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You can’t help feeling that everyone is jumping onto the Jubilee/Olympics bandwagons at present. Another artist with a album out on this sort of theme is Russell Watson with his album Anthems.
Opening with Race To The End (probably best known as Chariots of Fire) you might get a sense of what to expect from the album. From the powerful, we head into what seems first a gentle version of Swing Low but it’s builds to it crescendo at the end of it. Next is a cover of the Queen hit We Are The Champions but there seems to be something missing from this version…
World In Union is next which was recently done by New Zealander Hayley Westenra for the rugby world cup. Sadly it feels a little sharp as some words at the end of phrases, seem to be snapped. Abide With Me is next and is performed with the elegance and grace you’d expect from Watson on a track like this. The classic Danny Boy comes in with a beautiful piano accompaniment, building to include some well places strings. The iconic White Cliffs of Dover is next and is a duet with the woman herself Vera Lynn, and is just beautiful.
Calon Lan is next and sang in both English and Welsh (with a lovely Welsh Male Voice Choir as backing). How do you follow a Welsh track? Well, you follow it up by and English in the form of Jerusalem. Of course, you can’t miss out the Scottish national anthem, that is Flower of Scotland. But sadly we think that he’s trying to heard with this track. This could be a case of there is only one that can sing this and that would be the Scots themselves. Last Night of The Proms favourite, Land Of Hope & Glory redeems Watson though.
Nimrod is a spoken track whilst Proud is a cover of the Heather Small track that formed part of the London 2012 Olympic bid. Finally the album closes with the national anthem, God Save The Queen though sadly this is just an instrumental.
Overall, for an album called Anthems, it doesn’t seem to live up the name. The cover of the more modern tracks just don’t seem to suit his voice and, at time, don’t seem to be going anywhere or are missing something. The only tracks that truly redeem him on the album really are the more hymnal tracks or those that are more suited to classical voice. Fans may enjoy but others may feels that it’s just bandwagon jumping.
Rating:2/5
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