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For people who like: New-age music, I guess...relaxing music, stuff like Enya Willow rambles: Actually, the first David Arkenstone album I got was The Celtic Book of Days, and after that I immediately took to worshipping him. ^^;; But it's good stuff! He plays too many different instruments to count (more than I can say for some of these groups), and the songs he composes are very...hmm, atmospheric. He can paint a picture of any landscape with his music and you'd imagine it perfectly, just the way he intended. It was a tough decision, but yeah, I guess this is my favorite of his albums. (although Return of the Guardians was really good tooooo...) If you liked this: Diane Arkenstone, his wife, has a couple albums out too. Also try David Lanz (he worked with David Arkenstone a couple times, and I think they've done some albums together). Eric Clapton, "Pilgrim" For people who like: ...um, Eric Clapton? God, I don't know. How about for people who don't mind slightly dark and depressing music? Willow rambles: I was a little too obsessed with that song "My Father's Eyes" in 7th grade...I basically got the album for that song. Now, I usually regret it when I buy an album simply for one song, but I didn't at all with this one. It's very good...dark, yes, but I _like_ dark occasionally. :P Let's see..."Broken Hearted" is a really good song. I liked "She's Gone" too, and "Circus" and "Fall Like Rain". Yeah. I also thought it was cool that he let his daughter (she was 13 at the time) be on his album; she did the spoken verse at the end of "Inside Of Me". If you liked this: Actually, you know what I think people would like if they liked the style of the songs on this CD? The new Solas CD, "The Edge of Silence". Yeah, it's a completely different genre, but it's a similar mood. Alana Davis, "Fortune Cookies" For people who like: female singer-songwriters Willow rambles: Thank goodness for in-store play at Borders, otherwise I would have never heard this CD. Which would have been a shame, since it's a great album...it has a nice sound, and some of the songs have good messages and stuff (like "How Many Of Us Have Them (Friends)", I liked that one). I also like the photographs on the CD case and inside the liner thingy, it looks like some kind of store in Chinatown somewhere, with a shelf of little manekineko statues. ^-^ Not that that has anything to do with the CD itself, of course... If you liked this: You'd like...er, other female singer-songwriters. I'm not talking about Vanessa Carlton, I mean people like India.Arie, Ani Di Franco, stuff like that. More folk music, as opposed to...I dunno, just regular pop singer-songwriters or whatever. Yeah. Am I making any sense at all? Kila, "Lemonade and Buns" For people who like: Irish music, like Danu and Altan, but people who are also kind of bored with traditional music. Willow rambles: KILA! *starts groveling* Okay, remember up there when I talked about "music that people in America don't really know but that everyone in the world should hear"? I was basically talking about Kila. Seriously. Everyone should listen to this. It's not real traditional Irish music (what my friend Leah would call "diddly-aye music" ^-^), but it's...it's hard to classify. (just don't you dare call it "afro pop") One of the group members (I forget who...Rossa?) said that what they play is "Irish music with a world perspective", and I think that fits...it's got different world influences. All their albums are great (well, I can't speak for "Monkey" because I haven't heard that one yet *grumblegrumble*) but this was the first one I heard so I'm rather attached to it. "Tine Lasta" is one of my favorite songs practically ever; the guy who normally plays the bodhran sings in Irish on this. (all the songs where Ronan sings are really cute) Also "Rachel's Reel"..."The Compledgegationist"..."Turlough's"...hell, every song on here is good. If you don't get the album, at least download Tine Lasta, just to see? If you liked this: Other groups like Shooglenifty and Lunasa and The Peatbog Fairies play traditional music with some kind of twist, but none of them push it as far as Kila. Except for maybe the Afro Celt Sound System...but I really didn't like them, and that's another story... Lunasa, "The Merry Sisters of Fate" For people who like: Kila, but thought they were a little too out-there, or Danu, but thought they were a little too traditional. Willow rambles: Lunasa are really good...more traditional than Kila, but not so much so that they're boring. Merry Sisters of Fate is the most recent one, and I have Otherworld but I don't think that's as good (don't have their self-titled one, but want it). It's got all different types and paces of songs on here...a couple airs, some fast ones that are good to dance to (not dance in the nightclub sense, dance in the stepdancing/ceili sense), but no actual _singing_ songs, because their group doesn't have a singer. My mom (who listens to even more Irish music than I do) thinks the group would be absolutely perfect if they added a female singer (they're an all-male group so far) or if one of their musicians would sing every once in a while, but I like the fact that they don't sing. You know? Because I get kind of tired of the typical Irish singing style, a la Anam and groups like that. Also, this CD is good if you're an Irish stepdancer and you want to practice to actual music at home, but you don't like the stuff they have on those "Celtic Dance" CDs (yuck). Except that on this album they don't tell you what songs are reels, jigs, etc. but you can pretty much figure those out. I recommend the very last track, Morning Nighcap, if you want a good reel to dance to. If you liked this: Um...pretty much everything I said under "if you liked Kila". Try Altan, Shooglenifty, The Peatbog Fairies, Anam, Danu...I could go on, but I won't. Or get the Untamed CD. It's got a lot of these groups on it. |