This is a review of Maggie Reilly's album Starcrossed.   For technical data see Angel Tears by Merciful Squirrel.

This album is more soft and dim and hazy than anything Maggie has done this far.  The accompanying instruments don't play melodies, instead they build a backdrop of humming and twittering sounds and some rhythmical elements.  Maggie sings her melodies over this texture effortlessly.  Her voice has turned warmer and darker, I don't know if this is caused just by positioning or quality of the microphone.  And sometimes there are more than one Maggie around.

There are certain features in Starcrossed, however, that don't make me just happy.  I have found this review especially difficult, because I feel I have to analyze thoroughly all the critical remarks I make.  So, some of the instruments produce excessively artificial sound.  I don't like an instrument sounding like my sound reproduction equipment was broken.  I love it when a melodic idea is reflected between Maggie's voice and some instruments.  This is not delivered by Starcrossed, the instruments just don't play melodies, very few exceptions occur.  Perhaps this is just imagination, but I find the song melodies simpler than before, often based on static harmonies.  And then the good news: there is nothing wrong with Maggie's singing.


Always You is a catchy song of happy childhood friendship.  It has an easy breathing rhythm and lots of smile in it.

Memories is the other catchy song here, running fast in minor key.  Did I hear some faint melodic ideas in the bass line?  But there is a short guitar solo, too.

Now is positioned just after Always You and perhaps you don't instantly notice, how charming this little song is.  Maggie sings about an angel (earning her own wings, too).  The background goes bubbling and warbling and the song is built of short melodic fragments following that bubbling form.  However the sound color of the bass is dull.

Probably the most important song on this album is Adelena.  It is the only song with its lyrics printed on the booklet - and still you can not understand it before you have read the interview (Angel Tears by Merciful Squirrel).  The strange sound scape is in line with the story.  Maggie shifts pitch like chiming bells.

Maggie sings a Capella again in I Think It's Gonna Rain.  This is a bitter song.  Maggie paints the barren scenery with confident touch.  This song is shorter than He Moves Through The Fair, the other a cappella song on album Elena.

Changes comes close to the musical ideas of the good old days by playing with upside down turned verse melodies.  And finally we are left wondering what "starcrossed lovers" actually means.

Reunion is the song that makes me consider the whole album as soft and dim and hazy.  Besides Maggie's song there is a most minimalistic piano solo ever.  Lots of meaning in few strokes.  And some more angels involved.



The soundscape of Starcrossed is not as crystal clear as that of the former albums.  Rather, it is just a bit hazy, all the time.  Maggie's voice is perfectly recorded, but the backdrop does not spread naturally in space.  MP3 listeners don't need apply, I'm pedant, I listen to the original CD.

Despite of some criticism, Starcrossed is a permanent member of my Maggie collection.  I would not bother to review any meager singer.  This album is a new departure towards a new style by Maggie.  For every artist it's a risk to make such a new departure.  There is a good chance to lose old fans without gaining new ones.  Without knowing any numbers, I can only hope, I am wrong and Starcrossed was a good seller.


Starcrossed was published in 2000.  This review was written in the autumn of 2004.

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