The Cross of Changes

1993年Enigma推出了乐迷们翘首以待的第二张专辑《The Cross of Changes 变幻的十字架》。由于第一张专辑的成功，第二张专辑还未正式推出便已得到140万张CD的订单。而当歌迷们亲耳听到这张专辑之后，赞扬之声再起。《The Cross of Changes 变幻的十字架》不但延续了第一张专辑的独特气质，而且是一个进化。尽管这张专辑在销售数量上没能超过第一张，但还是取得了24张金唱片的好成绩，并在英国排行榜夺得冠军的位置，在澳洲和欧洲取得亚军的位置。专辑一共收录了9首曲目，其中诞生了两首流传最为广泛的热门歌曲《The Eyes Of Truth 真理的眼睛》和《Return to Innocence 反朴归真》。前者充满了东方音乐的神韵，歌曲寓意海市蜃楼中的美丽景象，旋律中有蒙古音乐以及阿拉伯音乐的影子，甚至运用了西藏的唢呐，因此让人很难确切说清这首曲子的渊源。而《Return to Innocence 反朴归真》的知名度可能更高，因为它被选为1996年美国亚特兰大奥运会的宣传歌曲，这首曲目的MTV采用的时光倒转创意也给很多朋友留下过深刻印象。《Return to Innocence 反朴归真》取样了南台湾阿美族郭英南夫妇的《老人饮酒歌》，并请来了SONY唱片德国公司旗下的Angel（Andy Hard）演唱英文歌词部分，他的声音的确如天使一样漂亮。1994年，《The Cross of Changes 变幻的十字架》发行了一个"特别版本"，类似于《MCMXC a.D. "The Limited Edition" 公元1990年 "限量版"》，在这个特别版中加入了3首歌曲，每首曲子增加了重新混音部份。由于这张唱片没有在美国发行，所以《The Cross of Changes 变幻的十字架》"特别版"是相当罕见的。

by Ned Raggett

Cretu being no fool, he figured if it worked the first time, no need to change things much for the second. But he also knew not to simply go ahead and just rehash his debut for Cross of Changes, resulting in a just different enough effort along the same overall lines. The usual air of tasteful middle-of-the-road spirituality takes precedence, right down to the cover art and appropriately pantheistic quote from Persian mystic poet Rumi in the CD booklet. Needless to say, the music attempts to match the same throughout, and often succeeds. Things kick off with more of the synth-whale song noises and atmospherics from MCMXC, however there aren't any monks to be found this time around, but what sounds like the same whispering woman talking about "clearing the debts of many hundred years" and the like. From there, Cretu merrily takes the same plunge -- some of his sample choices this time around show he's got a decent record collection, including parts from Songs From the Victorious City, the striking fusion of Egyptian and Western musics from Anne Dudley and Jaz Coleman. His work with beats and loops noticeably shows a more developed edge -- while hardly an innovator, there's a bit more grime and loud in his rhythms, which in combination with extra electric guitar make a reasonable contrast to the smoother elements. Consider the rampaging conclusion to "I Love You...I'll Kill You," which while sharing some cheese with the title itself still works surprisingly well, right down to a clever Robert Plant vocal sample at the end. "Return to Innocence" was the big single from this one, not quite up there with "Sadeness" in the popular culture in the U.S. but almost inescapable elsewhere. There's another Led Zeppelin sample (this time John Bonham) and a haunting male vocal providing oomph under the fuzzy-headed greeting card philosophy of the main lyrics. It's an impressive effort, showing Cretu had a definite something in his own way.