Customer Reviews

The Silver Tree

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I had never heard any of Lisa Gerrard's music. I am not familiar with Dead Can Dance, nor have I heard any of her soundtrack work. So I truly do come to this music without any preconceptions or expectations.

And I am now an instant fan.

I can see why Ms. Gerrard would be sought after as a music score composer. "The Silver Tree" is a very cinematic album. The music is spacious, and suggests that it may be telling some ambiguous story. I agree with the comments that others have made about "dark" balancing "light." It truly does feel like a journey of the soul, with moments of sorrow and joy, loss and ecstasy. It has a mournful quality, as if the music itself is weeping.

I see in the other reviews that many of the disappointed listeners may be victims of their own expectation since this doesn't "sound like her other work." I can only say that I may be in danger of being a "reverse victim"; I am so entranced by this music, I fear that her previous works will leave me disappointed! (However, I do intend to seek out her Dead Can Dance discography anyway.)

This is the kind of music that instantly sets me on a search to find more that sounds just like it. I have a feeling that in this case I just won't find much that will match the unique qualities of The Silver Tree. It's a one of a kind.

Lisa Gerrard has bared her soul, and it is a wonderful gift she gives us. If you pray or meditate, I think you will find Lisa Gerrard to be a worthy companion.

Lisa Gerrard is one of those rarest of musicians: she often manages to bore me, despite her amazing talent and almost superhuman vocal abilities. I love her when she's at her most intense (DCD's "Cantara") and in her rare blissful moments ("Nadir (Synchronicity)"), but at times her style is too repetitive, or worse, "New Age-y". So I'm surprised to find that I really love this album, despite the fact that it's neither intense nor joyous. Most of the songs here are like somber prayers, and musically the album is so minimalist that it could almost be called ambient music. In fact, my least favorite songs on the album are the few that stray from this formula, in which she tries to pick up the pace a bit or inject some of her old new age/world music styling. These few songs ruin the cohesiveness of the album, but otherwise I think it's great. Granted, it's not sunny day driving music...this is the sort of album you play as background music while reading in bed late at night. I can appreciate people's complaints that it is boring, but I actually love it for its quiet beauty.

I had never heard any of Lisa Gerrard's music. I am not familiar with Dead Can Dance, nor have I heard any of her soundtrack work. So I truly do come to this music without any preconceptions or expectations.

And I am now an instant fan.

I can see why Ms. Gerrard would be sought after as a music score composer. "The Silver Tree" is a very cinematic album. The music is spacious, and suggests that it may be telling some ambiguous story. It truly does feel like a journey of the soul, with moments of sorrow and joy, loss and ecstasy. It has a mournful quality, as if the music itself is weeping.

I see in the other reviews that many of the disappointed listeners may be victims of their own expectations since this doesn't "sound like her other work." I can only say that I may be in danger of being a "reverse victim"; I am so entranced by this music, I fear that her previous works will leave me disappointed! (EDITED TO ADD: This did indeed turn out to be the case! After initially writing this review, I purchased some DCD music... and failed to connect with it at the same level that I did with "The Silver Tree".)

This is the kind of music that instantly sets me on a search to find more that sounds just like it. I have a feeling that in this case I just won't find much that will match the unique qualities of The Silver Tree. It's a one of a kind.

Lisa Gerrard has bared her soul, and it is a wonderful gift she gives us. If you pray or meditate, I think you will find Lisa Gerrard to be a worthy companion.

The Silver Tree is an interesting album--interesting because it culls from various features of her previous work, but explores new territory. Songs like THE SEA WHISPERER return to the NOW WE ARE FREE theme first made famous in the Gladiator film (but this variation is performed in a quieter and more mediative tone).

SPACE WEAVER is trippy, Poristhead-like groove that you could imagine hearing in a chillout bar in LA. Throughout there are hints soundtrack splendour, ancient melodies and modern percussion. The fact remains that Lisa Gerrard is one of most gifted and awe-inspiring singers on earth.

Lisa Gerrard has always been one of my favorite singers. I loved her voice when she sang with Dead Can Dance, and I continued to enjoy her style since she started her solo career. Among her solo albums, her work scoring movies such as "The Insider" and "Whale Rider" attracted me the most... until this album.

"The Silver Tree" stands out in 2006 as a solid piece of ambient music that with the ethnic quality that has always been the staple of her music. The album scores an easy five stars, making it one of the best releases this year.

THE SILVER TREE retains Lisa Gerrard's signature gloom, but has a more limited sound palette than her previous albums, including her work with Brendan Perry as DEAD CAN DANCE. It has none of the baroque despair or medieval atmospherics of her other work, but instead presents a muted soundscape of simple songs that reveal Gerrard's ability to produce a quiet, more restrained emotional resonance. Try listening to some tracks from this album before you buy it; it represents a somewhat new direction for Lisa Gerrard, and diehard DCD fans may be challenged by the absence of more recognizable elements of Gerrard's work.

I have been a Lisa Gerrard fan since her Dead Can Dance days. What I have appreciated most about her is the way she uses her voice as an instrument. Atop spare, sweeping electronic orchestration, Lisa's distinct and obviously strictly trained voice and breathing truly take on a dimension of their own. And that is where this music takes you. To another dimension. In the opening track, InExile, Lisa attains what I've never heard from her before. A dusky, sonorous timbre that will set the tone for the rest of the album. On the way home listening to this in the car c.d. player, 'cinematic' came to mind, and I see here from other reviews this is a valid label for this disc. I even checked the insert when I got home, thinking 'The Silver Tree' may have been a movie I missed.

This is not a lively c.d. It is slow and unfolding, spiraling in places. Perfect music to listen to intently as there is more to this than meets the ear at first.

Haunting.

Ok listening, not good sleeping music because of too many tempo changes. Lisa's voice is sounding good on this album, but somewhat different than her previous work. Not bad, just different.

I am listening to this album for the first time after recieving it in the mail today. It's 2am and I can find no better soundtrack to the moment I am in. As a devoted follower of DCD and both Lisa and Brendan's solo work, I am once again blown away. Before getting the CD, I read far too many somewhat negative reviews by people stating that they prefered Lisa's older work with Dead Can Dance. Lisa is an evolving artist who never ceases to amaze me with the feats that her voice can achieve. It's the F***ng voice of heaven! I cannot fathom more angelic vocals in the world of music and no instrumental composition that is more perfectly suited for such a voice. Followers of DCD, Lisa, and Gerard will be overjoyed at the prospect of another volume of bliss to add to their collection. Twenty stars.

I was given this album as a gift from a friend - when handing the disc to me he said listen to track 7...it will blow you away.
I sometimes think that speaking and understanding Aramaic is th new "cool thing". Aramaic was my first language, taught to me by me grandmother who did not speak English very well. I have never forgotten "the language of the Lord, as some people choose to call it". Track 7, beginning with the two words Babun Bishmyah, in Aramaic...Our Father in Heaven. She is singing the Lords' Prayer, in the langguage that Christ spoke, in Aramaic.

Pretty amazing me thinks....and without the "hype" of Mel Gibsons' movie, The Passion. Mel Gibson being one of the greatest bigots on the planet, by the way - he hates gays, Jews, black people...in my opinion a travesty for him to make a movie spoken in the language of the Lord - "leshana aitekka" in Aramaic; the literal translation being "the old language".

Bottom line, in my humble opinion, Lisa Gerrard is an Angel....expressed in the way she sings, her voice....expressed in her choice of material......

Randolph, from San Francisco.