Search - Runrig :: Searchlight

Searchlight
Runrig
Searchlight
Genres: Folk, International Music, Pop, Rock
 
  •  Track Listings (12) - Disc #1

2000 release unavailable in the US, featuring 12 tracks.

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Runrig
Title: Searchlight
Members Wishing: 3
Total Copies: 0
Label: EMI Europe Generic
Release Date: 3/26/1996
Album Type: Import
Genres: Folk, International Music, Pop, Rock
Styles: British & Celtic Folk, Contemporary Folk, Celtic, Europe, Britain & Ireland
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPCs: 094632171320, 0094632171351, 766488521122

Synopsis

Album Description
2000 release unavailable in the US, featuring 12 tracks.
 

CD Reviews

The Undicovered Sound of Scotland
04/23/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)

"In my home country of Scotland, this group out sells Madonna and Dire Straits and yet are still unknown to the world at large. This album brings you a group that plays live to 50,000 people on the banks of Loch Lomond and many of the tracks on this album are main stays of the groups current live performances. The tracks start with the up beat news from Heaven following onto the lyrical every river and onwards and upwards the music takes you on a musical tour of the real Gaelic music. The writing force in the group are Rory and his younger brother Calum, whose up bringing on the Isle of Skye where English was the second language is evident in all tracks. Eirinn a track about the sad history of Ireland is not a political song in support of the IRA more a sociol comment on the destruction of a beautiful country by the few.This album was critised by some Gaelic journalists due to the lack of Gaelic songs, however Runrig have realised that the big world out there does not speak or understand gaelic, they do understand good professionally presented music and lyrics. Siol Ghoraidh (the geneology of goraidh)is my track of choice, if you ever get a chance to see the video Live at Stirling Castle you will see and hear the anger, dispair and ancient history within the lyrics of the song.In summary the best album to come out of Scotland in many years. Forgot the false Gaelic or Celtic music of some of the current groups coming out of the Britain, Runrig live and breath the experience and their music is not staged to be fashionable."
Their most commercial; not their best
Audun Myskja | 03/05/2000
(4 out of 5 stars)

"It`s strange that Amazon.com carry this album, which is a half-baked attempt at reaching a wider audience, compared to their two masterpieces; "The Big Wheel" (1991) and "Amazing things" (1994), where their gaelic folk mouth-music roots fuse with rock power borne of the pulse of two percussionists.But the most amazing about the reviews appearing so far is that they`re replete with Big Country comparisons, but fail to mention the true driving force of Runrig: The songs of the Mac Donald brothers, and particularly the lyrics of Calum MacDonald, which to my heart and mind are the most consistently inspired, even illuminated in popular music, barring Dylan and Cohen. Songs of mature love, instead of "my baby left me", songs of the love of the land and the winds of spirit weaving through our lives. The mixture of English and gaelic lyrics produce an uplifting blend. Why cannot Amazon carry these two albums, which have been their bestsellers in Scotland?"
The Best of Scottish Music
HealingCross | 03/19/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Who would understand? One of the best of Scottish Music, Runrig is treated as an exotic at Amazon.com. Where are other albums like "Amazing Things" or the even more contemporary ones like "Live at Celtic Connection"? It doesn't throw a good light on the American market that it hasn't discovered the band from the Scottish Highland yet. Searchlight is certainly one of their best albums (and it was the first by them that I owned). Runrig successfully brings together a fusion of traditional folkloristic style with modern kind of music, melting it with lyrics about the beauty of their homeland, sometimes reaching even religious tones. It's the newly evolving self- consciousness of the different European regions that may explain their success in Europe - a new interest in traditional expressions of culture and art. Therefore some songs of this album are sung in Gaelic, the old Celtic language of Scotland. And these songs touch the heart even more. Searchlight is a good start to discover Runrig - as I have to confess myself. But there's more to Runrig than that. And I hope, even America will find out."