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Il Divo - 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, Sébastien Izambard, Carlos Marín, David Miller and Urs Bühler, have a chance to shine by themselves with solo tracks; tracks that don’t crescendo into screaming.
The only standout of the whole album is their version of “Amazing Grace,” ironically their only song that is fully in English. It’s funny that their version of “Amazing Grace” sounds just like Josh Groban’s “You Raise Me Up,” complete with musical interlude in the middle followed by a key change.
The album overall is quite soothing and enjoyable to any fan. Unfortunately there was something that this reviewer just didn’t like that kept me from loving the album. The men who make up Il Divo are talented and good singers, but shouldn’t sing on top of each other. The album sounds the same from beginning to end so there are no awkward gaps in tempo. If you are a fan of Josh Groban or Andrea Bocelli, this is your cup of tea. That is, if you could stand constant crescendos and harmonized screaming at the end of each song.
Reviewer: Michael Pascua
new
Reviewer's Rating: 6.5
Reader's Rating: 9.00
Reader's Votes: 8
Added: 2-Dec-2008
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