By now, pretty much everyone knows that Candice Night is the amazing vocalist of Blackmore's Night and she possesses one of the finest, most expressive voices in the world. Together with Ritchie Blackmore's guitars, they create truly heartfelt and powerful songs.
Reflections is Night's first solo album. At only 38 minutes, all the songs were written by her, so it's a real solo effort in this sense. Her husband Ritchie Blackmore was not involved in the songs because he, too, encouraged her to make her own statement. Naturally, the album is quite a departure from the sound of Blackmore's Night. The songs on Reflections are more modern sounding with an easily noticeable contemporary slant. Besides the sizzling folk-inspired synth melodies of the aching ballad "For You" and Night's trademark 'storytelling' lyricism of "Robin Red Breast," the album develops a more modern sound and direction. Even these two songs are very vocal-driven, emphasizing her lighter-than-air vocals with perfect clarity and harrowing echo. Her breathy, lambent voice set against a melting piano motif and ethereal acoustic guitars on "Call It Love" suggests Candice Night would be played on the radio in a perfect world. She sings in a totally crystalline tone with sheer emotion and delicacy over sparse arrangements of percussion and some electronic beats. Her vocals are often treated with an overlay of reverb to give the songs deep space and resonance. The ending of "Wind Is Calling (Hush the Wind)" and effect-laden vocalization of "Dangerous Smile" are styles she could never explore in Blackmore's Night, and while I'm not too keen on hearing her in such a heavily electronic sound environment, I realize this is what solo albums and side projects are for.
Most of the album is quite laidback to allow Night's voice to fully shine, and the main melodic tool is the use of keyboards. Still, Night utilizes some strings on "Alone with Fate," with accordion and violin sounds as well as on the short yet sweet instrumental piece "In Time." The reworked version of Blackmore's Night's "Now and Then (2011)," the first song Candice Night wrote in the band, cuts out the more folky acoustic passages and replaces them with a deep synth presence over which Night's pure, delicate voice is placed. It's also imbued with an extended coda, and while beautiful, the original song sounds totally different thanks to the touch of Blackmore. The country-like "Gone Gone Gone" might have been added to the album in order to diversify the album, but truth be told, I don't think it's one of her best songs.
Unfortunately, the CD booklet only contains lyrics but no other information about the instruments and musicians who contributed to the songs. Maybe they were all studio artists, but it would have been nice to see what instruments were used in the final mix.
Track Listing
- Wind Is Calling (Hush the Wind)
- Gone Gone Gone
- Black Roses
- Now and Then (2011)
- Dangerous Smile
- For You
- Call It Love
- Robin Red Breast
- Alone with Fate
- In Time
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