DIVINE LIGHT

This repackaging of the earliest Carlos albums might have been quite interesting to tell the truth. But the global feeling is that dear old Carlos had little (to none) new ideas and that it was easier to record some old numbers and refresh them into this single album than to record a full original album.

On top of this, it is true to say that I far much preferred ''Love, Devotion.'' to ''Illuminations''. And since this album features more tracks from the latter, I am somewhat less enthusiastic about this ''reconstruction'' than my fellow reviewers.

I can't honestly say that the tracks featured into their newer enveloppe sound better than the originals. They just sound different, but they were not improved by any means here, IMHHO. For instance, ''Illuminations'' just sounds as mellow as the original: same orchestrations, same feel: average.

I can't be thrilled either with this rendition of ''Angel Of Sunlight'' which holds a complete improvised and chaotic section (over half of the track basically) which doesn't supersedes the original version.

In all, I am not really impressed with this release. Since it is only made up of existing old numbers, that there is no real improvement (was it possible?) in comparison with the originals I can't go over three stars for this album.

I only can suggest you to grab the great ''Love, Devotion & Surrender'' which is a superb album.