There are moments in which the critical skills and rationality of a reviewer can’t help and they bend in front of the immeasurable emotional impact exerted by listening to a particular masterpiece. It’s certainly the case happened with Imaginaerum; although the enthusiastic comments of the few lucky survivors from the pre-listening session, had, in some way, prepared me psychologically to accept such a masterpiece, it was impossible to leave the indescribable feeling that listening to this album has awakened in me, writing the review that follows.
What will follow, therefore, will be an unbiased and perhaps a little excessively enthusiastic review, but surely genuine, a review that cannot help but reflect the amazement that the first listen of this album has given me. After all, talking about an album that seems to have been conceived, created and characterized in that childish awe (almost impossible not to notice the continued use of the word “awe” in the lyrics), it would be inappropriate to limit yourself, at least, to a cold, sterile analysis of the individual tracks on a purely technical work of individual musicians.
Imaginaerum is a changeable album, full of surprises, where the rationality of the listener is challenged and tested, over and over again, so protean and pied that its extraordinary cohesion cannot help but leave ashonished all those people who choose to dive themselves without reservation or prejudice in the magical world that fully introduces the emotional experience of an almost perfect work, intended to mark a fundamental shift in the band’s history and probably in the life of the listener.
If we were to interpret, as repeatedly suggested by Tuomas Holopainen (keyboard player and composer of the band, ed), the entire trip that Imaginaerum proposes us as a dreamy roller coaster ride, we should read the first song on the album, “Taikatalvi“, as a lullaby, making us falling asleep, gives us the only, real gateway to the wonderful and frightening world we are going to explore. After two turns of the key to load, the melody of a music box is the background to Marco’s voice, soft and caressing as we had never heard before, singing along, almost paternal, the only Finnish lyric in the whole album. It’s time to close our eyes, and it’s time to get in touch, for the very first time, with the universe of Imaginaerum. And what song, better than all the others, could introduce this universe if “Storytime“, which already had the task of introducing the new band’s sound to the audience, as the first single from the album after four years of silence? Storytime is an emblematic song that embodies many of the album features, and that, in some ways, it represents it totally. If a distracted listener could name it “a commercial or a simple song”, due to the disarming immediacy and the catchiness of the vocal line of the chorus, it would be impossible, after a few listens, not to be impressed by the incredible amount of reading levels, which this song provides us. Beyond the compelling lyrics and massive orchestrations, which are a constant throughout the album, Storytime is one of the more direct and straight songs and it hits the bull’s eye for its huge amount of images and sounds that evoke in the listener. Almost stunned, still with the chorus of Storytime in the ears, we find ourselves faced with a song from the very darkest tones. The strong point of “Ghost River” is definitely the pounding chorus sang by Marco, and in the end, by the chorus of children who we had already learned to know in Storytime. In this song, Marco plays the villain with an aggressive voice, as if he should fall into the role of the evil “troll under the bridge”, mentioned in the lyric. The same chorus, sung in first person from the pure and innocent voices of children, takes on an evocative power to the limits of grotesque and it upsets the listener. Although there is already a lot of irons in the fire, surprises are still to come, and one of them is definitely the song “Slow, love, slow”.
How to confuse who is taking his first steps in a loading and disturbing sound, as the one we’ve found in the first tracks, if with a song characterized by sounds and atmospheres light years away from anything that has ever been produced by Nightwish? If at this point it was thought to have begun to frame the climate of the album, it’s impossible not to think of it back again because this piece has nothing in common with the classic sound of the band: much jazz sounds, muffled environments, a version of Anette who shows off her more sexual voice and which plays the Jessica Rabbit of the situation, and Marco, deep as we ever heard are the ingredients for this song with a strong erotic charge. Slow love slow is definitely a song that catches everyone unprepared, hard to say whether for better or for worse: many fans will turn up their nose at it, but it is impossible not to extend a round of applause to the excellent performance of the band for a song which detaches itself from the usual Nightwish sond..
But the time of sweet and sensual notes fades away and the guitar introduces the next track. Is there finally a traditional metal piece? Not at all, “I Want My Tears Back” shows just what is its peculiar feature: the massive presence of the uilleann pipes, once again played by the excellent Troy Donockley. The song is zippy and catchy, the chorus enters early in the process and the bagpipes crops a very central area, a song that folk lovers will love and which once again shows us how different is the content of Imaginaerum.
