I have made no secret of the fact that I love Floor Jansen. She’s a perfect set of pipes in a giant Dutch body.

I also really like Nightwish. Ok, so I was a huge fan of the Tarja-years Nightwish. I just could not get on board with the Anette-years Nightwish. Tarja was a classically trained soprano/operatic singer and Anette was a pretty pop singer. The two didn’t really mix. Anette live with Nightwish was OK, what she lacked in talent for higher octaves and power she made up for with energy and engagement, but it wasn’t the same and as a result their latest albums remained unpurchased and out of rotation on all my streaming services. I just didn’t like the mesh of the two. Tuomas Holopainen’s composition work was excellent on these albums, but Anette’s voice didn’t really do it the justice it deserved.

In my following examples of Floor’s Awesomeness, I have taken the liberty of starting the videos at the relevant bits, especially for Song of Myself and Ghost Love Score which are synced to start at the same point.

Imagine my excitement when I find out that Floor Jansen, who I’ve loved since her After Forever days:

Was going to be teaming up with the dudes who brought me:

 

They performed together at Wacken and I’ll admit to listening to the album probably more than is healthy because it was like new life had been breathed into something I once loved so dearly. And it had. Floor is the magician that turned this (only listen until the end of the first chorus to get the idea):

into this:

 

Nor could we possibly forget the freaking amazing, wonderful and epic job she did on Ghost Love Score, going from this:

 

to this:

 

Anyhoo. Today they released their new single from their upcoming and rather oddly titled album, Endless Forms Most Beautiful. This is their new single, Élan.

Floor Jansen has such epic talents, she’s the woman who took TWO other women’s spots in a band and in a single spectacular live show made mincemeat out of them both to the point where I can’t even listen to the Tarja-version of Nightwish songs anymore because I’ve listened to the Floor versions too much. This single is meh. It’s pretty and I’m not saying it’s bad either. But it’s underusing Floor’s talents and underusing the addition of Troy Donockley. I’m underwhelmed and that’s pretty much all I have to say about it.

I hope that this is their pop release to appeal to the masses and the rest of the album is a powerhouse. I’m going to buy it anyway because I’m Floor Jansen’s bitch, but I have to say, I had hoped for better.