Customer Reviews

Best of Clannad: In a Lifetime

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Wow. Yet another collection from "Clannad". That makes this at least the fifth "Best Of" from the group. Yet not much is different here. It again includes "In A Lifetime", "Theme From Harry's Game", "Newgrange", "Something To Believe In", and many others of their best. A few tracks here are welcome additions, and the biggest thing that I notice, is that "I Will Find You" (from Last Of The Mohicans) finally made the cut. I guess because of that inclusion, I'd say this 18 track cd is overall their best single disc collection.

...I do agree with some previous reviews: Clannad have been releasing hundreds of "best of" compilation and that's probably enough tiring!! Stop it!
BUT....this best of worths buying it cause, to me a Clannad fan since such a long time ago, it is the best ever done. So, for those approaching Clannad for the first time it s one of the best album: furhter to that there exists a Double-set with a superb chill out Cd included!
For thoise who already know Clannad...well....hope a new album will be released! We have enough of Greatest Hits Cd and such....

This is the only Clannad cd I own, but about 4 hours after chewing open the shrinkwrap and on my 4th listening of the entire cd (it arrived today in the mail), I wonder why I waited so long to find this. I had a rough day at work and listening to this cd was like sitting under a cool waterfall on a hot day (cold beer optional)

Always and forever a fan of Clannad, and this is no exception. Ms. Brennan is fantastic.

I had been looking at this CD for quite a while and I am very glad I decided to finally buy it. The music is gentle and inspiring. I use it as background music when I practice Pilates or drive the car to help keep my mind calm. If you like the music styling of Enya, you will enjoy Clannard.

The albbum has some great songs. The duo with Bono is really great and can't be cranked up loud enough. The song from Last of the Mohicans is great. The rest fo the them are ok, more traditional irish music than a blended crossover of Irish and pop, which is where Clannad really shines (such as the song with Bono). Not bad...

Got the CD in excellent shape and was very impressed that it came all the way from Argentina! Well done!! A++++++++++++++++++++

At least according to an article on Wikipedia, Clannad disbanded in about 1997. However, they reunited at the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow in February 2007. They expressed a desire to produce a new studio album, but nothing more has come so far. They also began touring again in March 2008. If this article is true, then let's hope they crank out another CD sometime soon. This would certainly explain the large number of compilations.

Come on Clannad! You are among the greatest Celtic bands, in fact among the best bands in the world but you all need to stop throwing out these unnecessary compilations.

To me this really erodes the poetic beauty of the songs on this collection.

List of compilations I'm aware of. There are likely more that I may not be aware of but here it goes:

1. Past Present
2. Rogha: Best of Clannad
3. Greatest Hits
4. Magical Gathering: Anthology
5. Best of Clannad: In A Lifetime
6. An Diolaim
7. Ultimate Collection
8. The Celtic Voice
9. Celtic Collection
10. Themes
11. Magical Elements
12. Celtic Collections

THere are probably more compilations that may have slipped past my radar with this review but I find it rather disturbing how the record companies are recycling Clannad's songs like as many times as an airplane propeller completes as many revolutions during a flight from New York to Chicago. This really has eroded the punch that many of Clannad's songs once have.

"In A Lifetime", "I Will Find You", and numerous others really suffered badly from this. It's almost like taking real diamond and mass-producing numerous carbon copies of it the way glass was. While I'm not trying to change the subject of this review but glass was once precious but since it could be mass-produced, it started being thrown away like household garbage.

To me, some of Clannad's finest music has suffered a similar fate with the songs being recycled countless times on too many compilations. This is just my opinion. Many of you all might disagree and I can respect that.

What Clannad should do is stop releasing all these useless compilations and record a new album because it's been years since we heard anything new from them. Their most album "Landmarks" came out wwwaaaayy back in 1998. It's time for something new now. Your so-called hits CDs are now starting to stack as high or higher than you albums!!!!

If not a new album, the Clannad should re-release all of their regular studio albums remastered and in SACD form to give their music, especially their earliest recordings a MUCH needed audio clean-up job. It would be a much wiser move than just anther useless compilation.

"Best of Clannad: In A Lifetime" is a great collection when looking at it from a musical perspective but it is just a waste of time and money and aimed at milking the money out of the audiences. Clannad deserve better than this.

A much better move is to just buy all of their regular studio albums or the studio albums that you want instead of wasting one's time on these 'hits' or 'best of' collections. Even if it means spending much more money on them, their regular studio albums offer a lot more than these countless 'Hits' or 'best of' CDs can even dream of offering.

Just leave this collection to go out of print. End of story!

Well, there's no use trying to rationalize it -- this "best of" collection was definitely a disappointment.

The very first cut, "In a Lifetime" has Bono groaning and screaming on it, and I was certainly not expecting to hear THAT on a Clannad album at all! If I listen to this album much, I'll cut a duplicate CD, but leave the first track off entirely. Bono should stick to being trendy-and-cool while wearing his tired, old big-wrap sunglasses, protesting the indignities of the world, and pretending that it's still the '70's -- but NEVER appearing on a Clannad album again!

The rest of the album is OK... if you've followed Clannad much at all, the songs are somewhat familiar to you. Nothing really fresh or interesting about it, so, if you already have these songs on other Clannad albums, there's no incentive to buy this CD. They have a number of "best of" albums out, so if I had this to do over I'd pick one that didn't have Bono on it....