Celtic Woman: Songs From The Heart

I love Celtic and Celtic-style music. Growing up with a father who loves fantasy, wishes he was Irish, and took me to every Renaissance fair in the tristate area at least once (and the NJ one every year since I was born) made it nearly impossible for me to dislike Celtic music. I saw Riverdance when I was thirteen, spent months geeking over the Loreena McKennitt concert I saw in Harrisburg three years ago, and have gone to the Pennsylvania Renaissance Fair for the sheer purpose of seeing the Tartan Terrors perform.

So when I first heard about Celtic Woman back in high school, I was both intrigued and skeptical. On one hand, there are never really that many Celtic, world, or new age style artists that get mainstream attention, so it was fun to hear a new one. On the other hand, how good could a group that literally calls themselves “Celtic Woman” be?

Thankfully, Celtic Woman is capable of putting out some really great music. The musicians are all talented; the vocalists can all really sing, and the fiddler can singlehandedly get the audience to give a standing ovation (and if she doesn’t, she should). They give a really great stage show, and some of their songs, including the instrumental “Butterfly” from their self-titled album, are the types of songs that can be heard over and over again without getting old. Gimmick or not, they really are a good group.

So why did they have to ruin all of that with “Songs from the Heart,” released January 26th?

To give credit where credit is due, there is still some good music on this album. The third track, “Nil Se’n La,” is very catchy. I almost forgot about it once I had made it further down the list, but if I could pretend that this was the only song on the album, it might even be worth listening to. It is the type of song that makes the listener want to get up and dance, as is the instrumental track seven, “The Coast of Galicia.” The last song on the album, a very abridged live version of the classic “Mo Ghile Mear,” also has this quality. Unfortunately, these are all of three songs on the fifteen-song album.

Every album has to have a ballad. That ballad can be slow and have powerful instrumental backing and try to make a statement about the world, family, the environment, what have you. Maybe this song is the last song on the album, or the second to last. It can be good, it can be bad, but it is distinct enough to be memorable. It is fine if an album has one of these songs. It is not ok to have the entire album be like this.

Celtic Woman’s rendition of “Amazing Grace,” track two, would be lovely if they could make the harmonies the focus and take out the overproduction that screams “we’re trying to create a moment.” For that matter, why is Celtic Woman covering “Amazing Grace” to begin with? Or sweetening the hell out of already saccharine songs like “When You Believe,” “You’ll Be In My Heart,” and “O, America!”? In what universe are these songs even considered Celtic? What is going on, Celtic Woman?

“Songs from the Heart” is fine if you like every song to be in the same attempted-uplifting key, with very little substance or risk taking, and almost none of the fun that Celtic music and Celtic Woman is capable of having. Unfortunately, this Celtic music fan doesn’t. Grade: C-