I pre-ordered from Amazon, and got it in on the release date which was really great. I was very anxious to hear it, which I had NOT been with the last two albums...the build up to those albums in my mind wasn't much, but with Cretu using a new studio set up and trying something very different I thought this could be a really great stand-out. I was right and wrong.
I listened to the album first at night, on headphones. This is definitely an album to be heard on headphones, isolated and in the dark. Very surreal and atmospheric but not in any sort of ambient sense - just a test of the senses through sound. The tracks didn't really seem to have beginnings or endings through the headphone listen - I wasn't starring at the CD player, seeing which track I was on at any point. I just let the album flow and enjoyed it. I was very pleased at the end of the listen, especially with the use of vocals (not being overbearing like they have been in the past few albums.) The beats felt good - not as good as E3 mind you, but solid and full.
Now for the bad part - I listened to it a few times the next day in my car while working (my job requires me to do LOTS of travelling, so I have plenty of time to listen in the car each day), and I was extremely disappointed. I couldn't find any of the sounds I had enjoyed the night before. I didn't care for much of it at all on my second listen....now with a few listens after I found some songs I really enjoy, mainly Je T'aime Till My Dying Day and Deja Vu. The further listening into the evening got me more excited and able to enjoy Touchness, Same Parents, La Puerta del Cielo and The Language of Sound. Now - enjoying these songs doesn't mean I liked the album. They are good standalones, albiet some of these songs sound like CD single B-sides.
The album overall to me after listening to it in a couple of different cars in the past few days, it just seems directionless and for those that aren't Enigma fans it was very boring to them. The first few tracks especially don't flow together at all - it seems just bland and that there is NO cohesive manor to them at all. As the album progresses the sounds seem to fit well together as it goes from track to track, but the album should have ended at Deja Vu, and the last two tracks should have been mixed in to earlier parts of the album.
The second disc was nice. Superficial was the only boring track, the others were definitely a good addition to the feel of the album.
I will absolutely recommend this album to friends and anyone that is big into seperating themselves from the world so they can listen to music in headphones at times...I am guilty of this, and this album works extremely well in this setting. As for anyone wanting a new electronic album to dance to or chill out to or anything like that, I don't think this would be in my top 5 recommendations at all. It just doesn't have any stand-out tracks that really sell this album, but it also doesn't have some kind of amazing overall thematic feel that I could describe. The lack of a real theme seperates this album from E1-4 certainly, and just feels directionless at the end of the listening experience.
