Blackmore’s Night – The Village Lanterne – 2006

The Village Lanterne is the fifth studio album by Blackmore’s Night. Here, Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night have found a perfect blend of bard-inspired folk music and more traditional and harder rock à la Deep Purple. The concept flows seamlessly into each other, and one almost doesn’t think about the fact that the songs differ quite a bit musically. They even weave in the Purple classic “Child in Time,” and it’s actually a really good version, even though Candice Night tends to be a bit flat in her expression. It sounds like singing without considering the meaning of the lyrics to me. But it’s not quite that simple. There’s definitely emotion, for example, in Ralph McTell’s “Streets of London,” but it becomes a bit lifeless. However, I must underline that Night’s voice is very beautiful and fits excellently both the medieval-inspired songs and the more catchy rock songs that actually have quite a strong hook. Ritchie Blackmore, of course, proves what a skilled guitarist he is and gets quite a bit of space to play around with the guitar in some of the electric rock songs.