What's most surprising about the Pure Moods series is not that it is so popular, but that the music on it actually represents some of the best New Age and modern instrumental music, rather than scraping the barrel. For every piece of Enya pop froth--like her "Only If," which opens the album--there is a deep and impassioned exploration like Sheila Chandra's virtually a cappella "Ever So Lonely/Eyes/Ocean." Yanni's bombastic "On Sacred Ground" is balanced by Moby's soulful trance groove, "Porcelain." Sometimes those juxtapositions don't work out well. The overwrought romanticism of pianist David Lanz's "Cristofori's Dream" can only suffer being sandwiched between the soul-searing vocals of Peter Gabriel's "Games Without Frontiers (Massive/DB Mix)" and the Geoffrey Oryema/Brian Eno hymn, "Land of Anaka." With more than a quarter of the album drawn from the 1980s, there are some influential early gems here for new listeners, including Kitaro's wistful "Silk Road" and Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence." --John Diliberto
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Pure Moods is one of the Greatest Series Every:
I love all of the Pure Moods volumns. It's truly music that revives a person. It helps a person think and meditate. When I wants to sit and think, I turn off the lights and listening to this music. This music is also good if one is depressed, is feeling bad, had a bad day, or just want to relax. Somehow, when I listen to this music, I get a new direction in life. So, I highly recommend this CD for just anything. For listening to in the car, at night, or what have you.
Good - good enough, at least:
This album is excellent - it's the best of all the Pure Moods discs, with the obvious exception of the original. Many artists who unfortunately weren't in Pure Moods II are back, as well as some they just noticed. Enya starts us off with the upbeat, "Only If", and an excellent contrast is provided with Moby's "Porcelain" following, though it isn't one of his new age songs (like the later albums offer). Already the listener feels delighted then saddened, in that order, from listening to these - but will... more info
Pure Moods, Vol. III:
I did not find that I enjoyed it as much as Pure Moods, Vol. I Pure Moods Vol I, I think is still the best
Almost Perfect!!:
Anyone who's actually reading an online review of a Pure Moods album has to be, in my most humble of opinions, an established fan of the franchise, and I'm no exception: I LOVE Pure Moods. I have all 5 installments and Christmas Moods. But on Pure Moods III, there is one song that simply does not belong: "Silk Road" by Kitaro. That has to be the most annoying, shrill, plodding sequence of sounds I've ever come across. I only listen to that track about 33% of the time. (I sporadically listen to it, just... more info
