SETTLEMENT

By necessity, this will be a short review. Settlement, the Strawbs' new album, is very good not withstanding a few caveats. The album was recorded by the band members individually at their home studios and compiled by former member and album producer Blue Weaver, due to UK's endless Covid lockdown. Dave Cousin's songs reflect the dreariness and isolation of the lockdown both musically and lyrically, with the other Strawbs adding just the right touch to fill out the songs' themes. The big difference between this album with other recent Strawbs' albums is the self-conscious desire of the band not to make another album that tries to emulate the glory days of past albums, as the Strawbs have been want to do with their last four studio albums. Its stand alone style still has all the familiar Strawbs musical motifs and, of course, Dave's recognizable voice which is quite good for his age. In fact, this album is the most acoustic guitar driven since the band recorded Dragonfly back in 1970. It's new found recording clarity, thanks to Weaver's mixing and mastering, suits this "new" style of sound most excellently.

That's not to say that the songs don't rock out at times because they most certainly do, especially on the title track once it shifts gears away from Dave's maniacally sounding acoustic strums and Dave Bainbridge's eerie mellotron like strings. In fact, Bainbridge seems to channel the style of all the past Strawbs keyboard alumni of Weaver, Rick Wakeman and John Hawken. Sometimes paying homage to all three in the course of one song. The other standout tracks are "Strange Times", "Judgment Day" and "Each Manner Of Man" (co written and well sung by ex member John Ford), as well as "The Visit", a folky Celtic tinged song (written and sung by guitarist Dave Lambert), before Cousins takes center stage again on the excellent "Quicksilver Days" and "We Are Everyone/Chorale".

If the CD version of the album ended there, it would be stupendous, but the three CD bonus tracks "Champion Jack", "Better Days" and "Liberty" are much lesser works and probably wouldn't be missed by most if they were never included. So, we have an almost great album from the venerable Strawbs, and 4 stars seems like an appropriate rating given the bonus tracks. However, what's good on this album is absolutely great.