With their lush and frequently downright funky arrangements of tunes both traditional and modern and their habit of utilizing electric and electronic instruments as extensively as traditional acoustic ones, it's no wonder that the members of
Capercaillie often find themselves being compared to
Clannad, an Irish group that takes a similar approach to the music of its region. And yet
Capercaillie's modern twist on the Scottish tradition is almost always more satisfying than
Clannad's take on the Irish -- perhaps because there's always a core of iron in
Capercaillie's sound, whereas
Clannad frequently dissolve into new age hokeyness. Listen carefully to the deceptively pretty "Waiting for the Wheel to Turn" -- it's about the "clearances" of the 18th century, a series of wholesale evictions of peasants by their lords. "Coisich, a Rùin," on which
Karen Matheson's voice soars above a bed of exotic percussion, is eerily gorgeous; "You Will Rise Again" flirts with bathos without ever giving in. Other
Capercaillie albums are more consistently involving, but this one is highly recommended. ~ Rick Anderson