There is nothing else i can say except for amazing :)

This album is good, her voice is amazing but there are a few slow songs where she demonstrates her vocal range, and they are dull. The cover of Alice Cooper's Poison is unnecessary and not very well done. Overall the album is good, best for her fans, the music is nice but there is nothing really unique about the music. The singles are the best songs. Buy it if you are a fan.

It's clear that this album has stirred up some emotions in people (especially Nightwish fans!), but to me this just makes the somewhat rarefied gothic/operatic/orchestral metal genre more interesting.

For myself, I am very impressed with this album. If Tarja's solo sound is somewhat different to that of her old band Nightwish, that's surely an intentional move, and certainly a positive one to my mind.

But anyway, on to the music. The album has a heavily classical/orchestral leaning, lending it an overall feeling of being lighter but deeper than a lot of its bedfellows. It's far more like classical with metal elements than the metal-with-classical of most similar bands and artists, and this gives it a distinctive, somewhat refined character. Tarja's voice is, as always, powerful and graceful, leading the melody through both thick and thin accompaniments. She also displays a remarkable range here, reaching for more lows and highs than I have heard from her before, and injecting songs with vocal performance where appropriate (in a way which reminded me, strangely, very much of Kate Bush!).

There's a decent mix of songs, from the instant-like opening pair to tracks which grow steadily on you (always the best!), and the quality is consistently high throughout.

Production is remarkably clean; there's a definite attempt to steer away from too much electronic trickery and let the sound speak for itself, which works when the material has the strength that most of this album holds. The one significant exception to this is the cover version of Alice Cooper's Poison, which is hugely over-produced. Presumably this was an attempt to inject the song with an extra energy and verve, and help make it different to the original, but it spoils what might have been a very interesting cover of a classic song, and for me this is the weakest point of the album.

Additionally, on a couple of tracks, the mixing is not perfect, with guitar riffs coming in a little too suddenly, making it obvious that they were recorded seperately. This is hardly unusual, indeed being pretty much the normal process in modern music production, but it would have been nice to have it disguised a little more!

There's one more thing that merits mention, and that's the thematic nature of this album. The beautifully produced inlay booklet says it all; different characters, behind and subjects of the songs, presented in all their contrasting glory. The songs make a good stab at following this through, with some wonderful use of sound and music to produce feelings of cold, excitement, threat, and wonder. If there's a new album coming, I hope this side of things is developed more, as it makes for a far more interesting listen, and a far more complete package, than a straight collection of songs.

So in conclusion, this is a very impressive project. Tarja has resoundingly answered the question of whether she can go it alone (and indeed Nightwish have equally impressively proven that they can go on without her), and she has managed to carve herself an interesting niche outside of anyone else's shadow. There's room for improvement, certainly, but this is nevertheless an excellent candidate for expanding the collection of anyone who's into this style of music.

Well, I was quite willing to give her a chance. I wasn't particularly looking forward to her solo stuff as I am 100% behind Nightwish's decision to fire her, but I heard a few of her songs and initially thought "Well, she might be quite good on her own" and having heard a pretty good intro to one of her songs I was listening quite happily, until she started singing.

Don't get me wrong, I think she's an amazing singer. She has a fantastically unique voice. But these songs just sound like her showing off. There were all these points where she seemed to be wailing for no apparent reason, and none of the songs have the balance that her Nightwish ones seemed to have. I like the guitar in quite a few of her songs, but frankly, without Tuomas writing for her I can really only say she's lost it.

And why oh why does the title on this page say "Tarja (Nightwish)"??? She has nothing to do with Nightwish any more, her name is Tarja Turunen and that's what all her promotional stuff says.

To close - I'm very disappointed with her new songs. She has so much talent, but without Nightwish she's just not as good. I don't like her as a person but I think she has an amazing voice and if she could just catch what she had before (during 'Once' especially), she could be awesome on her own. This however, is not what I would have expected. Big, big let down.

Well, what can I say apart from..... she's back :D
this brand new album by Tarja Turunen is certainly a powerful storm. I can not fault one thing about it. each song is so different, yet as equally amazing as the last.
the album captivates you from start to finish, and then leaves you with some incredible emotions. Tarja herself blows the listeners away with her incredible voice- and this album truly shows her talent.
If you are thinking about buying this, don't think about it any longer- GET IT ALREADY!!! it is amazing!!!