraft and imaginative sound design. The 54-minute disc--an ode to science and discovery rather than brainy erotica--launches with two impressive instrumentals, "Eppur Si Muove" ("and yet it does move," a phrase attributed to Galileo following his heresy conviction for asserting that the earth rotates around the sun) and "Feel Me Heaven," gorgeous tracks that are part audio space probes, part pulsing Euro electronica. Momentum wanes (or chills) until Cretu strings together a series of tracks that use a heady amalgam of ambient, techno, dance, and rock textures: "Hello and Welcome," "20,000 Miles Over the Sea," "Sitting on the Moon," and the dense, edgy "The Alchemist," which evokes notions of a 21st-century version of Ultravox. "Moon" stands out in particular, guided by a subtle pop melody that exudes the gentle irresistibility of Dido's best work. Cretu wisely limits (or eliminates) the use of Gregorian chants and ethnic voices, once-fresh ideas now demoted to gimmickry. He lets his own voice, a raspy take on Peter Gabriel, carry this disc's three vocal-driven tracks to mixed effect. While not everything glitters here, enough does that A Posteriori warrants investigation by earnestly inquisitive Enigma followers. --Terry Wood
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