On March 27th, I started listening to the "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" album. 10 days after I listened to it for the first time, I wrote a track-by-track review of the album. It took longer than I would have liked, since I sometimes had difficulty figuring out what to say about each song. There was no specific order in which I worked on doing a review for each song. If I was struggling to come up with my thoughts on a specific song, I would skip it for now and move onto another song before coming back to it at a later time. I stated that I would post my track-by-track review on Monday (April 6th) and this will happen for real, without being delayed until April 7th or later. For some people, it is already April 7th, but it is still April 6th in my timezone when I posted this.
I have assigned ratings to each song (on a 1-10 scale). Some of the stuff I said in this review may be thoughts that I have posted in the past, but the large majority of this review contains thoughts that I am revealing for the very first time.
Shudder Before the Beautiful (10/10) - An excellent opener to this album and a track that was also... quite interesting as well. This is referring to the mindblowing experience I had while I was drunk. It would be better if I talk about the song while drunk and while sober. Like with the previous album "Imaginaerum", my first listening session with this album happened while I was drunk, laying in bed with my headphones on and my eyes closed.
While drunk - From the very start, this song unleashed a full on assault, with every note and vocal line producing waves of powerful euphoria. Never in my life had I felt anything of that extreme intensity. And I had to endure 6 1/2 minutes of this insanity. It was right there and then that I decided this was my favorite song from this album, without even listening to the remaining songs on this album. While several other songs were enhanced by being drunk, none of them were boosted to the same extent as this song was.
While sober - This is still an amazing song, even when sober. The mindblowing experience I had while drunk could not be replicated when I was finally sober. This all but confirmed my original assumption that what I felt while drunk was significantly enhanced by the alcohol, and by a factor of at least 10 times or greater. After I became sober, I was able to properly focus on the lyrics and some of the more subtle elements in this song, something I could not do when drunk. When I read the lyrics for the first time, I decided that I really liked these lyrics. My favorite line from the lyrics is "Deafens me with endless love". I really loved the choir part near the middle of the song, which added to my overall enjoyment of this song.
Weak Fantasy (9/10) - I love this song because it is very catchy and has some nice lyrics. The instrumental version is very nice to listen to because it is much easier to hear the instruments used in this song. From what I've read, one of the instruments used in the song is known as a "flamenco guitar" and I think it's an excellent addition to the song, because it creates a very unique sound that allows this song to stand out as one of the best tracks on the album. It's not my favorite song from this album, but it is definitely near the top of my list. On an album with less Marco than usual, his presence in this song is very much appreciated. Having Troy in the band means less Marco, since they need to make room on the album for his vocals too.
Élan (6/10) - Out of Nightwish's entire history of singles, this is probably one of their most disappointing singles. Since this song is not too heavy or too soft, it was a good candidate for a single, but Alpenglow would be a good single for the same reasons. I'd rather have Alpenglow as the first single over Élan, but I have to live with the actual choice that was made.
I don't think this song is catchy at all, which is the big contributing factor to my overall opinion of this song. The lyrics are only slightly better than the actual music, although I liked the "Meadows of Heaven" reference in the lyrics. I don't think this is a bad song, just a very average song that is low on my list because I like most of the other songs more.
Yours is an Empty Hope (9/10) - Even though this song is supposed to be considered the "aggressive" song in the same class as "Slaying the Dreamer", "Romanticide", and "Master Passion Greed", it doesn't seem to have that same feel to me. Maybe it's because the orchestra is very prominent in this song compared to those 3 songs, but I also noticed the guitar riffs are less harsh as well. However, the lyrical content is what you would expect from Nightwish's other "aggressive" songs and Floor even does some growling in this song. I really enjoyed the growling from Floor. It was something very unique that appeared in a Nightwish song for the first time in their history.
While I really love this song, there are other people who aren't very impressed by this song. The orchestra is sometimes cited as a criticism and even Floor's growling. I loved the heavily overused orchestra here, because it made the song very catchy. There is also a very long instrumental section in this song that I enjoy listening to, the part just before Floor enters and does her growling vocals.
Our Decades in the Sun (1/10) - The intro is very irritating to listen to. Floor's voice is very difficult for me to listen to in this song. Even the actual music itself is clearly lacking a melody that would give me a reason to listen to this song over and over again. It's just not catchy. I also find myself unable to identify with the lyrics. For a ballad, this is very important. With the vast majority of ballads, I need to have lyrics that actually resonate with me and this is not case with this song. I have heard people who appreciate this song because they are able to relate to the lyrics, unlike me. Finally, to make matters worse, this song has a very long length of roughly 6 1/2 minutes. That's too long for a ballad. On its own, the length of this song would not be the ultimate deciding factor to hate on a ballad. "Meadows of Heaven" is one of my favorite Nightwish ballads of all time and it's roughly 7 minutes long, but it has actual reasons why I love it.
I do believe this is the worst song Nightwish ever recorded, even worse than "Slow, Love, Slow". At least "Slow, Love, Slow" attempted to experiment with a unique sound, even if the end result was a song that I found to be very unappealing. There is absolutely nothing positive I can even say about ODITS. I even tried to listen to the instrumental and orchestral versions to see if I can find any redeeming qualities in this song. Nothing at all.
My Walden (6/10) - Out of the two main songs that Troy performs on, this one is slightly worse than "Edema Ruh". Although I think this song has slightly better lyrics, "Edema Ruh" has the slightly better music. Neither song has particularly impressed me. I think it's pretty cool that Troy sang some Welsh lyrics at the very start of this song. Now if only I knew what the Welsh part meant, since I haven't seen any translations posted for the Welsh lyrics.
