Customer Reviews

A Magical Gathering: The Clannad Anthology

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

 

 

A Magical Gathering: The Clannad Anthology
~ Clannad has created a unique mix of traditional Gaelic sng, contemporary folk,jazz,rock forms. This double album takes the listener through a guided tour of their studio albums to date and some live material. While cross licensing allows for a complete overview of their career this package is a finely honed reminder of what Clannad has achieved in their 30 plus years together. The whole gamut is there from traditional Gaelic balads to contemporray arrangemnts of traditional songs and their own material which veers into moody film score soundtracks and a synthesis of Celtic/Pop/Rock in tracks like Seanachas and Chroi Croga. As an introduction to Clannad's music this cant be beaten nor can it be faulted on its wide angled view of their musical development.

This album comes with 2 CDs.Disc 1 has 16 songs on it and disc 2 has 18 on it.A total of 34 songs!..thats a very good deal.True most of these songs are on their other albums but everone might not have all of their albums.This also comes with a neat little bonus.A 42 page book-let with lots of pictures and the biography of the band including some on Enya.Speaking of Enya,track 12 on disc 1 features her on lead.You can hear how her voice has matured over the years.If you already have all of their albums then there is no point in getting this one.If not,then this album will be a great deal for the money.

Having just discovered Clannad, this set was an absolutely fantastic find for me. It's got a great mix of modern and more traditional sounds. If you already own several Clannad CDs, you might find that this mix contains a lot of songs you already have, but if you're just discovering Clannad and Irish music, than this is a GREAT place to start.

I love Clannad. Since I first discovered them with MACALLA I was in love with sound! So I began to collect their albums. I now have them all including this GATHERING. My main problem matches similar reviews.

Let's make something clear. Clannad are not a hit machine. They have had a few hits in Europe and a few flukes in America considering soundtracks and such. But you won't find them performing at this year's MTV awards. So why all the hits albums, hmm?!

Ok let's start...CLANNAD LIVE was released in the 70s as a compilation of early tunes live. (Really, why hasn't Clannad done another live album since?)

Then around the mid 80s K-Tel releases THE CLANNAD COLLECTION...a hits album. Which includes music from the 70s to mid 80s.

Then in 1989 they released PASTPRESENT. A collection of their music of the 80s but including two new tracks "The Hunter" and "World of difference". A worthy hits package this!

Then in 1992 to prmote the re-release of THE CELTS by Enya and the US release of ANAM a promotion CD was released...FAMILY TREE. Although it was not comercially available the CD was interesting as it featured Maire's solo stuff, Clannad and Enya.

Then in the mid 90s they released ROGHA:THE BEST OF CLANNAD which featured music from the 80s...yeah.

Then there was AN DOLIAN a collection of 70s music and then there was ULTIMATE COLLECTION and then, and then, and so on and so on! Sheesh! Oh yeah and then they released A MAGICAL GATHERING which features 70s,80s, and 90s with a rather nice informative booklet which is why I gave it three stars.

Except for LIVE and PASTPRESENT none of these albums offer anything unique from the band. No rare tracks, demos, live songs............nada! So Clannad, I love you but please put out a new album...your hits CDs are starting to stack higher than your albums!!!

This is the first Clannad album I bought, so the complaints of some of the other reviewers (that it had too much material already available elsewhere) didn't really bother me.

When I like Clannad, I really like Clannad. When I don't like them, I really don't like them. On this package, I really liked about three quarters of the music and really did not like the other quarter.

The stuff they've done with traditional Celtic and Gaelic music is great. I could listen to songs like the Theme From "Harry's Game", Nil Se Ina La, Caislean Oir and The Poison Glen a thousand times and still enjoy each one.

However, the new age-y 80s and 90s stuff like Sirius seems horribly dated.

That aside, if you don't have any Clannad albums and you like some of their stuff, this might be a good place to start.

A wonderful made CD. If you like Celtic music you'll like this CD. I have 3 of their other CD

I want to make it known that I adore Clannad with all my heart. I have been a fan since my fiance first introduced me to Banba several years ago. Since Banba, I have made it my mission to collect whatever Clannad full-length release I could find. I own only 2 compliation CDs by Clannad, the remaining CDs are non-compilation releases ranging from "Clannad 2" to "Landmarks."

This anthology was released by Rhino. I am very disappointed in Rhino. This anthology has nothing to appeal to a longtime fan of Clannad. The anthology is made up of familiar tunes ranging from Clannad's early stuff to the last release "Landmarks."

Rhino is known for being able to find rare gems and golden nuggets. Is Rhino starting to push quantity over quality?

If they couldn't find a nugget (which believe me, would be hard to find since Clannad have been releasing material since the later 70s), they could have included live performances from the band when played at Leo's for the PastPresent Video. How about a live performance from the BAFTA awards? Something from their very first tour of Germany, or from appearances on Top of the Pops?

My hope is Clannad will release a new album soon to make up for the unappeal this anthology has for the longtime fans of Clannad. What a pity! I think I am going to go spend my money on that debut from Dirty Vegas.

This album is a joke! No offense to Clannad fans but this entire release is a 2 CD album of works from their early albums trough their 1998 Landmarks CD and everyone of these songs are on numerous other collections.

They already had like 6 collections plus there was the Greatest Hits that was put out a couple of years ago and numerous collections too. This anthology offers nothing new. It's time for some new material and new album!

Clannad is an incredibly talented band with powerful tracks but all these collections and samplers is becoming extremely redundant plus it diminishes the power of their songs too(in my opinion).

This anthology is everything I already have! END OF STORY!