Bye Bye Beautiful
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I got into Nightwish not very long before the End of an Era firing of vocalist Tarja Turunen. I had not really been following the band all that much, and beyond the actual songs I knew very little about it. I associated Nightwish with the vocalist, and not with music being written by Tuomas Holopainen. So I was shocked that they were going to replace what I thought was the defining aspect of the band.
And so I was eager and excited to hear that Turunen was going to be releasing a solo album. By this time I had begun to appreciate the actual music beyond the voice, and was excited to be having a new Nightwish album and a new Tarja album in the same year.
Dark Passion Play, with its new singer Anette Olzon quickly became my most-played album ever; it started off slow and finally built up to me absolutely adoring it. Even the song Master Passion Greed, sung solely by bass player Marco Hietala became a favourite (along with his song The Islander) helping me move beyond my refusal to listen to anything other than female-fronted metal.
All was good, and My Winter Storm was on its way. I Walk Alone was already receiving playtime on my iTunes. I just couldn’t wait for My Winter Storm.
But when it finally came out, and I heard it for the first time, all I could think was Bye Bye Beautiful.
It’s bland. It’s boring. The lyrics are cheesy. And I have to force myself to listen to it. I tried to listen to it while writing this entry and only managed to get to the tenth track before switching over to Dark Passion Play. After talking to a friend about MWS, I’m now listening to Epica and am refusing to go back to MWS.
The album has its moments, but they are few and far between. Without the vocals several would make for excellent background music, but that’s not what you want to say about a person “renowned” for their vocals and their debut album. My Winter Storm lacks spark and personality, and offers nothing for someone like me - someone who is not a Tarja-devotee. Unless Tarja really steps up with her next offering, I will just have to say this:
Bye bye beautiful.
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Well, I haven’t really given a chance to Nightwish since they fired Tarja. I don’t like the new singer but I might as well download the album and listen to it. Everyone is saying is very good, whilst Tarja’s sucks. That’s unfortunate cause Tarja’s voice is way better, stronger, sharper and sublime than Anette’s.
We’ll see….I hope I don’t have to say by bye beautiful to Tarja as I did with Nightwish when they fired her…
I hope you had a great Christmas! ;D
A little smile, a word of cheer, a bit of love from someone near; a little gift from one held dear, best wishes for the coming year… May you have a wonderful 2008! ^_^
Well, Tarja’s voice wasn’t as great as everyone made it out to be - too throaty and in no way truly operatic. And Anette is not meant to sound like Tarja, so to compare the two voices is like comparing apples and an Apple iMac. Tarja’s voice is “operatic parody”, while Anette’s is more “clean”.
I think I’ll just have to quote my friend who is involved in opera/music etc:
And in many cases it sounds like she’s not been practicing, some of the faults present in her Nightwish years have become more pronounced; I got the mental image that she became convinced she was great, so why bother?
The songs sound very cookie-cutter; there’s only two or three patterns that make up the songs, and the main one is “(big instruments for a second,) soft music while Tarja/sings speaks an intro, then builds up to something bigger”. Which gets old fast, and there’s no real flavour after the first one.
And the lyrics… holy cow. Now, Nightwish had some odd lyrics, but they made it work. Tarja falls flat.
I’ve only heard Amaranth from Dark Passion Play so far but, just from that, I very much prefer Anette’s voice to Tarja’s.
Epica FTW!
My faves that have Anette are
the whole album: Poet and the Pendulum, Amaranth, Bye Bye Beautiful, Eva, Whoever Brings the Night and 7 Days To The Wolves.I much prefer Anette to Tarja too. I can (and am doing so again!) listen to Dark Passion Play for hours on repeat. I’ve just finished the last track now and Poet is just starting now.
Female-fronted metal FTW!