With EFMB being the first album where Troy is a full member of the band, I hope it doesn't lead to the band putting 3-4 folk/celtic songs in every album just to give Troy something to record music for. The main problem with Troy is that most of the instruments he plays are instruments that are typically associated with folk/celtic music. Troy's biggest asset to Nightwish is his versatility - he can play several different instruments and even sing if he needs to. For Troy to be useful and not hinder Nightwish in the future, he will have to record music for songs that don't have a folk/celtic element to them. This means playing instruments that are widely used outside of folk/celtic music.
Endless Forms Most Beautiful (9/10) - I really like this song. The lyrics are very nice and it's catchy. We also get some actual guitar riffs from Emppu. Floor's operatic vocals also appear in this song, during the intro, although she is not using them for singing any of the song's lyrics. The instrumental and orchestral version of this song also features a choir part that is singing "endless forms most beautiful". This choir part can't be heard in the regular version of the song, as Floor sings the exact same line over top the choir. I really don't know why Floor was singing the exact same line at the same time the choir was doing the same thing. My guess is the choir was there only to give Floor an extra "oomph" to her voice while singing that line.
Edema Ruh (6/10) - Lovely keyboard melody at the start of the song. But outside of that, I don't think this song is catchy at all. Troy's vocal performance is another big highlight in this song. However, the lyrics leave much to be desired and this song has some of the worst lyrics on the entire album (only ODITS is worse than it). Between "Edema Ruh" and "My Walden" and considering the good and bad sides of each song, I would say that "Edema Ruh" has a very slight edge over "My Walden".
Alpenglow (7/10) - Some have said this song is a grower and I would agree here. Early on, I had a lower opinion of this song than I do right now. But I gave this song a chance and my opinion would later improve over time. I do think this song is catchy and has some good lyrics, but there are several other songs that are better than Alpenglow in both of those areas. This is why I have Alpenglow somewhat low in my overall song ranking for this album despite being a fairly good song. On an album with a lot of great songs, they can't all be high up on your list.
The Eyes of Sharbat Gula (4/10) - As a pure instrumental, this song is already at a major disadvantage - it has no lyrics. Another issue is that this song is very slow. Combining both of those flaws into one song makes it even worse than a slow song with lyrics. There is no way this song is actually worse than ODITS, which has several major flaws and irritates me when I try listening to it. This is actually a song that I could listen to more regularly than ODITS.
The Greatest Show on Earth (8/10) - With the long epics such as this one, I will approach them with some caution before I actually listen to them. So my hype level for the long epics are generally quite low to avoid having myself be disappointed when it still doesn't live up to my already low expectations.
Although I originally had a low opinion of this song early on, this song definitely grew on me by quite a bit. The major downside with this song is that it takes a while to build up in the beginning. Out of the 5 different sections in this song, this is my second least favorite part of the song. "Four Point Six" is notable for 2 different reasons - the first spoken part by Richard Dawkins, plus Floor's operatic vocals, which were used very little on this album as a whole.
After the first spoken part by Dawkins, the song transitions into "Life", my favorite part of the song. It has the best lyrics and best vocal performance from Floor. Her vocal performance at the start of "Life" sounds very cold, which matches up very nicely with the lines she sang regarding the earliest moments during the formation of the universe. I find myself playing this part of the song over and over again for the lyrics and vocal performance, although I think "Life" does sound catchy.
After Floor's singing in "Life" comes to an end, we arrive at the part with the animal sounds. Although some people have criticized the animal sounds, I think they're pretty funny and they actually fit in with the concept of the album as a whole and with this song in particular.
"The Toolmaker" is my second favorite part of the song. Although I think this part is more catchy than "Life", the lyrics aren't quite as good here. We do get to hear Marco in this part of this song. Early on, Floor and Marco were dueling each other with their vocal performance, which was nice to have. Besides that, we also have some awesome guitar riffs too. "The Toolmaker" comes to an end with the repeated "We were here!" vocal lines and then transitions into "The Understanding".
"The Understanding" is my third favorite part of the song and features the second spoken part from Dawkins. This is also represents the best spoken part by Dawkins throughout this entire song and also the most thought provoking words. Once this spoken word part comes to an end, the orchestra dominates the song for slightly over minute before it dies off a bit and then transitions into the final part of the song. Although "Sea-Worn Driftwood" is my least favorite part of the song, it does feature the final spoken part from Dawkins, reciting the quote that would form the basis for the album title. The song then goes on for another 2 minutes before coming to an end.
This song could have been improved by slightly reducing the length of the song, which could be accomplished by cutting out about one minute at the end and reducing the amount of time it takes for the intro to build-up. Other parts of the song could have been cut out to reduce the length even more. This could have reduced the song's length by roughly 3 minutes without taking away anything that Tuomas intended when he composed the song. All and all, this was an amazing song. Out of the 5 epics of 10 minutes or longer, I would rank them in the following order - Beauty of the Beast > Ghost Love Score > The Greatest Show on Earth > The Poet and the Pendulum > Song of Myself
Sagan (8/10) - Nightwish typically has a good history of producing good bonus tracks and this one is no exception. While this song is not as good as some of their other bonus tracks (Escapist, Sleepwalker, Nightquest, and several others), I very much prefer this song over Élan. I think this song is more catchy than Élan and the lyrics are better too.
Here is my final song ranking for this album:
1. Shudder Before the Beautiful
2. Yours is an Empty Hope
3. Weak Fantasy
4. Endless Forms Most Beautiful
5. The Greatest Show on Earth
6. Sagan
7. Alpenglow
8. Élan
9. Edema Ruh
10. My Walden
11. The Eyes of Sharbat Gula
12. Our Decades in the Sun
And for my album ranking:
Century Child > Wishmaster > Once > Endless Forms Most Beautiful > Imaginaerum > Oceanborn > Dark Passion Play > Angels Fall First
I was grinning ear to ear the entire time my first listen.
