Treasure / Celtic Treasure - Reviews

[Richard]

Hello Nicola!

I read your review rather quickly this morning, so I didn't comment then. I've read it again this afternoon, and I noticed that you were very complimentary about Hayley's singing on nearly all the tracks. I suspect quite a few people would buy the album on the strength of your review! Personally I disagree with most of your negative comments, but the world would be a boring place if everybody agreed about everything. Thank you for being so honest in your review, and for stimulating such an interesting discussion.

Incidentally, I made the link to Within Temptation's MySpace clickable in your post, by inserting url tags inside the brackets.

See you again soon,

Richard

[socalboy]

nicola said:

I mean, I don't like Summer Fly, but I can see it's appeal, it could have great potential, and I hope you are right, really. It will definitely reach out to a new audience who haven't heard Hayley before.

P.S. Oh, I know your name is Steve! HA!

Nicola:

Your sleuthing knows no bounds.

As for my being right or not about Summer Fly, it is likely we shall never know. For one thing, there really is no right or wrong about such things. As I used to say about the entertainment industry, right or wrong is defined as what your boss thinks it is on that day.

There is also no evidence that the powers that be at Decca/Universal will start listening to me – they have maintained a consistent pattern of ignoring my suggestions, just as the current U.S. administration does. i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

So my hopes for heavy airtime and a music video for Summer Fly (with Hayley turning the pages of a scrapbook as she wakes up in a start and flashes back to her warm childhood nights) shows no signs of coming to fruition. But I can dream (just like Hayley does in the video).

One thing I believe could and should happen: A duet of Summer Fly with Hayley and Mairead on her fiddle would be lights out at a CW concert. It’s probably too late for the first leg of Hayley’s appearances, but not for the second. Someone should be pressing for it. In the States we would call this a slam dunk. Let me know if anyone needs a translation.

[toronado]

I can't really give a track by track review, and I don't really know much about the technical aspect of the music, but I do know how it makes me feel. The one thing I love most about this album is its expressiveness. When I am listening to this album, I close my eyes, and I can picture the expressions on Hayley's face, and I feel like I can almost feel the emotions she's feeling as she sings the songs. That having been said, this album has such emotional diversity, it's like a roller coaster ride in and of itself. One moment you feel almost a wistful longing, the next you feel quite melancholy, and on the next song you might feel hopeful and bright. Maybe these songs are very similar to what Hayley has done in the past, but they feel new because they feel personal to Hayley, and I think it comes through.

[jimf]

This is only my third post on this forum but I wanted to enter my impressions of Hayley’s newest album. Since I live in America, I have only heard the Celtic Treasure version of the album. The album is wonderful and easily her most fully realized artistic statement.

Let me start by saying that I think Hayley is just magnificent on this album. My first impression of the album, though, is just how much better the overall production is. Even though I liked both Pure and Odyssey, I always felt that there were moments of almost embarrassingly amateurish production. No fault of Hayley’s. An example was the overly dynamic middle-section of “Benedictus” on Pure that might blow-out your speakers and wake your neighbors if you weren’t careful. On Odyssey, I felt the production of “My Heart Belongs to You” was sappy and poorly engineered and marred a fine performance by Hayley. My hope of a new production team for Hayley was strengthened last year when I read an interview with Giles Martin where I felt he was almost ridiculing the work he had done producing in the classical crossover genre. I thought Hayley deserved better then a fairly inexperienced producer riding more or less on his father’s, rather then his own, reputation. So I was very happy to see she had a new production team. The work of all members of the current team is stellar throughout Celtic Treasure. The album sounds fantastic. Hayley never has to overcome poor or ridiculous production to shine.

Another impression is that Celtic Treasure is very coherent and consistent artistically. Whereas Pure and Odyssey felt like collections of completely unrelated songs from different genre’s, every song on Celtic Treasure feels like it belongs. Even though the songs may vary stylistically, they all feel like one piece of the same puzzle. You can sit down and listen to the entire CD and it feels like one experience. With Pure and Odyssey, the differences in songs and styles were almost jarring and would take you out of the listening “experience”.

The best thing about Celtic Treasure is Hayley herself. You keep thinking she couldn’t get any better and her voice any more beautiful, but she is just stunning on this album. Her interpretation on songs such as “Danny Boy”, “Sonny”, and “One Fine Day” show a growth and maturity that bode very well for her future as an artist. No longer is this a precocious girl singing note perfect renditions of songs; Hayley is very much a young woman with significant life experience now breathing her heart and soul into the music she sings.

I respect Hayley very much for singing the music she loves. You have to believe she is under pressure from the record company to make her records more marketable for American audiences. Somehow, I just don’t see Hayley alongside the garbage that gets airplay here. She is not going to shake her hips like Shakira or have a Justin Timberlake induced “wardrobe malfunction”. That being said, I think that “Summer Rain” and “Summer Fly” could both be successful here in the States if they were promoted. They are both excellent, commercial songs, perfectly executed.

In conclusion, I love this album by Hayley. It is far and away her best, in my opinion. I’m hopeful that this album, along with her increased profile here with Celtic Woman, will gain Hayley many new fans.

[Richard]

Hello Jim!

Many thanks for your very interesting review. I agree that the production of 'Treasure' is superior to both 'Pure' and 'Odyssey', so I must congratulate Nick Patrick who produced every track except 'Summer Fly'. He has done a wonderful job in balancing the sound to bring out Hayley's voice at its best, so I look forward to hearing more of his work in the future!

