Review: 'Fly' by Sarah Brightman

In a purely musical and emotional sense, this CD is brilliant. This perfect mixture of classical, pop and techno music has a way of overpowering you and drawing you in. In 'A Question of Honor', she begins by singing fragments of Catalani's 'La Wally', a classical piece. A touch of techno, along with Sarah's notorious back-up singing guys, creates a lovely transition to her singing of the main chorus, which is rockish-pop music. The song builds, and as it climaxes, I expected a more rocky finish, but she surprised me by transitioning back into 'La Wally', ending with a classical feel.

'You Take My Breath Away' has an eastern spiritual aura about it... this seems to be a pattern with certain musicians who have spent time in the Orient... you can definitely see eastern influence in the later Beatles songs; Live (the band) did a song about levitation and such in the east; Alanis couldn't stop singing about and thanking India after her trip there... her song Utopia definitely has meditative elements and references in it. It's interesting.

Of all her CDs, she seems to have the most fun (for lack of a better word) with this one. It's random, with an unusual mix of sounds and styles. Lyric-wise, Sarah will never match Alanis' depth, but she has a beautiful and powerful voice, and it's interesting to see her use her voice in a more popish manner.

This CD was difficult to find because it's an import... I finally purchased it new from germanmusicexpress.com, which seemed to have the best deal, even when compared with ebay and half.com. Yes, it took a little over a week to arrive from the Netherlands, but it was definitely worth it.