MY LOVE, MY SORROW

I'm not sure why a progressive goth-folk band like Rada & Ternovnik felt the need to crank out a darkwave album, and in the late nineties after the novelty had worn off that genre to boot. But for some reason they did, and 'My Love, My Sorrow' is that album.

Someone named Marina Kikin supposedly sings supporting vocals as well. Given Rada Anchevskaya's tendency to overdub her own voice on other albums it gets a bit tricky to try and figure out which vocals are actually hers, although the very high-end soprano wailing is surely Ms. Anchevskaya herself.

The arrangements here are all basically repetitive bass lines, beat tracks and what sounds like a bit of real drumming as well, along with what I assume to be synthesizers and guitar providing a bit of contrast. There's also very little variation from song to song, even less on their last album. Nothing here sounds even remotely folk, and very little is progressive by even the loosest definition of the term.

I've played this all the way through several times trying to get into it, or at least to identify a few highlights. Hard to do either given this is basically a goth-like variation on trip-hop with lots of layered female vocal tracks, and not at all what most fans probably thought they were signing up for given the sort of music on the two records that preceded it. And the opening "You Shall Dance" and "Rose Geranium Reseda" at least feature plenty of awe-inspiring vocal range, so the album is not completely without merit.

Still, this is an odd deviation for the group and at best should be seen as an experiment that might have been well-intentioned, but didn't really work out. Two stars just because hardcore fans of the band (and I suspect they have quite a few) probably have their reasons for liking this one. For me I can live without it.

peace