Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Capercaillie CD I've heard so far, November 1, 1999
By A Customer
I'm new to Celtic/Scottish music. I started out with Capercaillie's _Beautiful Wasteland_, loved it so much I ordered _Delirium_ here on Amazon and thought it was BETTER than _Beautiful Wasteland_. Favourite tracks include: (1) Rann Na Mona, (2) Waiting For The Wheel To Turn, (4) Cape Breton Song, (8) Coisich, A Ruin, and (11) Breisleach. Listen to the samples here and hear for yourself! The difficult part now is to choose my next Capercaillie CD...BTW, I also ordered Karen Matheson's solo CD, _The Dreaming Sea_. Same beautiful voice, soothing songs...
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"You've brought me to foolish babbling...", July 13, 1998
"Breisleach" ("Delirium") on track 11, alone, is worth the price of the album. The group's understated musicianship allows Karen Matheson an almost acappella performance of Aonghas MacNeacoll's haunting contemporary poem. "...I went to the ale-house yesterday / To expel you from my head. / Every glass I raised, / Your beauty overflowed from it. / I went to bed early last night / To escape you in sleep / But you kept me awake / Till I'd make you a song..." "Coisich a Ruin" ("Come On, My Love") is an updated version of an old Highland work song (variants are sung in my native Nova Scotia to this day) ...the lively beat and deft treatment got this onto the U.K. Top 40, surely the first and only Gaelic song to do so. (Don't worry; if you don't have the Gaelic, the CD booklet includes translations.) I've given this album as a gift, recommended it to friends, and enjoy my copy immensely. Do yourself a favor.! ! ..get to know Capercaillie.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Celtic Funk is borne, January 17, 2002
The shift in approach and style between previous Capercaillie albums and Delirium is one of the most remarkable transformations in world music. While early recordings showed the band as an interesting but overly predictable and precious traditional celtic group, Delirium hits hard with a delightfully spontaneous blend of the prior elements with pop, funk, world and jazz overtones. For instance, the start of "Rann Na Mona", while stunningly beautiful, does recall Enya or Clannad doing Enya's style, but that quickly dissolves into a swirling skirmish of old and new. "Waiting for the Wheel to Turn" is a welcome statement about one of England's darker moments, that of the Clearances in which Scottish farmers were driven off their land and right out of their country to make way for grazing sheep, "Coisich a Ruin" and "Cape Breton Song" are both resurrected and revitalized works from centuries past. If the lyrics weren't enough, the music and Karen Matheson's voice are even better. The juxtaposition of moods and tempos is near perfect, but the many fine pieces stand well on their own too. There are the cracking instrumentals and wistful ballads as always, but the pop style tunes measure up in every way thanks to thoughtful subject matter and lyrics and strong melodies such as "Heart of the Highland", "You will rise again", and "Dean Saor An Spiorad". Even the closer, "Servant to the Slave", in a plodding almost progressive style that one might want to hate, is a welcome change of mood with which to wind down the project. While some bands take albums and years to break through from humble beginnings, Capercaillie did it all on Delirium, embracing their Scottish roots and then letting them soar.
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