''Seven Lives Many Faces'' is the seventh studio album by the German musical project

Enigma Enigma may refer to: *Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling Biology *ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain Computing and technology * Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup * Enigma machine, a family ...

, released on 19 September 2008 by

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

Michael Cretu Michael Cretu ( ro, Mihai Crețu, ; born 18 May 1957) is a Romanian-German musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He gained worldwide fame as the founder and musician behind the musical project Enigma, which he formed in 1990. Cretu ...

stated that the album would feature an omnicultural sound unlike anything on its previous releases. On 12 September, the album was released on Enigma's Myspace page for pre-listening. After enjoying a huge success on MySpace (with over 400,000 listens in two days), several international

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and

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websites started streaming the album until 22 September. ''Seven Lives Many Faces'' was also released in DVD format with 5.1 surround sound, similar to their previous album ''

A Posteriori ("from the earlier") and ("from the later") are Latin phrases used in philosophy to distinguish types of knowledge, justification, or argument by their reliance on empirical evidence or experience. knowledge is independent from current ex ...

''.

Singles

The first two singles from the album are "Seven Lives" and "La Puerta del Cielo". The videos for each song use scenes from previous Enigma videos, "Push the Limits" for "Seven Lives" and "Age of Loneliness" for "La Puerta del Cielo". "The Same Parents" was released as the third single off the album. The lyrics of the song "La Puerta del Cielo" (The Gate of Heaven), although with a Spanish title, are in

Catalan language Catalan (; autonym: , ), known in the Valencian Community and Carche as ''Valencian'' (autonym: ), is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spa ...

. The other song of the album written in Catalan is "Between Generations". Both songs were co-written by

and Margalida Roig.

Critical reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

's James Christopher Monger gave the album three stars out of five. While he praised the singles "Seven Lives" and "La Puerta del Cielo" calling them "quietly stunning", he found that in most cases "the new age, fortune-cookie derived lyrics... mirror the unimaginative, two-chord melodies that carry them along."

Commercial performance

The album debuted at No. 92 on the ''Billboard'' 200, and No. 1 on the New Age Albums, selling 6,000 copies in the first week. The album had sold 85,000 copies in the United States as of September 2016.

Track listing

Bonus disc

Credits

*Michael Cretu – music, lyrics, performance, production, programming, arrangements, engineering *Andru Donalds – vocals (tracks: 2, 4, 8, 9), co-writer (tracks: 8, 9) *Nanuk – vocals (track: 4), narration (track: 9) *Nikita C. – vocals (track: 4) *Sebastian C. – vocals (track: 4) *Margarita Roig – vocals (tracks: 7, 11, 2 (Bonus CD)), co-writer (tracks: 7, 11) *

Ruth-Ann Boyle Ruth-Ann Boyle (born 26 April 1970, Sunderland, England) is an English pop singer. Together with producers Tim Kellett and Robin Taylor-Firth, she formed the British band Olive. The band's single " You're Not Alone" reached number 1 in the UK S ...

– vocals (tracks 3, 5, 2 (Bonus CD)) Additional personnel *Photography – Rosemary Robenn *Artwork – Dirk Rudolph

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2008 albums Enigma (German band) albums Virgin Records albums