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Belladonna's tracks resemble soundtrack cues designed to capture a specific emotion that words could never quite do justice.
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It's every bit as focused and accomplished as anything in Lanois' catalog, and die-hard fans will be wanting more long after the disc winds down.
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There are plenty of things left to say and Daniel Lanois has found a way to say them without words.
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This is Lanois's most accomplished solo recording in a decade, and in its finest moments it even eclipses For the Beauty of Wynona in terms of sheer goosebump-inducing musical soliloquy.
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A gorgeous, shimmering 40 minutes of music - a sonic road trip through parts unknown.
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Entertainment Weekly[It's] like the closing music for a very sad rodeo. [22 Jul 2005, p.78]
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A quiet, thoughtful, but never uninteresting album.
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At first blush, Lanois' music is flowery wallpaper, but on repeated listens the colorful textures sink in and evoke a hushed mysticism.
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MojoWhereas Eno's purest ambient music has such an organic abstractness the listener stops thinking about what is actually producing the sounds, Lanois favours guitars, which links his music more to established styles. [Jul 2005, p.110]
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UncutThe tunes are so fragmentary, it resembles a '60s hi-fi demonstration disc. [Jul 2005, p.89]
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Many of these sketches are too diffuse.
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Q MagazineWhat it needs is some incident--a clanging glockenspiel, say. At least that would liven up proceedings a bit. [Aug 2005, p.129]
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Belladonna sounds technically flawless-- every marimba strike and fret run has a specific texture that's almost miniaturist in its realistic detail-- but it's all in service to vocal-less songs that are ponderous and dull, whose strict adherence to an overriding motif hems them in.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 5 out of 6
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Mixed: 0 out of 6
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Negative: 1 out of 6
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MarieJJan 17, 2006