Best Wishes,

Richard

[stevemacdonald]

jimf said:

... I always felt that there were moments of almost embarrassingly amateurish production. ... An example was the overly dynamic middle-section of “Benedictus” on Pure that might blow-out your speakers and wake your neighbors if you weren’t careful.

Embarrassingly amateurish production? You gotta be kidding! This was one of the most praised orchestral points of Pure! Sorry, jimf, but that alone makes it nearly impossible for me to take your opinion seriously.

[jimf]

stevemacdonald said:

jimf said:

... I always felt that there were moments of almost embarrassingly amateurish production. ... An example was the overly dynamic middle-section of “Benedictus” on Pure that might blow-out your speakers and wake your neighbors if you weren’t careful.

Embarrassingly amateurish production? You gotta be kidding! This was one of the most praised orchestral points of Pure! Sorry, jimf, but that alone makes it nearly impossible for me to take your opinion seriously.

Ok. "Embarassingly Amateurish" was probably a little over the top. It may have been praised by some, but I had to go for the volume control each time I listened to it to protect family, friends, and property. I love the song by the way. Anyway, not really expecting to be taken seriously...just stating my opinion.

[Steve H]

jimf said:

I love the song by the way. Anyway, not really expecting to be taken seriously...just stating my opinion.

Hi Jim,

Thank you for your review, I thought it was well written and your opinions are valued equally with all other opinions. The whole idea of a forum, is for the airing of personal views and opinions, we do not expect every single comment to be of praise for Hayley, or her record producers, there will always be areas of disagreement, and discussion.

Please continue to post your views, I am glad you liked Celtic treasure! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Very Best Regards

Steve H

[jons]

Yes, you don't want to be put down upon for stating your opinion. Its your own not anybody else's.

[Stephany]

Jim, your review was extremely well-written and I agreed with most of it. Especially with this :

Even though the songs may vary stylistically, they all feel like one piece of the same puzzle. You can sit down and listen to the entire CD and it feels like one experience.

This is soooo true. I'm already looking forward to hearing her next CD.

[stevemacdonald]

I'm all in favor of everyone stating their opinions, no matter how different from mine. It's rare, however, to come across an opinion in which someone denigrates the professionalism of the producers. That's below the belt, in my opinion. I'm glad jimf revisited his remark.

[roger]

stevehome said:

The whole idea of a forum, is for the airing of personal views and opinions, we do not expect every single comment to be of praise for Hayley, or her record producers, there will always be areas of disagreement, and discussion.

Very Best Regards

Steve H

Very well said, Steve. Your sentiments are thoroughly endorsed.

Roger

[jons]

stevemacdonald said:

jimf said:

... I always felt that there were moments of almost embarrassingly amateurish production. ... An example was the overly dynamic middle-section of “Benedictus” on Pure that might blow-out your speakers and wake your neighbors if you weren’t careful.

This was one of the most praised orchestral points of Pure!

I definitely agree with that!

Its best not to worry about peoples opinions. If the majority says otherwise then thats the right opinion. The majority praised 'Benedictus' so it doesn't matter if anybody disses it. I got upset over a poor review of 'Treasure' because you would think the music critic would know what hes talking about. But again, the majority of reviews have been great.

[jons]

jimf said:

On Odyssey, I felt the production of “My Heart Belongs to You” was sappy and poorly engineered and marred a fine performance by Hayley.

Is that on the US version? On the International version it sounds great. As as been mentioned, peoples opinions differ, and are their own. But I wondered if you could only hear poorly engineered music on a revealing hi-fi system. On my portable CD player or my MP3 player I enjoy all of Hayley's albums and can't find fault in technical standards. 'Treasure' is being held as the most technically accomplished album from Hayley yet, but to me its sounds as brilliant as the last two - its Hayley's voice which is improved, (even though it was perfect to begin with) and of which I find astonishingly. The songs are brilliant, the production is brilliant, but you know what? It wouldn't even matter if they weren't now: Hayley's voice is so mutli-layed and varied it transcends all that. Hayley's voice is like in a computer game were you upgrade your stats: she has reached level 100 where she can do anything and take on any song. Its just so exciting, what will happen next?

[stevemacdonald]

jons said:

jimf said:

On Odyssey, I felt the production of “My Heart Belongs to You” was sappy and poorly engineered and marred a fine performance by Hayley.

Is that on the US version? On the International version it sounds great. As as been mentioned, peoples opinions differ, and are their own. But I wondered if you could only hear poorly engineered music on a revealing hi-fi system. On my portable CD player or my MP3 player I enjoy all of Hayley's albums and can't find fault in technical standards. ...

From my experience all of Hayley's albums sound better on the higher end sound systems, as though they were engineered for that market exclusively. I can't say the same for other artists' albums whose deficiencies become more noticeable as you go up. Decca are known for their perfectionism with classical music and I believe they've put out a flawless product in each case with Hayley's work.

One may take issue with a performance -- as I did with several songs on Odyssey, or with a composer's musical statement -- as several have regarding the famous "explosion" in "Benedictus" (Haydn 'Surprise' Symphony's got nothin' on this!), or with the selection of songs and their respective arrangements, but the production standards on Hayley's albums are far less impeachable.