Delerium -- Poem. Nettwerk Records, 2000. Last Sigh Magazine

Track Listing

1. Terra Firma (with Aude)
2. Innocente (with Leigh Nash)
3. Aria (with Mediaevil Baebes)
4. Fallen Icons (with Jennifer McLaren)
5. Underwater (with Rani Kamal)
6. Myth (with Joanna Stevens)
7. Nature's Kingdom (with kirsty Hawkshaw)
8. Daylight (with Matthew Sweet)
9. Temptation
10. A Poem For Byzantium (with Joanna Stevens)
11. Amongst The Ruins

    Delerium began in 1987 by Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber as a creative outlet for ideas that they felt didn't truly mix with the hard industrial sound of their band Frontline Assembly. The sound for the most part has been ambient/ethereal. with great, flowing soundscapes and entire albums that play like film scores. The last few albums have changed that formula slightly, adding heavenly female vocals for a slightly more pop edge, their last album, karma, included the song silence with vocals by Sarah McLaughlin, which topped the overseas single charts. Poem is the 13th release from delirium.
    The sound on this album is exactly as one would expect from the more recent Delerium releases, with the sort of happy electronics and very breezy instrumentals over a backdrop of world influenced rhythms and Gregorian chants. This time with one crucial difference, vocals. This time we see that only 2 songs are instrumental, where as the rest are songs featuring various songstresses as Aude, Leigh Nash of Sixpence None the Richer, Mediaeval Baebes (Katherine Blake is just amazing in my opinion), and in a strange variation off of the ethereal theme that has defined Delerium, Matthew Sweet, marking the first time male vocals have been used. The vocal work here is all absolutely amazing beyond any hope of definition, beautiful and enticing, making one think of the sirens of Greek lore while listening to these women sing. Even the Matthew Sweet song fits in very nicely, in addition to being quite catchy.
    Over all, this is an extremely well crafted album, it has an excellent mixture of great artists and perfect musical arrangements. One item of note though is the final track: Amongst the Ruins, this is one of the instrumental tracks and I note it for it's likeness to much of the earlier delerium stuff, almost like a message to the true fans that despite having some success and slowly becoming popular with the mainstream, they haven't forgotten their roots.