Customer Reviews

Harem

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These are wonderful remixes. There are 3 remixes of Harem and one of It's a Beautiful Day. These are lots of fun to listen to because they're so different from what Sarah usually does...The track list is this:
1-Hex Hector Vocal Mix (10:02)
2-Robbie Rivera Vocal Mix (6:32)
3-Manny Lehman Vocal Mix (11:05)
4-It's a Beautiful Day remixed by Groove Brothers (3:28)

I'm really not crazy about this remix Cd single. First of all, the remix for "It's a beautiful Day" is really bad. The beat is okay, but Sarah's voice is really badly sped up, and it's made her sound like a warbling chipmunk. I don't like the way they edited the vocal parts, but left the instrumentation the same.
The vibrato leaves a lot be desired!

I do like the other remixes, because they are well mixed, and a lot of the original parts of the song have been kept. My favourite of all is track 3, because it's got the most "original" parts from the song. This is the longest remix of Sarah, that I was always able to stand listening to.

Hex Hector remixes pretty well, but I can see a lot of "been there, done that" in his remix. There's not really much "new" sound to his version of this remix. It's colorful, and I can see myself dancing to it, but it's not sensational.

I bought the CD because it's collectible, and it's good to have a healthy collection of remixes of Sarah, as well as other artists.

So, I gave it 4 stars. It's not excellent, but it's worth buying.

These "Harem" remixes are quite fun - the Hex Hector mix being the finest of the three - all thumping, throbbing house beats with Brightman's crystalline voice sailing above all the insanity. However, like most remixes, these are best experienced on the dance floor or at a bar at 3:00AM when making out with the guy next to you. As a listening experience, Sarah's original album version is still the finest and, at times, even superior in terms of dancing to. As for the "It's A Beautiful Day" remix by the Groove Brothers (?), I find nothing outstanding about it and for the luv of God, what did they do to Sarah's voice? It's been altered & speeded-up to sound like the Munchkinland scene in "The Wizard of Oz". Once again, the album version is superior in both vocal and dance elements. Still recommended as a fun, party disc and remember, the "Harem" remixes were #1 on the Billboard dance charts.

This single is a missed opportunity! What you get is basically the album tracks with repetitive and dated house rhythms clumsily spread on top. Imagine if the Eastern instrumentation had been highlighted a la Transglobal Underground, or perhaps the ambiance explored in a similar way to the remixes William Orbit did for Madonna's "Frozen" single. Come on Sarah and Frank, give us a real remix, not just the same song with a cacophony of drum machines on top.

Very Highly Recommended, I love It's A Beautiful Day Remix, is amazing, all songs are great to Dance, with this Arabian sounds and electronic music is perfect for a Party.. is #1 Billboard Remixes so is necesary in your personal Sarah Brightman Collection.. 5 Stars!!

Sarah Brightman's my favorite female vocalist so I couldn't pass up buying this single because I absolutely love remixes, even though they're usually never as good as the original, as is the case here, but they're certainly not bad. "The Whiter Shade Of Pale" remixes that came out a couple years ago are much better than these "Harem" remixes but this is still worth having if your a Sarah Brightman fanatic like me.

The Hex Hector Vocal Mix has tablas and a big beat that keeps the entire song intact instead of breaking it up into certain parts, which is rare in remixes, and I find it stays the truest to the original format. I just wish it would have been shortened to about 8 instead of 10 minutes. - 4/5

The Robbie Rivera Vocal Mix contains the usage of strings, which all the remixes luckily do, and has a highly addictive rhythm that's a perfect 6 minutes and 32 seconds long so it doesn't tread into repetitive waters. - 4/5

The most interesting of the three has got to be the Manny Lehman Vocal Mix which is the longest in length, clocking in at a little over eleven minutes, but it surprisingly never becomes tiresome. This is a striking version for it includes drum machines and driving trance beats that blend in well to compliment the Middle Eastern strings and Sarah's soaring soprano. The Arabian male singing (minus any lyrics) towards the beginning is also very nice. - 5/5

The bonus track "It's A Beautiful Day" is an uninspired remix by the Groove Brothers and it's a poor representation of the stunning original. The operatic part of Puccini's classic is softened for some reason and the singing parts are so rushed that she vaguely sounds like a chipmunk at times. - 2/5

I bought this cd only because of Hex Hector's remix, even though I had never heard it. I like Sarah a lot but not all of her work.
After the first listening I would say Hex Hector's remix was good, not too busy or even loud. I was not very satisfied. Robbie Rivera's mix is and still is boring. The third one is a bit better but still lacks what Hex Hector did with this song, because alone the second time I listened to this remix I was in heaven, there is nothing I would change, the arabic sounds added to this tribal remix are a match made in heaven. A superb mix, and not one second too long.
The bonus remix of "It's A Beautiful Day" is cheesy, but after again the second time I listented to it, I loved it. I have these songs in my mind still today from yesterday, and I am going to get the whole cd. So, promotion once again has worked ;)

this is a great combination of middle east sounds mixed with the classical or angelical voice of Sarah. it has excellent mixes the best are the Hex hector mix, and the groove bros mix of the second single Beautiful Day. u Cant miss this!!!