UNDER A VIOLET MOON

I think there's a considerable leap forward between their debut and this second album. Shadow Of The Moon may include songs that have become live favourites (well, certainly there are such songs in here too: the merry title track, the instrumental 'Durch den Wald zum Bach Haus' and the song penned by Henry VIII which gave name to BN's live album). I'm not sure if it was just because it was my first acquaintance with BN several years ago, but I found the debut album somehow half-baked soundwise and many of its songs were terribly weak. Now recently when I made a library reservation of this album, right afterwards I thought I should have picked some later album, but I'm glad it was this one after all: it's much better than I expected.

Candice Night sounds very beautiful here. And the majority of the songs are rather mellow with a nice folkish touch. To some it may mean this album is a bit lame, but I liked it. Perfect music to listen to when feeling cozy in front of the fireplace, romantically imagining of bygone times. As a STRAWBS listener I was delighted by 'Wind in the Willows' featuring John Ford. (In the concert Candice tells that the song was actually introduced to them by Ford.) 'Gone With the Wind' made me smile as I recognized the tune (I had heard it sung in Finnish). With sixteen tracks in total this album surely has many fine moments to any friend of BLACKMORE's NIGHT, and to new listeners this serves as a good starting point.