It’s hard to believe that Michael Cretu’s musical project Enigma has been around for 18 years.  Enigma’s sound has slowly evolved to incorporate different elements while maintaining it’s distinctive and often-imitated sound.  This is still true for the project’s seventh album, although the success of its evolution is still unsure. 

Only brief glimpses of former Enigma hallmarks remain on this album: a brief glimpse of the “Enigma horns” on intro track “Encounters” and some monks chanting on “Between Generations.”  Cretu also samples tracks from previous albums on the appropriately-named “Deja Vu.”  New elements appear as well.  Lead singles “Seven Lives” and “La Puerta Del Cielo” incorporate the skittering strings and heavy beats of hip-hop and lyrics in Portugese respectively.  “Hell’s Heaven” plays with harsh atonality and “The Same Parents” features vocals by Cretu’s own sons.

The album is being presented as a bold, new experiment in an “omincultural” sound, and while there is some of that, the Enigma formula is still intact, almost to a fault.  Make no about it, this is definitely an Enigma album, but it lacks the striking earthiness of The CROSS Of Changes or the consistent palette of A Posteriori.  The lyrics fall between earnestness and embarassment, and the arrangements default too often to the two-chord progressions Enigma songs are known for.  Then again, this is exactly what is to be expected from the project.  The album is not a disappointment, and Enigma fans will be very happy with the results even if it fails to win any new converts to the group.

6 out of 10.