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Blackmore’s Night – Nature’s Light

Florian Buechting Media Review No Comments

Blackmore's Night - Nature's Light

Blackmore's Night - Nature's Light
3.4

Rating

 3.4/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • The incredible talent of Blackmore, Night and their band
  • Some lovely folk rock/pop recordings

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Overall, some of the songs are not concise enough

Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night – the two masterminds behind the US folk–rock band Blackmore’s Night, are indeed big names of the music business. When I read about their new album Nature’s Light, which is about to be released on 12th March 2021, I definitely felt to share my thoughts with you. Here is my album review.

 

Blackmore’s Night – About The Artists

The 1945-born Ritchie Blackmore is a music superstar since the late 1960’s. In 1968, he was part of the founding members of Deep Purple, in 1975, he founded Rainbow. As his first two wifes boths were German, he lived in Germany for quite a long time and is fluent in the language. Candice Night is in fact his fourth wife. They married in 2008 and live on Long Island. They know each other since 1989 and founded Blackmore’s Night in 1997. Candice is the vocalist of the band, Ritchie plays the guitar. The band is currently having six members. David Baranowski plays the keyboard, Mike Clemente the bass, Scarlet Fiddler the violin and the current percussionist calls himself the Troubador of Aberdeen.

Even though Blackmore’s Night is a US-American band, they had their major success in Germany. All Blackmore’s Night studio albums, including the 1997 debut Shadow of the Moon, made it to the Top 25 there. No album made it to the US charts, though. The only single ranked in the German charts is Just Call My Name (I’ll be There), which just made it there, being placed 92nd for one week. Candice Night was a guest voice on the title track of Avantasia’s 2019 album Moonglow. I also rated this song as my favorite non-country song of that year.

 

Blackmore’s Night – Nature’s Light – Track by Track

The ten track album lasts 46 minutes.

1. Once Upon December

The album starts with an Italian traditional, Once Upon December, which has been adopted by Blackmore’s Night. The amazing voice of Candice Night and the lovely interpretation with sleigh bells and the hurdy-gurdy leads to a very authentic touch. A time travel to the medieval days.

2. Four Winds

Four Winds is one of my absolute favorites of the album. It comes with traditional instruments, but is also has a strong rhythm and thus feels very modern. Even if you don’t like the medieval touch of other Blackmore’s Night songs not that much, Four Winds may thus be a very pleasing listen to you.

3. Feather In The Wind

Feather In The Wind is again very rhythmic, but also quite uptempo, so that it feels to catch and forces you to move to the swinging tunes of the drums. The song is one of the most catchy songs of the album.

4. Darker Shade of Black

Darker Shade of Black is almost instrumental. There are, however, backing vocals singing different chords. The song is kind of boring to me, even though it comes with some nice instrumental breaks.

5. The Twisted Oak

Even despite the medieval-alike sound of Blackmore’s night, The Twisted Oak rather feels like a story told by a singer-songwriter in a music pub or similar. I enjoy listening to Candice Night’s voice in this song, but overall it is neither a catching song nor a catching story.

6. Nature’s Light

The title track of the album is also the opener to the second half of the album. The first association I had to the melody was a Duke or a King marching into his castle, being cheered at from his folk. And, in fact, Nature’s Light is not too far away from that:

All Hail the Queen!
Into a world I’ve never seen
I’ve never seen the stars so bright
All in the glory of Nature’s Light

7. Der letzte Musketier

Der letzte Musketier (“The last musketeer”) proofs two things: first of all, Ritchie Blackmore is better in German than I am (as a native speaker). I would have said, you use the neutral article here (Das letzte Musketier) – but he is right. Secondly, Blackmore’s Night is beautiful in purely instrumental track. Just listening to the instrumental skills of the band for almost five minutes is just lovely. And there is even a flavor of a Ritchie Blackmore solo on this track.

8. Wish You Were Here (2021)

This one is a cover – not the classic super-song by Pink Floyd, but the song the Swedish country poppers Rednex made famous in 1997 (and which topped the German, Austrian, Swiss, but not the Swedish charts…). In this Blackmore’s Night version, the song almost feels orchestral, majestic. The backing vocals give it an incredible depth. I loved the crazy Swedes in the mid-1990’s, but Candice Night is just even feeling a bit more special than Annika Ljungberg, who did great in the original.

There is one downside, though. The band already released that song already ont heir 1997 debut album Shadow of the Moon (as a closing track). Even though the 2021 version feels superior to me, the release feels quite unnecessary.

9. Going To The Faire

Going To The Faire is another traditional tune, which has been adopted and “modernized” by Ritchie Blackmore. The song is neither rock/pop enough to me to be modern, nor it feels traditional. That’s all not too bad – unfortunately, I miss some catching character of the song. I could not find it.

10. Second Element

The final track of the album is Second Element, which turns out to be the epic finale with 6:06 minutes playtime. If you feel that this tune is familiar to me: the song has originally been recorded by Sarah Brightman. I unfortunately feel that Brightman did better, even though Blackmore’s Night really tried to add a very own touch to the track.

 

Blackmore’s Night – Nature’s Light – Spotify

Here is the 2021 Blackmore’s Night album on Spotify:

 

Blackmore’s Night – Nature’s Light – My View

Nature’s Light is not at all a bad album. There are some highlights in it. But that’s just less than I expect from Blackmore’s Night. Ritchie Blackmore, a legend of rock and music in general and Candice Night, a signature and gifted vocalist. The album is knocking on the top level of the rating ladder, but finally falling down by a couple of steps. Too many songs which just cannot justify the sunnymost places.

 

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