Universal
New Age, 2003

Clannad leading lady Moya Brennan’s latest CD Two Horizons is a clichéd Celtic/New Age type. Maybe it’s just me and I’m overdosed on the violin/flute/pipe formula, but Two Horizons never fails to drive me to sleep at midpoint of the CD. Maybe it’s because every track has this dreary and slow feel to them, with nary a jaunty and uptempo tune in between, and worse, they all sound the same, like one never-ending wailing paean to some Irish misery and astrology thing.

This CD is written by Brennan and all tracks are supposed to go together to tell a story. It’s a story about stars and kings and castles and other tedious clichés hammered to death since they made those Lord Of The Rings movies and inspired so many teenage girls to write overwrought fantasy-tinged poetry to Legolas (“My stars! My castle is stormed! Legolas, oh Legolas! My Liv Tyler lips puckering up just for you!”).

If Enya and James Horner and Brennan’s own Clannad aren’t enough and you just need one more CD for your collection, never mind how unimaginative and formulaic it is, by all means buy Two Horizons. As far as I’m concerned, this one is just another formulaic throwaway fluff in a genre increasingly overpowered by tedious and over-commercialized noise.