THE VILLAGE LANTERNE

As my first experience with Blackmore's Night, it was the cover of Child In Time that piqued my curiosity and led me to purchase The Village Lanterne. I liked the album cover too. It certainly harkens back to the good old days when mischievous pixies flapped their wings and wiggled their tushies in front of men in tights struggling to hide their erections. Ale was tastier too.

The first thing I noticed listening to the album is that it's not really all that traditional as far as the Renaissance Faire scene is concerned. The album starts strong with some tribal drumming to add some power to the familiar folksiness, and the occasional little synthesizer melody pops up to sort of "proggify" the track, or at least spice up the proceedings with a little 70s rock influence. And that's how the band works on this effort. Blending the olden folk melodies and instrumentation with some rockin' grooves and a little new age yoga influence to diversify the potential audience a bit. For the most part, this actually works. It certainly helps when you can play guitar like Ritchie, who hasn't sacrificed his skills to adapt to the changing times...there's plenty of guitar workouts here, both electric and acoustic and skillfully entertaining to boot. Candice can certainly sing, and she captures that 'days of yore' lilt perfectly. She can sound a little awkward or out of place in some of the rockier tracks, like Natalie Merchant donning a brass bra, but she charms her way through them. "I Guess It Doesn't Matter Anymore" is a particularly fun upbeat track, with lyrics concerning Resurrection Mary...not an ancient story at all...but a good tale nonetheless. The band as a whole is quite impeccable regarding their talents, certainly above average for this particular niche.

Child In Time has to be one of the odder covers I've heard by any band...although since Ritchie is involved it can't really be considered one...a reinterpretation would be a more fitting term. I can't say when I first heard the original Child In Time that I immediately pondered how it would sound as a medieval jig, but it didn't wind up sounding atrocious by any means.

I'm not sure if I'll venture too much further into this band's catalogue since from what I gather there isn't too much variation concerning the formulas that Blackmore's Night has established for themselves, so I'll just be content to put this puppy on when the rare but occasional yearning for fine mead, dragons and wenches needs a soundtrack.