Customer Reviews

Ethnicity

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I really enjoyed this cd. Yanni has kept to a similar grasp on composing, but with a different sound. Yanni, is a blessed musician in the fact that he has been very successful at keeping to his extremely vast span of creativity. I gave it 4 stars because I really do prefer his old sound, which brings me to another topic...
Others have recommended an artist named Mehdi as being similiar to Yanni. I found very little similarity but fell in love with the music. I picked up his new CD and it's awesome...Samples are at SoothingMusic.Com. Recommended !

When I first started listening to Yanni about 12 years ago, his music was about himself and he played the music. The album, while it does have its moments, will likely go down as his least popular. The vocals need to go. Yanni is not about singing....he is about playing. Tracks 1 thru 4 seem to be filler tracks. This album starts to take shape with track #5...Written on the Wind....and seems to go in a totally different direction that the first 4 tracks. I will not even review those as I found myself wanting them to end. This is not the music Yanni fans have grown to love. While the album is technically sound, the drum machine is stale and Yanni needs to get Charlie back A.S.A.P. Now don't get me wrong, I am still a Yanni fan, but I do not see Him doing many of these tracks in concert as they seem more for his personal taste than for breaking any new ground. The DVD that comes along with the disc is a welcome site, but it is from a concert years ago, when Charlie was still drumming for him. After listening to this album it will make you long for the old days when Yanni and his drummer, Charlie, played the music.....not sing it. Judge for yourself.....its NEVER TOO LATE.

This album was slightly better than "If I could tell You" but still, I find myself craving for something similar to Yanni's Live at the Acropolis. I first became a Yanni diehard fan with LATA because of the orchestration, his originality, and the contemporary feel to his songs. I had purchased many of his CDs and went to his Tribute tour so I can listen to him perform his oginial, and mesmerizing, songs. Yet, in this CD (and the last one), Yanni produced the same kind of unexceptional music throughout, where song A can easily be interchanged with song C. Then, his orchestration is plaqued with too much vocals. I don't mind a song with lyrics, but the past three albums have demonstrated that vocals and orchestration don't mix well. Given the dissapointment of these past three albums, I was not sure if I wanted to go to the ethnicity tour. I bought the tickets anyway, just to figure out what he is up to, and to decide if I want to buy more of his CDs in the future. I went there thinking I was going to be dissapointed. However, the ethnicity concert was a lot better than I thought, where orchestration, original compositions, and unique performers saved the day. The question is then, what is Yanni's next album gong to be like. I might not purchase more of his CDs if the next one turns out to be a carbon copy of "If I could tell you" or "ethnicity".

Absolutely a truely WONDERFUL CD.
I am very, very *pleased* with this YANNI CD. I have MANY, MANY of YANNI's CDs. But this one is near the top of all of the ones that I do have.

YANNI is a wonderful musician and performer.
But as far as my own likes, I personally like his music with his accompaning orchestra. Which this CD, "Ethnicity" has.

I just had the wonderful opportunity to see him in a live concert in Atlanta, GA March 11, 2003.
At NO time was I disappointed.
He and every member of his musical team acts professionally and everyone also provides a WONDERFUL musical performace.
It is obvious that YANNI's team enjoys their love of music, performing and enjoyment of the fans.

If you are a true YANNI fan and lover, as I am, this is one CD that is a MUST for your YANNI's musical CD collection.

I do not believe you will be disappointed in any way :-)

Thank you for letting me share my views on this with you.
Please enjoy it :-)
~Jan

I waited long and hard for this new effort from the best new age musician in my books. I've been an ardent fan of Yanni's music since the early 80's hence my fixation on his long awaited "Ethnicity" album. I find his music true to the nature of his diverse artistic talent and expressions of love and generosity shown so vividly throughout all his recordings. "Ethinicity" is in fact a CD that captures Yanni at most his most creative moments. It's different from the other recordings he has released and therefore carves a niche in the ever growing new age/easy listening genre market. The inclusion of the human voice in most of the songs on "Ethnicity" brings about a whole new meaning to the phrase 'expressions of music'. The vocal prowess of the artists on this CD is intense and accompanied by the lush, rhythmic arrangements that Yanni is so capable of produces an album of music that is hearfelt and timeless. Among all the tracks, the ones that stand out are "Rites Of Passage", "Almost A Whisper", "Rainmaker", "Play Time" & "At First Sight". This is truly a CD that has to be included in the collection of true lovers of the art of music and all that behold the power of music that heals, soothes and unites beings the world over. This is a CD for the world in this trying times...Yanni at his best..all over again!

