Released
1998
Label
4AD
Reviewed by
Michael C. Lund
Contact
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Last Edit/Update
17 May, 1998
Lisa Gerrard & Pieter Bourke
THE HUMAN GAME
(CD Single)
Track Listing
1. The Human Game (Radio Edit)
2. Sanvean (I Am Your Shadow)
The single
release from Lisa Gerrard's new album Duality brings together "The
Human Game" in a shorter, more radio friendly version, and "Sanvean" from
her previous full-length The Mirror Pool. The two songs stand in rather sharp
contrast to each other musically and emotionally, and serve as a nice introduction to the
musical universe of Lisa Gerrard's solo career; for owners of both albums,
however, there is really nothing here to a make a trip to the record store for.
Omitting the atmospherical opening
featured on Duality, the single version of "The Human Game" jumps right
into the compelling theme and joyful, exotic percussions of the song. Gerrard's
vocals are performed in English, and are as usual flawless, building at the end to a
climax of operatic power, carried on the wings of clear but subdued strings.
The second track on the single is
as mentioned taken from Gerrard's first solo album The Mirror Pool.
"Sanvean" is a piece that finds Gerrard in her classical mode, and is
of a more melancholy nature. The instrumentation is an achingly beautiful violin concerto,
with Gerrard's voice blending in with the thematic flow -- the vocals seemingly
performed in the universal language of 'pure song', rather than any national tongue.
