Title: Sadly rather stilted
Product review: I think "Adiemus 2" is one of the best CDs in my collection, and the original "Adiemus" is also pretty wonderful. However, in 3, Jenkins slipped up. The beauty and grand feeling of the first two are replaced by jigs, and pretty trite ones at that. Phrases are unnecessarily repeated, and obvious hooks are run over and over to the point of distraction. And fairly frequently, the music will just bounce to a stop and then go on again, a technique that grows tired very quickly. In the service of this style, the instrumentation and vocals (which are still pristine) sound awfully contrived, even pretentious. There's some very impressive musical ability on display here, but it too often just doesn't amount to anything with emotion.I really wanted to like this album, but I just can't. There are some good moments, but it's too hard to let the sounds carry you away when you're busy rolling your eyes. Give this a miss, but run, don't walk to pick up "Adiemus 2".
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