Each
Lesiem album invites the listener to ask again the age-old question: what exactly is the point of writing pop music lyrics in Latin and having them sung in unison by a choir as if they were Gregorian chant? The liner notes to the latest
Lesiem album offer one possible explanation: this music "reveals a magical message for these times. It speaks to the hearts of humanity in an age where legends inspire and muses seek to enlighten minds while passing a torch of spiritual light to fellow travelers across the globe." A less charitable interpretation might be that writing Latin lyrics and having a choir sing them is a lazy way to give the music a gloss of empty sophistication -- or, worse, to imbue it with a blatantly ersatz mysticism. Polite electro beats and occasional incursions of prog rock guitar do little to clear up the question of whether this is an honestly misguided attempt to bring mystical enlightenment to the masses or a cynical cashing in on people's inability to judge the difference between spiritual insight and emotional manipulation. Interestingly, the song titles are a grab bag of cardinal, capital, and theological virtues as defined Catholic theology -- "Spes (Hope)," "Invidia (Envy)," "Caritas (Charity)," and so on. The choral singing is provided by members of the German Opera Choir of Berlin and is perfectly nice; in fact, "perfectly nice" is a term that really applies quite well to everything on this album -- a standard that falls rather short of the group's pretensions to "majesty," "divinity," and "enlightenment." ~ Rick Anderson