Description:
`Two decades on and nearly six years after their last release, the band quietly slip out Roses And Tears, their 14th studio album. It`s rumoured to be their last, and as such it`s as good a place as any for the uninitiated to sample their still unique juxtaposed blend of sedately paced traditional Gaelic folk and electronic elements. . . Their distinctive perspective on the world is underlined by Roses And Tears including just two English language tracks, one of which is a cover version. As a result, for listeners unfamiliar with Scottish Gaelic this is inevitably an album best enjoyed for the cheerily rhythmic reels. . . It`s not all kilt-and-sporran whirl-y-gigs. A cover of John Martyn`s anti-war song Don`t You Go, replete with uilleann pipes, takes a mother`s perspective as she urges her son not to head into war. . . Their early-`90s days of reaching out to the Anglophonic world seem to have been set to one side with Roses And Tears, as Capercaillie fix on their interpretive guise as translators of ancient stories, words and wisdom into a modern but still resolutely Scottish identity. . . Yet this is no Scottish Nationalist album of political anthemeering; there`s nothing revolutionary or even mildly irked here. Instead, Capercaillie sound like a band know who they are and are content with their lot, come what may. To some, that`s their charm, and their unmistakable sound should still see their fans warmly welcome them back one last time. - Michael Hubbard, musicomh.com
