by William Ruhlmann
Cirque du Soleil deliberately repeat themselves in Delirium, at least as far as the album of music based on the touring stage show is concerned. In most cases, producer, arranger, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Francis Collard, who is the major force behind the disc, samples from tracks on previous Cirque du Soleil albums. What he creates from them is a series of conventional songs in a widescreen pop/rock style, heavy on the keyboard textures and synthesized dance beats. There's nothing here as exotic as some of Cirque du Soleil's soundscapes. The songs all have lyrics, too, most of them written by Robbie Dillon, and most of them in English, with some in French. Those lyrics are cliché-filled, simpleminded expressions of pop philosophy for the most part, but still, this remains one of Cirque du Soleil's more listenable and coherent collections.