The Rainbow Tree is the 4th cover album released by the German Acoustic Duo Melanie Mau & Martin Schnella. Their unique acoustic interpretations of Progressive Rock and Metal classics have gathered much international attention to Melanie and Martin and their co musicians Lars Lehmann (bass), Mathias Ruck (vocals) and Simon Schröder (percussion) during the last few years. The Rainbow Tree continues this musical journey with acoustic arrangements of Classics by Kansas, Gentle Giant, Rush, Porcupine Tree, Peter Gabriel and many more. I am not, normally, a big fan of cover versions of songs, unless the artist makes the song and arrangement their own. This album both succeeds and fails at this criteria but overall the band make the songs distinctive enough to call them their own. The album opens with Free Hand - Medley which is a brilliant arrangement of the Gentle Giant Songs Talybont, On Reflection and His Last Vovage. This is a prime example of making a track, even one as distinctive as this, their own. On the other hand, the next track, Song For America, follows Kansas' arrangement directly - but what saves this track is the addition of Dave Meros on bass and Rachel Flowers on flute. Next up is Something Happened On The Way To Heaven, where the acoustic arrangement makes this Phil Collins classic quite unique as does the next track Rainbow Demon, where the acoustic arrangement takes some of the "bite" away from the original Uriah Heep track without watering it down too much. A very solid track! Alleviate starts out sounding like it is going to be a carbon copy of Leprous' version but it soon becomes quite obvious that this Celtic-flavoured arrangement significantly changes the feel of the song - as does the next track Teardrop which actually has far more life and is far more enjoyable than the original by Massive Attack. A Love That Never Dies is one of those tracks that truly becomes Melanie and Martin's as the arrangement is very different from Neal Morse's. While this track lacks the power and grandeur that the original had, this arrangement gives a much more subtle, feminine approach. With Peter Gabriel's Secret World they stick to the original with the musical arrangement, if somewhat understated, but vocally Melanie shines and makes this lyric her own! Tom Sawyer starts out sounding like they are going to take it in a very different direction but unfortunately it does not take long for them fall right back in line with the original arrangement, which, I'm sorry, is never going to stand up beside the original. This could have been a brilliant track if they had continued down the original path. Again, like they did with the Gentle Giant track above, the arrangement of Blackest Eyes / The Sound of Muzak / Halo from Porcupine Tree and Iron Maiden's Hallowed Be Thy Name / For The Greater Good Of God are brilliant re-workings which truly shine! With Noise Melanie and Martin show that they can basically be an acoustic version of Nightwish - the arrangement is very similar to the original but does present well as a acoustic piece. With Ghost Of Perdition - they prove that they do their best work re-arranging Metal tracks! This is absolutely the BEST track on the album! The album concludes with the traditional Siuil A Ruin which really is simply performed the way it has been done for centuries. Overall this is very good album but I would really rather see this talented group of musicians leave the cover versions behind. As a covers album, this ranks as one of the best, but it still lacks enough originality for me to truly love the whole disc. ***+ David Carswell Where to buy? |
