Of a deep ravine where can be seen the worth of passion pledged. On Grafton Street in November, we tripped lightly along the ledge I saw the danger, yet I passed along the enchanted way.Īnd I said, "Let grief be a fallen leaf at the dawning of the day." That her dark hair would weave a snare that I might someday rue. On Raglan Road on an Autumn day I saw her first and knew, Maybe the old ghosts of Dublin's Raglan Road will haunt you too. Shut the blinds on summer's glaring baking dusty heat, put these guys in the CD player, and listen with a sweating cold glass of red ale. But they still can't hold a candle to the quality of the High Kings' first CD.Īnyone who savors exceptional vocal talent and instrumentation will appreciate "The High Kings." Several tracks stand out: "As I Roved Out," "The Star of the County Down," "Green Fields of France," the patriotic "The Rising of the Moon," and the lyrical "Raglan Road." I'm not a fan of "On the One Road." The lyrics of "Raglan Road" use the poem by Patrick Kavanagh (1904-1967), and the melody from "Dawning of the Day" (Fáinne Geal an Lae), composed by the blind harpist Thomas Connellan in the 1600s. The Memory Lane mp3 tracks are marginally better than the CD version and I now rank them as acceptable. Using Adobe Audition and other software tools, I performed a full spectrum analysis to include dynamics, and confirmed that it wasn't just MY ears. UPDATE - Still refusing to believe how bad the sound on this CD was, I gave the downloaded mp3 tracks another listen and did a thorough A-B comparison of the mp3 version of Memory Lane to the CD version, and performed the same comparison to their first CD. But they should FIRE those responsible for butchering their work. Try a little A-B comparison of their two CDs for yourself without changing the volume or tone controls on your sound system.īut I absolutely refuse to give a rating below four stars for this CD that would unfairly punish these fine musicians, their performance, and the music. And I can't believe another reviewer hasn't already mentioned this. The difference in sound between their CDs is so dramatic, I can't believe the techies let this one go to production. I even tried buying the mp3 album download as well, hoping the CD itself was the problem.but no. My CD is the USA release maybe the European import version is better (I would hope so). Dynamics are poor at best the music wants to jump out at you, but it is being restrained. The sound is metallic and subdued, and the voices sound like the mics were placed halfway across the studio. The mixing and mastering of this latest collection is nowhere near the quality of their first product. But that is where my praise for this CD ends. This second CD once again highlights their abilites as individual singers and as a vocal group, and the list of songs includes more of my favorite Irish melodies. They are all extremely talented artists whose voices blend together very well, and their first CD ranks very high in my list of all-time favorites. They perform traditional Irish folk songs with a passion that is lacking in a lot of today's music in all genres. Let me start off by saying I love the High Kings' music.
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