And talking about weird songs, it’s impossible not to mention the following one, “Scaretale“, that earned itself the title (of) “most curious song of the album”. Really good is, in this case, the performance of Anette which plays the storyteller and also the actress, pulling out of the hat a theatrical and grotesque expressiveness and showing a very unusual versatility, personally I wasn’t aware of. After this track that recalls “Tim Burton“, it’s time for “Arabesque“, an instrumental and pressing track; you find yourself having to do with an oriental sound rather unusual, all seasoned with the rhythms and timing of a typical soundtrack. More than others, this track seems to have been conceived as function of the movie that will be released this Spring, whatever it’s impossible to have a better idea of its function.
“Turn Loose The Mermaids” is the perfect ballad. Sweet and smooth voice, caressing chorus and, once again, the intervention of folk instruments. In short, there are all the ingredients for a winning track. It’s with this track that the album makes a digression, dedicated to the quieter songs; following next, there is “Rest Calm“, in which the aggressive vocals by Marco is opposed by Anette’s voice and the white voices chorus, incredibly sweet and “The Crow, The Owl And The Dove“, another ballad with a regular flow, characterized by what is perhaps the only lyric, with its allegories, clear and unambiguous of the album.
“Last Ride Of The Day” will sound instantly familiar to Nightwish fans who have been following the updates of the band during these silent years and to all baseball fans. A remixed version of the song was in fact adopted by the team called Kiteena Pallo this summer (the baseball team from Kitee, the native town in which Tuomas was born and where he still lives, ed) as a hymn, sparking the curiosity of thousands of fans and leading to the stars the expectations to the album. The end result is a beautiful track, with no downtime and where the guitar, finally, reserves a more central role than the one used so far.
Leaving “Last Ride Of The Day” behind, we find ourselves faced with what it is surely the most challenging part of the album. To make “Song of Myself” as awfully complicated as it is, it’s certainly not its length (quite impressive though, 14 minutes of music) or the partision in four parts: Tuomas didn’t avoid any quote for the song that wants to be the ideological heir of “The Poet And The Pendulum” and he pulled off what is surely the most beautiful lyric ever written for Nightwish. While many people will find boring listening to the more than seven minutes of narrated story, there is no doubt that if only they took the chance to listen (or read) the spoken words by the storytellers, they couldn’t help but thinking of it back again. After all, if the title reminds us of the most important poetry by Walt Whitman (Tuomas’ favourite poet, ed), what could we expect if not a song that focuses itself more on the lyrics to the music (which it’s still great)? And, perhaps, even the term “lyrics” is inappropriate because here the narrated voice took upon itself the ideological and formal perfection in the true sense of a poem and the music becomes almost an accessory to the words. A small masterpiece, “Song Of Myself” worths itself the whole album.
Close to the end of this roller coaster ride, shocked but happy, we finally reach the last track: “Imaginaerum“, a sort of a great orchestral summary of all the tracks we’ve just listened to, as if to reassert the cohesion of the whole work. It’s impossible not to be moved by pointing out, chapter after chapter, all the best moments of the journey we have just experienced.
And then the moment of awakening comes, it takes a few moments to realize that it’s really over and something more to digest the huge amount of what we have been poured on ourselves. Still stunned, we slowly begin to realize what is the importance of the album we’ve listened to and we realize how Nightwish have surpassed themselves this time.
We’re talking about a great performance in every single feature, distinguished by the excellent performance of Anette (very criticized in the past) that seems finally to have found her own place in the band thanks to a sound built for her and the imposing, majestic work done by the London Philharmonic orchestra, without which it would be really impossible to conceive Imaginaerum as we know.
Tuomas confirms himself again as a mature and brilliant songwriter, further improved compared to the heights already reached with the previous albums and full of ideas. Numerous quotes and references to earlier recordings are not to be missed (or to the movie to come), scattered throughout the lyrics, to reaffirm the continuity of this album within a musical ideological production, despite the changes of line up, can define itself as compact. Of course, to fully understand Imaginaerum and to create a more informed and objective opinion, you will need to wait for the release of the movie that will hopefully help to clarify many doubts about the correct interpretation of the individual songs and lyrics.
If this album will make history, only time will tell. We can limit ourselves to say that there are all the potential and we seriously advise the listening (and the purchase) to all those who really want to lose a few hours in the wonderful world of Imaginaerum.