Tarja released “Colours in the dark” last year, and is now following that with “Left in the dark”. Rather than being a new album, it’s a collection of alternate versions of songs from the album, single B sides etc. “Left in the dark” was originally only available as an option when buying tickets for her tour in certain countries, so most people won’t have had the chance to buy or hear this album.
One of my pet hates is when a band or record label decides a few months after releasing an album, to reissue it as a special edition with a second disc of extras as this penalises the fans who bought the album early and rewards people who didnt. For that reason I’m happy that Tarja hasn’t done that but instead has chosen to release the bonus material as a separate album.
One nice touch is the album cover. Tarja launched a competition for fans to come up with a cover for it, and due to the high standard of entries, chose 10 winners instead of the planned five. Of those ten obviously only one could win the prize of having their work on the cover of the CD, but rather than waste the others, Tarja has used them all in the CD booklet. The inclusion in the booklet of comments from Tarja on each track is another nice touch.
“Neverlight (Full Orchestra Version)” has just been released as a video – watch it below to hear it for yourself. Unlike most of the tracks on the album it doesnt feature Tarja’s vocals, but it’s interesting to hear the music by itself.
There are a couple of songs recorded live at Vorterix radio, but most of the songs here are Demo versions of songs from the album.
It’s an interesting album – it’s not got the impact a new album would have, but fans are likely to be interested to hear these alternate versions of the songs from the album. Overall verdict – it’s a good album, but probably only really of interest to her more enthusiastic fans.
“Left in the dark” will be released on 4th July 2014 via earMUSIC
Tracklist
1. Victim Of Ritual (First Demo)
2. 500 Letters (Live At Vorterix Radio) *
3. Lucid Dreamer (Demo) *
4. Never Enough (Demo Progression) *
5. Mystique Voyage (Demo) *
6. Into The Sun (Studio Version)
7. Deliverance (Instrumental)
8. Neverlight (Full Orchestra Version)
9. Until Silence (Live At Vorterix Radio) *
10. Medusa (Tarja’s Solo Version)
*previously unreleased
- 15.36