Customer Reviews

Cross of Changes

5 star:		(80)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This CD was awesome! Michael Cretu has done it again. With his first release of Enigma, I was shocked at the originality. It was just awesome how he incorporated different (enigmatic) sounds in his music and made it like one whole song. His first album was awesome with the revival of the Gregorian Chants and marvelous lyrics; now he has broght a different, powerful work with the same essence. The Cross of Changes concentrates in a Native American style instead of the Gregorain Chants. It is beautifully done! I love how Michael Cretu has thought of different cultures and times: Middle Ages of Gregorian Chants, ancient acoustic sounds mixed with modern synthtic sound, and in the song "Silent Warrior," the lyrics explain the Spanish takeover of Mayan culture. "They took their land/ They took their lives..../ White men won in the name of God." Very interesting lyrics throughout the music many involving ethical values. It begins with "The Second Chapter" describing that "we came out from the deep to help and understand and not to kill" and follows with different believes, but finally concludes: "If you understand or if you don't/ If you believe or if you doubt/ There's a universal justice/ And the eyes of the truth/ Are always watching you."

Even though Enigma first made a name for itself with its single "Sadness Pt.1" off its debut album "MCMXC A.D.", it was the release of its sophomore effort, "Cross of Changes", that really established it as a major force in new age (and popular) music. The hit single, "Return to Innocence", is such a haunting and captivating song that it still finds radio play on regular rock/pop stations almost 10 years after its release. The tribal beats mixed with modern music and combined with an evocative choral solo power this simple song about realizing what's important in life (i.e. 'returning to innocence'). It still sends chills up my spine whenever it is played. The two bookend tracks to "Return..." have also found a wide distribution, although, not as radio singles, but as frequently used scores movie trailers. Track #2, "The Eyes of Truth" is frequently used in action film trailers, most notably for "The Matrix" (though, it did not appear on the soundtrack). Track #4, the chilling "I Love You ... I'll Kill You" has found play on such movie previews as Arnold Schwarzenneger's "Eraser". "The Eyes of Truth" is an amazing track as it plays slow, thumping beats before finishing with a flourish of a soaring chorus followed by a haunting female solo. There is one other truly standout track on "Cross of Changes"... "The Dream of The Dolphin". It evokes sense of spiritual peace with nature and is quite relaxing to listen to.

The beauty of this album is that, even with the separate standout songs, it flows together as one complete journey with each song feeding seamlessly into the next. "Cross of Changes" provides a memorable musical adventure for the listener and foreshadows the greatness to come on subsequent albums "Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!" and "Screen Behind the Mirror".

Yes, Enigma is good. But which album do I consider the best of the four? Obviously, this one. Otherwise I wouldn't be writing my review here.

Introduced to the four albums in reverse chronological order, "The Screen Behind the Mirror" (the latest album) was decent piece of work where Michael Cretu even resorted to sampling his own work from within the album. Songs that stuck out were "Between Mind and Heart" and "Gravity of Love." I'll give this album 4 (out of 5) stars.

Enigma 2 "Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!" was better than "Screen." The songs were more varied - infusing pop vocals as well as soothing melodies. Songs that stuck out were "Beyond the Invisible" and "The Child In Us." You here more of Cretu's voice in many of the pieces and a sampling in Sanskrit in "The Child in Us." This gets 4 (out of 5) stars as well.

"MCMXC", of course, is Enigma's first album. Probably the mellowest of the four albums, Gregorian chants are sampled extensively. The vocals (not counting the chants) in this album are minimal. This album gave Enigma its mark in the music industry, but the pieces were a bit too mellow for my taste. It is not the type of album you'd listen to while driving alone on long trips. The only piece that was noteworthy is "Principles of Lust (Sadness)". This album gets only 3 (out of 5) stars from me.

"The Cross of Changes" is the album that epitomizes Enigma. The album has up-tempo as well as soothing pieces. It features excellent vocals as well as obscure (but, now popular) samples. Containing pieces good enough to be used in the movie "The Matrix" (with "The Eyes of Truth"), and the classic "Return to Innocence" this album deserves recognition above the rest. All four albums are worth owning, but if you could only choose one, this should be it.

