23. January 2025
Home » Music & Media » Media Review » Lindsey Stirling – Duality
Media Review

Lindsey Stirling – Duality

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Lindsey Stirling - Duality

Lindsey Stirling - Duality
4.9

Rating

 4.9/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Great, very modern mix of classical and pop songs
  • Lovely violin play
  • Very entertaining, versatile album

I have to give in – as a music blogger, I should have known Lindsey Stirling way before 17th May 2024. On that day, I ran into the new single Evil Twin, which finally lead my Songs of the Week at that date. Evil Twin is also the opening track of her new album Duality, which has been released on 14th June 2024. I just had to have more of her and share my thoughts.

 

Lindsey Stirling – About The Artist

Lindsey Stirling was born on 21st September 1986 in Santa Ana in California. She is a world famous violinist. Her songs range from classical tracks like Beethoven interpretation to pop and rock songs. Apart from that, she is also active as a songwriter and dancer. Her self-titled debut album released in September 2012 was already a global success. It sold 300,000 units in Germany only, where the album peaked fourth in the (overall) album charts. The album even topped the US Dance Album Charts, the US Dance Album Chart and the overall charts in Austria.

Especially her following two albums, Shatter Me (2014) and Brave Enough (2016) were huge as well. They both made it to the Top 10 (non-genre specific) in the USA, Austria, Canada, Germany and Switzerland. Stirling’s last album release was Snow Waltz in 2022. Duality is already her seventh studio album. Her YouTube videos have overall been played some 3.5 billion times.

 

Lindsey Stirling – Duality – Track by Track

The twelve song album lasts 43 minutes:

1. Evil Twin

In general, I would name Duality being an instrumental album. However, quite some songs like Evil Twin also use vocals, for example as a background element. The opener comes with a nice dramatic plot. The violin is in focus, but also instruments, including string ones complete the sound. This leads to a hymnic, very atmospheric sound. Fantastic song.

2. Eye Of The Untold Her

The second song of the album, Eye Of The Untold Her, opens with a floating piano melody. However, Stirling and her guitar join in soon. The sound of this track feels more present, has majestic parts, which drop suddenly to change into playful small ditties. There is, of course, no need to discuss about the excellence of the violin play. The rhythmic parts lead to a nice pop touch.

3. Surrender

Surrender partially feels like a rock songs, guitars are also energizing the chours. On the other hand, the stanzas are fine and gentle and focus on Lindsey’s key instrument. There is truly Duality in this song. Later in the song, the atmospheric background vocals are coming back as well.

4. Serenity Found

This song is more on the atmospheric side. It feels melancholic, sad, but you also feel a bit lonely and lost while listening. This does not mean at all that I don’t like it. It is really a beauty, which also has a nice leverage of piano and violin sounds.

5. Untamed

With Untamed, the album becomes very energetic again. One key element of the song are the very present drums, which remind of big stage shows. Again, Lindsey Stirling presents a very versatile and entertaining song. Despite its rather short duration (three minutes roughly) the song does not feel random or chaotic. This underlines her excellent songwriting.

6. Purpose

Like in many songs of the album, the violin also here feels to take over a vocal role at the beginning. However, Stirling also works with real vocals and the violin turns into a playful melodic lead. A lovely way to leverage between classical and pop elements.

7. The Scarlett Queen

The Scarlett Queen is one of the songs with the most definitely classical music profile. The music could have been taken from a classical dance song or a similar work. However, the drumming give it a light, entertaining touch – even if you are typically not into that kind of music.

8. Inner Gold (feat. Royal & the Serpent)

Royal & the Serpent is the alter ego of Ryan Jillian Santiago, an American singer and songwriter. She is supporting Stirling as vocalist in Inner Gold, which has also been a single. The song feels very pop-ish, even though the violin stays very present. A very modern style, which works out really well.

9. Survive (feat. Walk Off The Earth)

Survive has two keys properties in common with the predecessor. It has been released before the album and it uses guest musicians. This time, the support comes from Canada from the indie-rock/pop band Walk Off The Earth. Again, the song is very modern and makes you dance to its vibes. The rhythm partially leans towards Latin American styles, the chorus, however, is a straight dancefloor track. Compared to Inner Gold, though, the violin is less present in this one.

10. Kintsugi

As far as I could find out, the song title refers to the Japanese name for gold compounds. Again, the Duality album presents a very modern track, which has a strong pop music touch.

11. Firefly Alley

The second last song of the album again comes with a present rhythm, but also feels dark, threatening in some parts of the song. However, there are also some rather fine parts in there, which lean towards folk music.

12. La Fees

Finally, Lindsey presents a very modern track, which also comes with some surprising themes. Just as if the US-American wants to state “Give Me a style or a genre and I turn it into a song of my world. Fascinating, but with extremely high quality.

 

Lindsey Stirling – Duality – Track by Track

Here is the album on Spotify:

 

Lindsey Stirling – Duality – Track by Track

I love country, hard rock, pop… Some of you might like the one of the other genre as well. Regardless what your favorite is (but especially if you root for pop), I absolutely recommend having a listen. Lindsey Stirling is genius and the album gave me a really entertaining time. If you are a master in what you are doing, you can do any song great in your world of music, I believe.

Favorite Song: La Fees

 

Lindsey Stirling – The Duality Tour 2024/25

In October and November 2024, Lindsey Stirling hosts a wide range of shows all over Europe. Here are the tour dates:

Fr 04.10.2024 Oslo (Norway) – Spektrum
Sa 05.10.2024 Stockholm (Sweden) – Annexe
Tu 08.10.2024 Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg) – Rockhal
We 09.10.2024 Prague (Czechia) – O2 Universum
Th 10.10.2024 Krakow (Poland) – Tauron Arena
Fr 11.10.2024 Budapest (Hungary) – MVM Dome
Sa 12.10.2024 Vienna (Austria) – Wiener Stadthalle
Mo 14.10.2024 Amsterdam (Netherlands) – AFAS Live
We 16.10.2024 Dusseldorf (Germany) – Mitsubishi Electric Halle
Th 17.10.2024 Brussels (Belgium) – Forest National
Fr 18.10.2024 Hamburg (Germany) – Barclays Arena
Sa 19.10.2024 Berlin – Uber Arena
Mo 21.10.2024 Zurich (Switzerland) – The Hall
Tu 22.10.2024 Frankfurt (Germany) – Festhalle
Th 24.10.2024 Nantes (France) – Zenith Metropole
Fr 25.10.2024 Paris – Zenith Paris
Sa 26.10.2024 Lyon – Halle Tony Garrier
Mo 28.10.2024 Milan (Italy) – Arcimboldi Theater
Tu 29.10.2024 Eckbolsheim (France) – Zenith de Strasbourg
Th 31.10.2024 London (United Kingdom) – Royal Albert Hall
Sa 02.11.2024 Dublin (Ireland) – The Helix
Mo 04.11.2024 Manchester (United Kingdom) – O2 Apollo
Tu 05.11.2024 Glasgow – Royal Concert Hall

 

Instrumental Music

Here are all postings about Instrumental Music:

 

Flyctory.com – Best in Travel 2023

Here are all Travel-related postings published in 2023 with a rating of 4.5 or better:

You might also like

Fury in the Slaughterhouse – now

Beartooth – The Surface

Ryan Bingham – Watch Out For The Wolf EP

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *