SIRIUS

When "Sirius" was released in 1987, Clannad's basic line-up of family members Brennans and Duggans was mostly intact, at least as far as the core group is concened. However, in order to make their music less folky and more poppy, they had recruited many special guests so that they could pass themselves off as a rock band. So, they brought along Bruce Hornsby to sing and play piano on "Second Nature", Steve Perry to do background vocals on "White Fool", and, for those that were wondering what Mel Collins was up to during his stint away from King Crimson, here he is bringing his sax along for several of the tracks. There is a whole host of other guests along for the ride, it almost makes you wonder, other than Maire's lovely and distinct voice, what is left for the rest of the band to do?

With a few songs from Clannad reaching the ears of American listeners and a surge of popularity and interest in Celtic music, the band was dealing with retaining that core sound, but still trying to sound relevant to American artists. They actually do a decent job, but don't expect there to be much in the way of folk or progressive sounds here. The band manages to use some traditional sounding instruments and styles, and this does add to some level of uniqueness and heart to the music, and Maire is as strong of a vocalist as ever, but it seems they have a hard time keeping the music interesting as it goes on. As far as Celtic authenticity though, it is pretty much missing in the structure of these tracks, and every one of them is mostly sung in English. There is nothing traditional about the music on this album. But both Pol and Cianran Brennan write all of the songs for the album.

"Turning Tide" is a lovely song with some excellent instrumentation involved which makes for a sweeping sound that tends to be missing in some of their earlier music. "Skellig" is the track with the most similarity to their more acoustic sound of before, but isn't really that acoustic. "White Fool" actually tries to call back to some of their better albums with the chanting, atmospheric guitars and tribal rhythms, and has a more complex thematic sound, but Steve Perry's vocals actually are a bit underwhelming here. But it is still one of the stronger entries on the album even if it misses the expected "pay-off" that it hints to. Bruce Hornsby comes back to add harmonies to "Something to Believe In" which is a nice, lush track with some good guitar, but doesn't stand out as much as it probably should. The best of the album, however, seems to be in the simpler tracks that let the band do what they do best, as in the lovely "Many Roads", a song that would have been even more beautiful if done with even less polish. And "Sirius" has a really nice electric guitar solo from guest Robbie Blunt, but the rest of the song is over produced.

The production is very slick here, and while that might sound good to pop lovers, it takes away the charm and authenticity that the band had ample amounts of previously. The music is good considering it is following more of a pop sound, but the vocals are the strongest part of the album, and this is what the record companies were hoping for, to be able to show off Moya's vocals in a pop/rock setting. But with some both strong and weak sections and songs, the album pretty much averages out to be just that, average. At least it isn't a failure. The band did the best they could and the album helped them to maintain their popularity in the UK and to some extent in the US. The album probably would have aged much better with less polish which tends to make it all sound less intimate.