The beauty of the this album, or any music by Enigma for that matter, is far beyond words. Despite being slapped with a newage label to their name, Enigma really is nothing close to being airy fairy music and is generally darker than you typical newage music. Soulfull, engergetic, hypnotic, mesmerizing, intense, unique and sensual are all words that immediately come to mind with listening to this cd.

"Return to Innocence" was definately the song that propelled this cd high on the charts back in 1994 and is still as fresh and beautiful as the first time I heard it! Despite the claim that a reviewer made of the track containing unauthorized samples, that is false! The vocals sampled in the song were in fact never copywrited to begin with and Enigma obtained full permission to use them. Ironically, the controversy over this claim in fact heighted interest in the song and sales of the album even more!

The magnetism of Enigma is far to strong to ever detour people away from it. Not even the harshest critics of this artist have ever been able to explain the continious album sales and steady cult following Enigma has earned or why over a hundred other bands (and radpidly counting) are still attempting to immitate this musical phenomenon without near matched success.

An Enigma indeed!

Enigma does it again -- and much, much better than before -- with their second CD, The Cross of Changes. There's a haunting beauty that prevails throughout, like ghosts rising from the past, which matches their lyrics of past oppressions and future rebirths. "Return to Innocence", one of the most popular songs of the genre, introduced me to this group, and I must say it's an introduction I'm pleased to have made. "Silent Warrior", "The Dream of the Dolphin", .. well, every track is special in its own way, but those are two of the best. Enigma manages to take Gregorian chant, synthesized music, keyboard, and poetry, and mix it all together in such a way as to just flow with a beauty I haven't found elsewhere -- even in their other albums. Of the four CDs and various other assorted tracks I've heard from them, this album shines through as their best.

Enigma's second album, 1993's "The Cross Of Changes," continues this recording act's explorations in estoteric, spacey keyboard music, mixed with samples, slamming beats, ethereal vocals, and tribal chants (replacing the chanting monks from the classic first album from 1990). Enigma mastermind Michael Cretu, who also contributes lead vocals on a couple of tracks, has created another astonishing, dreamy soundscape where the music ebbs & flows, and simply takes your breath away. The awesome "Return To Innocence" was the big hit from the album, but there's many other delights such as the powerful "The Eyes Of Truth," the thrilling 9-minute extravaganza "I Love You, I'll Kill You," the Enigma signature "Age Of Loneliness" (from the Sharon Stone movie "Sliver"), the beautiful "Dream Of The Dolphin," and the triumphant "Out From The Deep." I just can't get enough of this awesome group---"The Cross Of Changes" is another hypnotic Enigma classic.

