Highlites

AMG Review of Highlites

Dave Sleger
All Music Guide

This collection of 15 tracks is an excellent introduction to the Welsh group Rose Among Thorns. It contains songs from their three albums Rose Among Thorns, This Time it's Real, and Butterfly Dreams, as well as several previously unreleased tracks known as the Cottage Tapes. Distinguished by the lead vocals of Elaine Morgan, which resemble Maire Brennan and Jane Relf, Rose Among Thorns also has a sound similar to those two singers' bands: Clannad (particularly Sirius) and Illusion. Their textured keyboards, crystaline vocals, and anthemic guitar lines contain elements of progressive, pop, and folk-rock in a highly melodic and palatable manner. That should have positioned them competitively among contemporaries like Capercaillie, Clannad, and Loreena McKennitt, but unfortunately, Rose Among Thorns never attained the stature of any of those artists.