Anneke van Giersbergen
With Residentie Orkest The Hague
Symphonized

Anneke van Gieesbergen is a great musical hero; she has an excellent voice and often appears on great albums performing great songs. Sure, the Vuur album from last year was a tad dreary but when Anneke is involved there is always hope for great things and for this album she has teamed up with a symphony orchestra and performs songs from her long career with songs from the likes of Vuur, The Gathering, Gentle Storm to name a few. Eleven tracks an one hour of music is what we are getting.

The music is symphonic and sung in a really great way by Anneke and the symphonies add depth and power to the songs. The songs are of the slower kind and they all feel quite similar, except for the ending track Shores of India that stands out a bit from the other tracks. The production is great, as are the vocals, excellent performances and strong powerful sound. However, there could be some faster songs, which would have added a bigger sense of variation to the album and that would have been a very positive thing.

Sure, the album is good, the songs are good and Anneke sings brilliantly as always but the album doesn’t really feel like it is realising all the potential that exist within a career such as Anneke’s. The ending song Shores of India is the only one that feels like a standout song, but that one is magical and one of the song highlights of this year. Not that the other songs are poor but as I alluded to in the earlier paragraph, I think the album could have used some faster songs to create a more dynamic and exciting album. Not that this one is poor, just not as exciting as I imagine it could have been.

I am not sure this album lives up to what it could have been, it is a good album but the lack of variation in the songs feels a little bit detrimental to the bigger picture. The excellent ending also shows a glimpse of what it could have been, but even though it may not be as great as it feels it could have been I still think that the album is quite good. Could be an album that is worth checking out, it is a fine album with a great crescendo.

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