Enigma - A compilation of the best

Michel Cretu the creator of Enigma, set about making sure the music of enigma was in the essence of LSD: Love, Sensuality & Devotion. The music of Enigma is diverse and yet in this diversity there is harmony, there is eloquence. Indeed this album release is the best of the best that Enigma has to offer.



The CD takes several songs from each of the Enigma Album and blends them together well. By this I mean, the songs aren't randomly placed in the album but have been carefully prepared and placed in order and in a sequence that makes this album such a easy listening, entertaining and engrossing listen.



You have chants, you have just musical scores, you have Cretu's magnificant voice - for any listener he or she will get what they want from this album. For any true to the heart Enigma fan - you must have this glorious album

Lame Sappy Drivel.

A lot of people like Enigma, and nothing wrong with that, I guess. A lot of people also like Slim Jims. No accounting for tastes. But when I read some of these reviews, in which New-Agey "sensualists" gush on about how Enigma "changed the way we look at pop music" and so on, I feel compelled to write my own review in response.



I mean, come on people. At its very best, Enigma is bland, insipid, uninspired elevator music. If you're looking for something to take the abrasive edge off that Enya record, or you're having a discussion about freshness over flavored instant coffee with your mom and you need a soundtrack, or you just want an album that won't distract you from staring at your wallpaper for hours on end, welcome home.



There's nothing worse than when somebody who is really totally artless develops "artistic pretensions." In the case of Enigma, Michael Cretu exhausted his entire store of creativity with the (itself impossibly lame) hit "Sadeness Pt. 1," and it's all been downhill from there. Either he repeats the exact same formula, in which his mystic electronic schlock is at least marginally held together by repetitive white man's hip-hop beats, or he lifts some exotic miscellanea from a world music CD and backs it with Cirque de Soleil synthesizers, or he tries to actually produce "songs," with, like, singers and lyrics and stuff, but the songs invariably suck, the singers invariably blow - especially when Cretu himself lays down the vocal, yikes - and the lyrics are so bad that it isn't even funny, it's practically vicariously humiliating.



By the way man, not many people know about this, but if you take the initials of the title, it's like he's talking about LSD dude! Oh my god man, wicked. This dude is like on drugs dude! Sweet.



(P.S....OK. I wrote this review based on my memory of Enigma, and really, I wasn't too far off the mark. Having just re-listened to a few tracks at a friend's house, I am willing to amend that the "Sliver" mix of "Age of Loneliness" really isn't too horrible, even with the cheesily-sexy breathy French chick rattling off corny lines addressed to the film's lead character. And "Callas Went Away," although it doesn't appear here, and in spite of the fact that it is likewise bursting with cheese-corn, actually makes me feel like I'm in the middle of some forest sporting around with nymphs and fauns and Yanni. Credit where credit is due.)

Pure Genius

Enigma are one on their own--the singing monks the sureal instruments that transport you to a different world a world long ago.This is music to relax to and to meditate to and to get really carried away with.All the best of their albums are here although not enough new material.This is a must for fans of Enigma and people who want to experience something out of this world.Let yourself float away!



*** Also Recommended: MEHDI~Instrumental Heaven Volume 7 - Samples are at SoothingMusic.Com...A True Gem, Just Go Listen.