Track Listing

1. Fragile Dreams
2. Leave No Trace
3. Inner Silence
4. One Last Goodbye
5. Are You There?
6. Angelica
7. Natural Disaster
8. Temporary Peace
9. Flying
10. Unchained (Tales of the Unexpected)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #78450 in Music
• Released on: 2008-08-19
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Customer Reviews

This should be required listening for any music fan.
This album really should not be as good as it is. Basically it is womwhat of a greatest hits album, except that the songs were rerecorded and in some cases rearranged. Most bands who attempt this don't produce anything memorable. Anathema, on the other hand, are such immense songwriters but didn't necessarily always put their work in the best light. The original recording of Angelica for instance, was poorly recorded at a time when Cavanagh really had not found his singing voice yet (he made a drastic improvement between "Eternity" and "Alternative 4"), here this gorgeaous song is finally done justice. This album works because the songs are all extraordinarily strong. They are not simply good, many of them could be called great, and I would only say this about very few songs that I like. Anathema's songs have a classic, timeless beauty to them. By picking some of their strongest works and recording them in a way that makes them flow together seamlessly, Anathema have produced what could possibly be considered their best album. I would highly receommend this to anyone, and if I had to introduce this band to someone this would definitely be the best starting point (unless that person is a doom metal fan of course).

Great album!
I am really, really loving this album. It is a basically a look back, in "Hindsight," at Anathema's earlier classics. They have re-recorded some of their timeless classics in a semi-acoustic format but still maintained their recent atmospheric electronic sound. I love these old songs and their original arrangements, so right off the bat it would be hard for me to like the new versions, notwithstanding the fact, as an earlier reviewer stated, that the production on the earliest albums (Eternity, Alternative 4) wasn't the best. However, especially after a few listens, I absolutely love these versions. Most surprisingly, I love the new version of "One Last Goodbye" more than the original, which I never thought would happen because the original is so amazing.

The reason why I cannot give this album 5 stars is that while the recordings are great, I do highly dislike the synthesized sound they have used for the solos on Angelica, Inner Silence, and others. It is a high pitched synth sound that sounds like it is changing octaves continuously. I find this sound disconcerting and feel it doesn't do the strong melodies justice (though it does fit the electronic, atmospheric sound they have created). I feel using a violin (there are a lot of strings used on this album) or just an elecrtic guitar sound would have been more enjoyable. But this is just a highly personal taste, and I can look past this and still really enjoy the album. Unfortunately, it really keeps it from being 5 stars for me. Hopefully it is 5 stars for you!

Never have I heard such beauty...

The standout track here is the rearranged "Are you There?" ...listening to this track in the car with crisp sound and mello subtlety is just a beautiful piece of ear candy to behold. Never has any song filled you with such a cool feeling of energy. The guitars rifts and steady melody puts you almost in a state of trance as you listen deeper into it. I found myself putting it on repeat listens even before i finished the rest of the album. I also loved each and every track as the beauty of the guitar is in full presentation here. Going alt rock is the best thing that has ever happened to this band. And I hope they continue this beautiful oath they are taking...there is literally not much like it in todays market.