Colours in the Dark (album)

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Colours in the Dark
File:Tarja Colours-In-The-Dark Standard.jpg
Studio album by Tarja
Released 28 August 2013 (2013-08-28)[1]
Recorded 2012–13
Genre Symphonic metal, classical-crossover
Length 61:11
Label Edel, Universal
Producer Tarja, Mic
Tarja chronology
Act I: Live in Rosario
(2012)Act I: Live in Rosario2012		 Colours in the Dark
(2013)		 The Shadow Self
(2016)The Shadow Self2016
Tarja album chronology
Act I: Live in Rosario
(2012)		 Colours in the Dark
(2013)		 Ave Maria – En Plein Air
(2015)
Singles from Colours in the Dark
  1. "Victim of Ritual"
    Released: 12 July 2013
  2. "500 Letters"
    Released: 1 November 2013

Colours in the Dark is the fourth studio album released by Finnish vocalist Tarja Turunen. The record was released on 30 August 2013, in Austria, Brazil, Finland, Germany, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland; 2 September in Norway, Poland, and the Czech Republic; 3 September in the United States and Canada; and 4 September in Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK. Mixing was done by Tim Palmer in Austin, Texas in the United States.[2] Tarja will start the Colours in the Dark World Tour on 17 October 2013, to promote the album. The name of the album, as the cover image, came as a metaphor from the idea that life has a large range of colors and the dark absorbs all of them, containing every color.[3]

An official lyric video of the song "Never Enough" was released 31 May.[4] The video was shot in Zlin, Czech Republic.[5] The song was also released as a single on iTunes.[4]

The first music video for "Victim of Ritual" was shot in Berlin, Germany.[6] and was released on 10 July. A promo teaser was released on 26 June.

On 12 September 2013, Earmusic, Tarja's label, announced that the second single taken from the album is going to be "500 Letters". It would be released as a strictly limited CD single and download at the end of October.[7] A promo teaser of the videoclip was released on 25 October and they announced that the premiere was going to be on 31 October. "500 Letters" was released on 1 November 2013 as a digital download only.

On 20 February it was revealed on the blog[8] that a new version of the album called Left in the Dark would be released later this year and will feature different versions of the songs on the original Colours in the Dark including acoustic versions of 500 Letters & Until Silence. A competition was held, with special prizes to the 5 best artworks.

Background

The vocal recordings of the album started late 2012 and continued throughout the beginning of 2013. Titles of the album's songs were revealed from times to times through Tarja's blog, like she did with My Winter Storm (2007). The album's name came out of the song "Until Silence". This is the third time the album's name came out of one of the songs.[9] The artwork and some promotional pictures for this album were taken mainly in India during the What Lies Beneath World Tour in 2011.[10] During the end of that tour Tarja already performed "Into the Sun" and a different version of "Never Enough". Both songs ended up on the Colours in the Dark album and were also featured on the Act I video album

During the process of composition, Tarja alleged that she "had to learn a lot as a soloist, for good and or evil, and often in the past years [she] thought that [she] would never reach a day coming to the point where [she is] today", also adding that she had a lot of "positive and negative" experiences that would finish on this record, that is "very rich in colors, shadows, deep aspects and that it does not capture at the first listen".[11]

During the middle of 2013, Turunen began via Earmusic uploading two videos per week until the album itself was released.[12] The official pre-listening started one week prior to the album's release.[13]

The album cover was created by artist Dirk Rudolph.[14]

Track listing

No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Victim of Ritual"   Mattias Lindblom, Anders Wollbeck, Tarja Turunen 5:54
2. "500 Letters"   Johnny Lee Andrews, Tarja Turunen 4:22
3. "Lucid Dreamer"   Mattias Lindblom, Anders Wollbeck, Tarja Turunen 7:28
4. "Never Enough"   Johnny Lee Andrews, Tarja Turunen 5:20
5. "Mystique Voyage"   Tarja Turunen 7:14
6. "Darkness"   Peter Gabriel 5:38
7. "Deliverance"   James Michael Dooley, Mattias Lindblom, Anders Wollbeck, Tarja Turunen 7:27
8. "Neverlight"   Jesper Strömblad, Mattias Lindblom, Anders Wollbeck, Tarja Turunen 4:33
9. "Until Silence"   Marko Saaresto, Olli Tukiainen, Markus Kaarlonen, Tarja Turunen 5:03
10. "Medusa" (featuring Justin Furstenfeld) Bart Hendrickson, Angela Heldmann, Tarja Turunen 8:12
Notes
  • The special edition includes a 40-page picture booklet and download code for a bonus track.
  • The limited box set edition includes the special edition of the album, an exclusive "Colours in the Dark" t-shirt, a 60-pages photo book (150g paper), a double sided poster (A2 size), a photo collage poster (A2 size) and a download code for 3 bonus tracks.

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
About.com 3.5/5 stars[15]
Sputnikmusic 2.5/5 stars[16]
Metal Hammer 5/7 stars[17]

Todd Lyons at About.com gave the album a somewhat favourable review, but not without criticism; he described it as "riskier than Tarja's previous three solo albums", and that it was "a huge panorama of operatic metal, where some artistic experimentation is attempted, but repeatedly crushed under the album's bombast", whilst also referring to "Lucid Dreamer" as "maddeningly flawed". Anette Olzon, Tarja's replacement in Nightwish, expressed appreciation for the album, commenting that "it's really her best album so far" and also thought that Tarja's "definitely found her own style".[18]

Charts performance

Chart (2013) Peak
position
Austrian Albums Chart[19] 14
Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders)[20] 34
Belgian Albums Charts (Wallonia)[21] 33
Czech Albums Chart[22] 7
Dutch Albums Chart[23] 29
Finnish Albums Chart[24] 5
French Albums Chart[25] 54
German Albums Chart[26] 6
Norwegian Albums Chart[27] 29
Polish Albums Chart[28] 8
Russian Albums Chart[29] 5
Swedish Albums Chart[30] 53
Swiss Albums Chart[31] 20
UK Albums Chart[32] 109
UK Rock Chart[33] 10
US Billboard Top Heatseekers[34] 13
US Billboard Hard Rock Albums[35] 25

Personnel

Musicians

Additional musicians

Production

  • James Dooley - Orchestral & Choir Arrangements, tracks 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9
  • Bart Hendrickson - Orchestral & Choir Arrangements, track 10
  • Max Lilja - Orchestral Arrangement for multiple cello
  • Mel Wesson - Ambient music design, track 3, 4, 7
  • Tim Palmer - Programming, track 3, 4, 5
  • Mel Wesson - Programming, track 7
  • Bart Hendrickson - Programming, track 10
  • Mic - Shells recorded with iPhone in Antigua, track 5
  • Jetro Vainio, Mario Altamirano, Torsten Stenzel, Daniel Willy - Recording engineers
  • Martin Musctello, José Maradei - Assistant engineers
  • Tim Palmer - Additional production & mixes
  • Alex Scholpp, Julian Barrett, Jim Dooley - Executive producers

[39]

References

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  8. ↑ http://www.tarja-coloursinthedark.com/?page_id=1014
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ all references from the original deluxe edition of the album

External links

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