U.S. An'them: A Collection of National Anthems

Garry Dial

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 23, 2008)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• ASIN: B001GQXT8W
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #221,650 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Enya Meets Paul Winter, January 3, 2009

By	Harley Mucklow (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews

Imagine Paul Winter getting drunk one night and going home with Enya... only their version of "doing the dirty deed" is to butcher the anthems of unsuspecting nations until dawn.

I ordered this CD after hearing an interview on NPR. The anthem played on the radio was the Brazilian one... sung by a Brazilian... in Portuguese.. in a style native to Brazil. And that's what the CD opens with. Nearly all the rest are performed (nearly always in English) in the rather vaguely dissonant, lazy, pseudo-jazzy style ideally suited to the temperament of a group of Bay Area New Age practitioners.

The most unbearable of the anthems is that of France. Not only is it performed in the aforementioned style, but it is performed in English with an uber-rhotic "r" that I have heretofore only ever heard from a Czech high school student trying to imitate an American accent. Austria's is nearly as bad, and would no doubt bring most natives of that country to their knees, begging for another Anschluß with Germany.

There are a couple of exceptions (Israel for example, which somehow sounds like it was arranged by the manager of a South African "Up With People!" tour), but by and large this album is redundant and just bad. Don't buy it. I'm only glad that I bought it from a vender who was unloading it for under $2.