After the necessary head-clearing exercise of their 1990 album "Anam" Clannad make a tentative step back to the world of "Macalla" with this album. It was the right move. "Banba" is probably most famous for "I Will Find You" that became the theme to Last of the Mohicians. If so, it's a real pity, because the surrounding material here is just as good, if not better, than the movie title.

The opening track satisfies all those listeners that think that Clannad makes "spooky music." (A hangover impression from the Robin Hood soundtrack!) But the rest of the album finds the band in a confident soft-rock mode. This is how Sirius should have sounded. The music is firmly grounded in rock, but with a well distilled folky edge. The melodies are good, too. If you're new to Clannad, this album is an ideal place to start.

This is my favorite recording by one of my favorite artists. Each track on this albumn exudes a poignantly haunting beauty. The vocals could move an angel to tears and will echo in the minds ear long after the last note has faded from the air. The instrumentals are elegantly crafted and transport the listener to a different world. I don't speak a word of Gaelic but I certainly understand what the music is saying to my soul. I need a new copy as I actually wore out both a cassette and a CD!

I bought this CD when it first came out and to this day it remains one of my all-time favorites. Some of the songs are hauntingly beautiful. I love the lead singer's voice.

For tracks like Na laethe Bhi, Banba Oir, Theme from the Last of Mohicans and A Gentle Place I'd give not 5, but 10 stars. But for the pop-remainings I'd hardly give 2. This is an interesting struggle of Clannad's members in making a commercial album while tradition, roots, imagination and mysterious images are trying to set themselves free from mainstream-listeners' needs. Mike Oldfield called such people "cloth-eared nincompoops". Yet somehow they manage to turn really interesting and respectable performers into worse than average.

I recently watched "The Last of the Mohicans" on TV and was caught by "I Will Find You." I did some research and found "Banba" at my library. It has quickly become one of my favorite albums. The Celtic touches give Clannad's music a haunting, memorable sound that sets it apart. My favorite songs were "Na Laethe Bhi," "Banba Oir," "Struggle," "Caide Sin Do'n Te Sin," and of course, "I Will Find You," (the use of the song in "Last of the Mohicans" is lovely)