This new release by Yanni is a masterpiece.....the vocals used are perfect and take you into another world....almost every song has vocals which is different from a lot of his earlier work....this album is very cohesive and each track molds and flows easily into the next.....it uses a lot of world sounds....celtic....new age and is a tour de force of an album! This cd is for anyone and everyone who loves easy listening!

I had an unending problem with my friends making fun of me in High School for always being a Yanni fan. Heck, Yanni was the first live concert I had ever actually paid to go to.

I always held strong against the taunts and teases, because of the talent that he always displayed in his compositions. That's why this album disappointed me so much. Some of the songs are good and I enjoy them, however most of them are just songs and not what I would call compositions. There are way too many vocals for his traditional mix of orchestral instruments to shine as they did in Live at the Acropolis and Tribute (which I thought were modern masterpieces). I wish that the whole album was more like Rainmaker with aggressive orchestra parts and exotic instrumentation.

There was way too much computer generated background music for the ladies to sing over the top of in most of the songs. I wonder if he's trying to go into a more modern sounding direction and bringing down what had made him so great in the past. Perhaps, however, making songs for a full orchestra, percussion, and horn lines takes too long and he's cutting some corners. Maybe it's his new label (Virgin) wanting to see him do something different.

I don't know, but I'll continue to be a fan and will check out his next album of original content (on a side note, he has WAY too many compilations out there)

This is Yanni as we love him best. His music is rich, moving and inspiring. At the first the vocals seem distracting, but after a few listens, they blend in and enhance his already complex symphony of sounds. True Yanni fans will not be disappointed by this long-awaited cd and will be eager to see him perform his new material in his upcoming concert tour.

I was never really into Yanni before but my mother is a huge fan of his music. One night while this CD was playing in the kitchen, I just happened to walk into the room when "Almost A Whisper" was on and I just totally fell in love with the song!! I love everything about the song, musically, lyrically, vocally!! The woman who did the singing sounds kind of like operatic and she has such a beautiful voice!!

After I fell in love with the song, and until I was able to buy my own copy, I borrowed this CD and listened to it in my room from beginning to end but my all time favorite track will always be Almost A Whisper!! I love it so much that many times since that first listen, I have put that one song on repeat because it's one of those songs that just totally flows flawlessly and you can hear it over and over again without getting bored!! I love that part that goes "Please Don't Give Up, Please Don't You Give Up, I Still Believe, I Still Believe, I Still Believe In Us." It's really romantic which is a definite plus since I am a total hopeless romantic!! That song alone just makes this CD a must have!! I have heard the original version of Almost A Whisper also and it's nice and I will be getting that CD with that version too but I just love this vocal version so much more!! The only problem I have is the song is not long enough because when you love a song so much, it's just over way too soon!!!

If you like Yanni or New Age at all, get this CD!!!

The previous release, "If I Could Tell You," was a nice detour from "Acropolis" and "Tribute." The works were significantly scaled-down (in a good way, i.e., lacking grandiose orchestration), while maintaining Yanni's signature style. You could say, he got back to his pre-"Acropolis" roots with this album.

Now with "Ethnicity," Yanni takes his music in a new direction. It's quite different, though I can't yet like/dislike it. He adds a few instruments back, including a LOT of vocals, with an apparent emphasis on African tribal rhythms. Though it all sounds great, it lacks the endearing (piano) touch of past works. It's a great album overall, though - I suppose once I get used to it, I might give it 5 stars.

Favorite tracks include "For All Seasons" (high-energy!) and "Almost a Whisper" (return to original work with beautifully sung lyrics added). The only [flop] is "The Promise," the other track with English lyrics - it sounds like a Lite-FM selection.