Album review: Sarah Brightman, Dreamchaser (Decca)

Sarah Brightman, Dreamchaser (Decca)

It was only a matter of time before Sarah Brightman, who effectively created the “classical crossover” genre, should collaborate with Mike Hedges, the producer who brought pop textures to albums by Russell Watson, Camilla Kerslake and The Priests.

It's a tricky alliance – the huge reverb applied to her stratospheric ululations and the accompanying chorale on Gorecki's “Lento e Largo” swamps the track, and the epic arrangement of “Angel” billows gustily around her vocal. But Elbow's “One Day Like This” transfers readily to Brightman's range, and the self-recrimination of her own “Breathe Me” is softened by its string arrangement. She also slips smoothly between Sigur Rós's “Glosoli”, The Cocteau Twins' “Eperdu” and Rimsky-Korsakov's “A Song of India”.

Download: Eperdu; A Song of India; One Day Like This