The 5 CD Enigma Classic Album Selection has now been out for a few weeks – so I wanted to check out what reviewers were saying about it. From digitaljournal.com:
As part of an extensive series of reissues, Universal Music has re-released groundbreaking albums from famed German experimentalists Enigma as an attractive five-CD box set.Best known for uplifting and ubiquitous melodies like “Sadeness (Part 1)” and “Return To Innocence” – as well as a string of less familiar tunes that have also popped up on numerous film and TV soundtracks – Enigma, the brainchild of Romanian-born multi-instrumentalist Michael Cretu, continue to push the boundaries, most recently on 2008’s Seven Lives Many Faces.have been packaged together as part of a series of reissues that also includes music by Simple Minds, UB40 and Gary Moore. Kicking things off is Enigma’s solid debut, MCMXC AD, released to much acclaim in 1990, and it remains a very enjoyable listening experience. Spawning four memorable singles, “Principles Of Lust,” “Mea Culpa,” “The Rivers Of Belief” and the aforementioned “Sadeness,” the record also contains other wonderful moments in the form of the chill out-esque “
Romanian born Michael Cretu conceived the idea for Enigma when he worked in German in the early 1990s – at a time when music was embracing dance in a new and not always exciting way. Best known for the early hit Sadeness (Part 1) – which now appears on Christmas compilations for some bizarre reason – Enigma were the early trailblazers for the chill-out style that would become hugely popular in different forms later in the decade.
Here the first five albums are collected together in a neat box-set – although sadly there are no notes to go with the CDs, which would have made this more collectable. The first album MCMXC a.d. still sounds fresh, albeit with that unmistakable feel of the early 1990s.
You can read it here.
Enigma Classic Album Selection – a 5 CD compilation – contains the following songs: