The Promise

Il Divo returns with a new album, The Promise, continuing their beautiful operatic sound. The unfortunate turn of this album is although it got high amounts of praise on shows like Oprah's, the album lacks any variation. Each track sounds the same and follows a repetitive outline.

The voices are beautiful as they always are, though if you've ever seen a live performance, they are better. Instead of being emotional in several of their tracks, they are precise and cold. Maybe it's the fact that the songs aren't in English that there is a break in connection, but it sounds almost like they just wanted to get the track done and they read the lines as they went.

Song selection is key for using classics and Il Divo made some awkward decisions on which to perform. I'm disappointed by "Hallelujah," since the version from Jeff Buckley or KD Lang's version both stand out so much. Even with the sweeping harmonies and strong voices, there is something lacking on the track: the gentleness and quiet strength. As a big fan of ABBA, Il Divo's version of "The Winner Takes It All" was an eyebrow-raiser. There was just something different about men singing the song that didn't fit.

Instead of strong harmonies, the loud, powerful voices of Il Divo tend to clash instead of harmonize. It's as if each member is trying to fight for the spotlight by the time the song crescendos to a spectacular finish. It also seems like all the tracks have that crescendo in the end as well. All the songs except for "Angelina" have that group singing at the crescendo. The singing is beautiful when they all sing individually (or even in pairs) and each one has a distinguishable voice, it's when they sing together that they clash. It's as if, in several songs on the album, the parts outweigh the whole. I would like to see the four singers, S?bastien Izambard, Carlos Mar