Cinderella, Cinderella, what to say...I happen to have dreamt of them some days ago; the soundtrack was the reformed band's latest release, Live at the Mohegan Sun. Now that I' m listening to it again, I realise it wasn't only a dream I had. When I play the record, it sounds exactly the same as in the dream: blurry, indistinct, a bit dull but yet full of a will to come back.
Tom Kiefer's presence is surprisingly larger than I had expected, being an accidental listener of their full lengths, and having watched the photos that say little more than "posing" .
This applies as a matter of fact to the music too; it would be unnatural to search for a deeper meaning in Cinderella's musical art. Thus their appearance reflects their music; then it must be OK to say that the band is good at image... Mind you, there is little glam in Cinderella's music; Tom Kiefer, the front man and singer, enjoys blues (and is wild at playing the harmonica, among others), and this can clearly be heard.
The fact that Cinderella got reunited in 2005 results of a miracle, Tom's voice having undergone all the plagues a singer can dread. His voice on the CD hardly bears an audible wrinkle, though.
The songs, are they representative for the band's career? I let that for the fan to decide. My disappointment, if one may say so, has to do with the way the known ballads are performed. Quite cold, studied performances, that get carried away through fading waves of sound. The same happens during the solos.
The sound is maybe what I am most troubled with. The audience overtakes completely and one has to lend a rather attentive ear to hear what is left to be heard of the music. A bad mix, full of hi's, messy delays and strangely lingering guitars generally.
Live at the Mohegan Sun is probably more enjoyable for the guys in the band who get to play together again in front of a large audience, than for the audience itself. Nah, this album is definitely for the fans who've been waiting far too long.
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