The Cross Of Changes

If you know enigma then you cant go wrong with this one enjoy !

It was an album I'd had on cassette originally - and is one of their albums I never bought on CD for some reason, but it's one of those albums where I can listen to it on repeat - never gets old. I have always loved Engima, unique and ethereal and this has to be one of my favourite albums of theirs. Plays great in the car - I still have a CD player thankfully. Old school.

This music is an absolute must, if you just want to relax, play it & close your eyes & just go with it. We’ve had it for years & recently I had a hip replacement, the pain was excruciating, I bought this for my phone & played it, I soon forgot the pain !! I recommend it to anyone who wants to relax, lay back & listen. Incredible music.

If I remember, there was quite a long gap between this CD and it's predecessor, MCMXCa.d and most people including myself were of the belief that Enigma may be one of those unique one hit single, album wonders and stopped expecting a follow-up. I have now discovered that "The Cross of Changes" was released quite a few months in the rest of Europe before coming out in the UK. Don't know why this was, as the first releases did very well here. However, a friend had an import copy from Germany and I was able to listen to it about 3 months before it hit the shops here. It was preceded by the single "Return to Innocence", which was huge here and all over Europe, so the UK public hadn't forgotten Enigma.There's some strong material on Enigma 2, the obvious being the aforementioned single, which suffers slightly here as it's only in it's short form - the "Long and Alive" version on the CD single being a much better choice for the album with it's extra soaring verse and chorus, which gives the song a much more of a "Whole" feel. Seeing as the album is pretty short, the long version would have made a difference. That aside the rest of the album is up there with some of the greatest "World-Dance" fusion stuff that was popular at the time, especially, the huge opening track after the intro, "The Eyes of Truth", which really sigfnified that Enigma were back doing what they do best. I remember being impressed how the album opened ("Second Chapter"), where it's predecessor's last track ended, giving the sense that as we now know in hindsight, occurs with all their albums, making them just like chapters in a book: the next beginning where the last finished, giving Enigma the status of one long continuous story as we've now reached the 7th in that style. I wonder how long this will continue and will we ever get to the album which ends with "The last Chapter?"The rhythms and percussion on the long more instrumental type tracks are much better, more insistant than the first, giving the impression that Enigma are not frightnened of experimenting with styles and innovative sounds. As it closes with the title track you're left almost desperate to discover where you'll be taken to on the next album, and that's how it's been since, a brilliant marketing tool! I would give this 5 stars if it wasn't for the exclusion of the full length "Return to Innocence". But for anyone even mildly interested in European/Pop/world material, this is a good place to start, (or second if you bought the first album and thought it would all sound the same). It still sounds fresh today.

Nothing to dislike

Excellent condition and very quick delivery! Just fantastic!

I bought for one track the dolphin song

Has not got the same originality of the first Enigma CD release