BALLAD COLLECTION II

While the first "Ballad collection" was a bit more of an odds-and-sods affair, featuring mostly re-recordings of older songs, covers, and (remixes of) previously released material, this follow- up is a lot more interesting. Both albums have now been released together in one special edition 2CD set, and this is the optimal version to get hold of these albums. Interestingly, volume 2 makes up disc one of the special edition, while volume 1 is relegated to disc two. This choice probably reflects the band's own judgement that volume 2 is indeed clearly the better of the two "collections". Again, as on volume 1, there are several covers to be found here among the original material. But there are no previously unreleased recordings. As such, this second "ballad collection" is perhaps more of a studio album than a compilation album, but it is best sorted together with its predecessor.

Most people will recognize Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Supertramp's If Everyone Was Listening, but the other covers songs are less well-known (they were unknown to me, at least). Netherlands is by someone named Dan Fogelberg. The very good, two-part suite To The Last Whale is a Crosby & Nash composition. The a cappella introduction of Critical Mass leads into Wind On The Water. Finally, Innocent When You Dream is by Tom Waits. The rest is original material. The highlight of the album is the 10 minute plus suite A Place In Time/Nevermore/A Time In Place (reprise). This would fit well on almost any of Lana Lane's regular studio albums. The same goes for most of the original material here. Ghost Beside My Bed stands out as from the rest in that it is very hard to call it a ballad. Indeed, there are several songs here that I would hesitate to call "ballads".

Overall, this is a very enjoyable disc that is somewhat different from the band's regular studio output, but makes up a very welcome companion to it.