Review Summary: Kaipuu menneisyyden, kiirii ilmassa huutoina kotkien
It is easy to forget what Nightwish used to be like way back in the day, now where one has gotten used to the immediate appeal and expertise of albums like
Endless Forms Most Beautiful. Even
Oceanborn might be old but it is a different beast entirely.
Do you remember that
Once upon a Troubadour is a song without a single drum beat... and
Erämaajärvi another? Do you remember that there even was a track called
Erämaajärvi? Do you remember all those slowly moving sections, where uncontroversial melodies are allowed to grow and fade at their own pace? Do you remember the sheer number of songs without a chorus? Those long stretches of acoustic guitar? Do you remember what their lyrics used to be like, before Tuomas decided to hammer his philosophy into your skull for sixty minutes?
The scent of a woman was not mine...
Welcome home, darling
Did you miss me?
Wish to dwell in dear love?
Touch my milklike skin
Feel the ocean
Lick my deepest
Hear the starry choir
Rip off this lace
that keeps me imprisoned
But beware the enchantment
for my eroticism is your oblivion
Old love lies deep, you said
Deeper shall be the wound between your legs
What this album has is what some would call immaturity and others purity. Artists often undergo a process wherein their output changes as they grow more accustomed to their profession, but perhaps less inspired, or could there be outside pressure? Nightwish, eighteen years later, did not make an album that is just like Angels but better; they made something tight and largely familiar. Many things have been gained, but as I'm listening to the oddly placed background screams in
Know Why the Nightingale Sings, it seems so clear that other things were lost, things that are so easily forgotten.
This certainly isn't an album to put on every day. It's not an album that I would even think of 99% of the time when I scroll through my collection. Then someday, perhaps by accident, I find myself on a journey through music I vaguely remember, perhaps with a stitch of nostalgia, backed by surprisingly capable songwriting, far drifting melodies, and eternally gorgeous vocals.
