Mother Night

Nuit | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 10, 2001)
• Original Release Date: February 4, 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• ASIN: B00006JSOV
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,011,396 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Out of the House of Sleep

2. Dance!

3. The Summoning

4. Just the Sky

5. Nobody There

6. In Paradise

7. ... Unto Whom I Send This Kiss

8. Mother Night

9. Burning Hearts

10. Whisper

11. Look At Me

12. The Crown

13. Reflected In a Bowl of Sky

14. November Song

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crystal Blue Perfection, September 11, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Mother Night (Audio CD)

Nuit's "Mother Night" has recently joined some esteemed company in my head -- the running list of albums I consider perfect. To make this list, an album has to stand as a complete work, every song and sound and silence landing in exactly the right place from beginning to end. "Mother Night" accomplishes this so effortlessly that it took me several listens even to notice how perfect it is.

Listening through to "Mother Night," it's clear that Nuit was working with an overarching concept from moment one. The collection of song styles is incredibly diverse, yet each one contains enough of the identity of the overall album that the diversity reads more like explorations of a theme than the kind of schizophrenic collection-of-singles that is the hallmark of most debut albums.

The album is assembled almost like a piece of theater with an overture, two acts, an intermission, and a sort of closing-credits postlude. The opening instrumental, "Out of the House of Sleep," introduces several musical themes that appear throughout the album, while also introducing the listener to Nuit's signature pallete of live instruments ducking and weaving in around crisp jumpy drum loops and fat buzzing techno synths.

The first act displays the more energetic and upbeat side of Nuit. Highlights include "Dance," a chugging invocation to the audience that's reminiscent of what Pretty Hate Machine-era Nine Inch Nails might have done if Trent had taken his antidepressants; and the incredibly infectious "Just the Sky," which alternates between a happy squishy Cars-style lead synth melody, and an African-influenced jumpy guitar background, all layered over irresistable jittery techno rhythm.

Between acts, the instrumental "...unto Whom I send This Kiss" introduces the darker feel and the smokier acoustic sounds that are found throughout the second act, as well as showing off the guitar virtuosity that is hinted at, but mostly reined in, throughout the rest of the album.

The second act starts with the title track, a Middle-Eastern informed stew of acoustic guitar, wet techno rhythms, and saxophone-sitar, all coming together in a unlikely combination that works in a completely inspired mad-genius way. Other highlights include the spooky "Whisper," which repeatedly turns on a dime to alternate between ethereal and epic; and the closing track of the act, "The Crown," a soaring, uplifting, orchestral major-key anthem that is completely unlike everything before it, and yet at the same time the only logical wrap-up of the cycle the listener has experienced.

The second act is followed by an instrumental outro, "Reflected in a Bowl of Sky," a slow, airy, saxophone-heavy piece that would make a perfect conclusion to the album. Nuit, however, has one more trick, and closes "Mother Night" with "November Song," a cold, crystalline acoustic composition that brings the album back to reality much in the same way "A Day in the Life" grounds "Sgt Pepper"'s cycle.

All in all, "Mother Night" is an astonishing piece of music, part concept album, part musical theater, part techno-dance, part acoustic, yet really operating in an idiom that's none of these. You owe it to yourself, if you've read this far into this review, to give it a listen. Nuit is really onto something interesting and unique, here, and I can't wait to see what their next offering will bring.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mellow and moody, deep and soothing..., September 12, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Mother Night (Audio CD)

Nuit create textures and musical moods somewhat akin to Delerium and Enigma. Lyrically, they touch upon deeper and more esoteric subjects. A perfect album to relax to, or perhaps to play under the moonlight while pondering the deeper meanings of life, the universe and everything.