Search - Sky Cries Mary :: Return to Inner

Reliving the inner experience

Erica Anderson | Minneapolis, MN | 05/15/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was a freshman back in '93 when I bought Sky Cries Mary's "A Return to the Inner Experience". I was looking for music that was different from what my housemates were listening to which was top 40/country garbage. Like anyone in Iowa was going to listen to more experimental, less commercial music like Sky Cries Mary. I was attracted to the beautiful album cover which made me buy it. I was rummaging through my old cassette collection and came across my Sky Cries Mary tape. I hadn't listened to it in years. When I first listened to it ten years ago, I didn't know what to make of it therefore I set it aside to collect dust. I really wasn't familiar with world and ambient music at the time. I was still pretty set in my punk roots. Listening to the tape now, the music makes more sense to me since I have learned to embrace music of different cultures as well as techno music. Sky Cries Mary reminds me of Dead Can Dance, The Cocteau Twins, with a smidgeon of Delerium. The album starts off with the beautiful instrumental "Walla Walla" and from there gets better and better with its more rock-orientated, world and ambient influence songs. Singer Anisa Romero has a beautiful set of pipes. Her ethereal vocals reminds me a little of Elizabeth Frasier (The Cocteau Twins) and Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance). If you ask me, Anisa has that voice that would be ideal for Delerium's music. If she is still around, Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber should ask her to contribute to their music. All the songs are great but I especially enjoy the haunting sounds of "Rosaleen". That song has always stuck out for me. I also especially enjoy listening to "Moving Like Water" and "Gone". If you are looking for something different from what you hear on the radio, Sky Cries Mary is for you. If you want to hear the same old bland, boring so-called alternative music, this band isn't for you."

Not a genre band. The real thing.

D. Garcia | Los Angeles | 12/29/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bears some resemblance to Jefferson Airplane and Cocteau Twins some folk music even Daevid Allen at times and a section with a bass clarinet no less, but I really just can't place them. Lots of "little" sound details. You can tell they love sound. They revel in the sounds they make. Nice melodies too. Some sections even 'rock' and not in the cliched way. Lots of stuff to occupy and challenge the mind and test out the stereo.



See most people like one genre that fits their "lifestyle" or validates their taste. This is not smart. I try to go with the best of whatever genre. Even better is no genre. That means they've created their own genre. From some of the other descriptions their live shows must have been a trip. Too bad that's pretty rare too.



Picked one up at a garage sale to sell and decided to keep it after listening to it. I hardly ever do that. I've got a few thousand CDs and a few thousand records what the heck do I need another CD for?



Better pick one up while you can. Certain to be a collectors item. It figures that few know of them. I'm sure no record execs knew what to do with them. No commercial potential right?"

Seattle's First Band On The Moon

Timothy A. Rundquist | Fergus Falls, MN United States | 06/04/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"SCM was too far-out to be aptly described in words, to be commercially successful-- and, ultimately, to reside on this earth. Their live shows were a swirling trip, with pulsating amoebae projected onscreen and the lead female singer dressed as a tree; no drugs were necessary. This particular album captured that feeling perhaps the best of any of their outings, with their cover of (appropriately) "2,000 Light Years From Home" as the major highlight.
Perhaps, from a musical standpoint, it's good that they never made the "big time," as we'd likely have seen a number of pale imitators. SCM was truly one-of-a-kind."