With their first release, Enigma showed that you can create a commercially successful record out of sampled beats, French whispers and chanting, Latin monks. Various other artists quickly caught on to the idea and jumped on to the world-electronic-Newage-chillout bandwagon, releasing singles with various degrees of success. But Enigma returned with their second studio album `The Cross of Changes' to show them how it's really done.
The album begins with `The Second Chapter', reintroducing the familiar horns from the first album's `Voice of Enigma', but largely abandoning that track's cringing pretentiousness with more grounded lyrics and ominous, rolling synths that flow into the epic `Eyes of Truth'. This 9-minute instrumental showcases fantastically how Michael Cretu extends his palette of instruments to those of...well, pretty much everywhere in the world. Yes, the pan pipes come back, but we also have reed instruments and a vast array of percussion that add such depth and texture to the songs that you'll hear something new with each listen. You do get the occasional choir of monks cropping up, but it's Asian chants here that take centre stage. And nowhere on this album are they mixed as perfectly as they are on `Return to Innocence': a truly moving and uplifting track about abandoning pretence and believing in yourself.
The glory of this track is strangely juxtaposed to one of Enigma's darkest tracks, `I Love You...I'll Kill You', another 9-minute extravaganza with questionable lyrics but an awesome guitar solo provided by Enigma co-producer, Jens Gad. The darkness continues with the rhythmic, politically charged `Silent Warrior' with its rant on colonisation and Christian hypocrisy before we're given a breather with the short, sweet and tender `Dream of the Dolphin' which rounds off the brilliant first two-thirds of the album.
The tracks which follow - `Age of Loneliness' (a slightly tweaked `Carly's Song', which Enigma contributed towards the film `Sliver') and `Out from the Deep' - are by no means bad, they're just weaker than those mentioned so far. The album ends far from disappointingly, though, as we're given a brilliant send-off by the short and stirring title song.
The consistency of this album doesn't quite match that of MCMXC a.D. as its mood (from joyous, to depressed, to angry) does tend to change quite abruptly which makes it quite hard to see what Cretu is trying to say. His raspy, sandpaper-ish vocals also feature more in this record and although they work on the `Silent Warrior', you can't help thinking that `Out from the Deep' might sound better with someone else on vocal duties.
Still, this album does better its predecessor in one respect: even though all the tracks flow into each other, each one is strong enough to stand on their own. And with all the hypnotic sounds that trickle from the speakers, this album is definitely a worthy successor to MCMXC a.D.

THIS is the album you should get if you want to get a feel for what Romanian Michael Cretu can put together. Splendid, new age-ish at times, but without becoming the classical "sound of the waves"-type album, soothing and inspiring: these are all ideas that come to my mind when I think of this production.

You'll recall song #3, "Return to Innocence", I'm sure.

I've had this CD for a while. It was my mom's. Well, I use to be really close with my Mom. She loved this group, and this CD. Her favorite song was Return to Innocence, as well as mine. Well, my Mom died of cancer in 99. It was devistating for me. But now I focus on the memories. Whenever I hear that song, I think of her. The whole cd reminds me of her, in a good way, and in a sad way. The song is about strength, and weakness. It's inspiring and it's message is basically live your life, and follow your own way. "Don't be afraid to be weak but dont be too proud to be strong." I miss my mom, but I knew she wanted me to go on living my life and not think about how horrible it was when she died. This is one of my favorite chill out CD's. It brings back alot of great memories. Track # 6 I think was in that movie Sliver. That's also a great song. The indian vocals are great. They capture the emotion in the listener. If you dont have this album, you should get it. Laast but not least, The Lonliness song, is very long, and can put you into a trance. The singers voice is very deep, and depressing, but sweet. It's a good CD to relax to.

Enigma mesmerized everyone in 1990 when his/their debut became (we're all adults here, right?) a bedroom classic. He also took the music world by storm, and soon everyone from Deep Forrest to the Benedictine Monks were marking their territory with similar forays into new age and ambient music. Which meant that Michael Cretu was left with either trying to make "Sadeness-ness" or pushing his sounds in different directions.

To that end, he certainly did try! There's very little of the Gregorian sampling from the first album here, and in its place are explorations of Native American music and electric guitars. Not all of it works as well as the debut (those guitar solos in particular), but "Return To Innocence" is probably the best song he's ever come up with. Much like a modern day Alan Parsons Project, Michael Cretu builds songs like a sonic architect, layering images for effect, and on the opposite side, effects to evoke imagery.

In "I Love You...I'll Kill You," the sounds come off as dangerous and slinky. Considering the song was originally used in a stinker of a stalker movie called "Sliver," it fits. But the catcher is the song's final verse, where the voice whispers, "I love you, I'll kill you, but I'll love you forever." Now THAT'S the kind of freakiness that got the first album noticed, and it's the closest "Cross Of Changes" gets to the brilliance of "MCMXC A.D." (Though I could have lived without the rock guitar.)

While a pretty good album overall, I'd still recommend the debut first, and then "Cross Of Changes." If you're looking for more of the bombastic songs from Enigma's career, I'd then suggest going with the "L.S.D." hits collection, which skips the ambiance and concentrates more on popular selections.