AMAZING BLONDEL

1. "Fantasia Lindum" (20:13) this ten-part suite is quite faithful to the free-form antiquated musical constructs that might have been composed and/or performed by courtly or fair performers. The peaceful, relaxed tone of the music might be a bit fantastical--a projection of 20th Century luxury and largesse--as Renaissance and Baroque motets may not have been so fanciful and romantically optimistic. The songs, however, are quite pretty and quite relaxing, which is rather nice if a bit overly naïvely idealistic. The suite is more like a troupe's twenty-minute concert of a collection of their repertoire. I commend TAB for their vision and motivation. What's more, there really isn't a sour or ill song among the ten! (36/40) - a) Prelude and Theme - b) Song: Swifts, Swains, Leafy Lanes - c) Dance: Jig Upon Jig; Theme (lutes and recorder) - d) Dance (Galliard): God Must Doubt - e) Song: Lincolnshire Lullaby - f) Dance: Basse Dance; Theme (lute duet) - g) Dance: Quatre Dance Pavan - h) Song: Celestial Light (for Lincoln Cathedral) - i) Dance: Coranto; Theme (lutes and recorders) - j) End

2. "To Ye" (3:24) as if Crosby, Stills, Nash &Young sang the RenFaire circuit. Very nice. (8.75/10)

3. "Safety In God Alone" (4:49) sounds like 1960s hippy togetherness music for sing-a-longs. (8.333/10)

4. "Two Dances" (1:56) dances were certainly short back in the day! - a) "Almaine" (4.5/5) - b) "Bransle For My Ladys' Delight" (4.333/5)

5. "Three Seasons Almaine" (3:32) beautiful music over which a rather beautiful male lead vocalist sings in an archaic style--but then a rather clunky male choir performs rather deflating the choruses. (8.75/10)

6. "Siege of Yaddlethorpe" (2:30) a kind of ceremonial / military processional. (4.25/5)

Total Time: 36:24

An album of placid if naïve optimism never hurt anyone--especially when the music is as belightful as this one contains.

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of anachronistic British folk music.

The album "Inspiration" was released in 1975 following their first attempt at mainstreaming their sound with the album "Mulgrave Street" released the year before that. With "Inspiration", the band attempts to get back some of their original sound with the use of orchestration on 7 out of 10 tracks. However, this lush pop-orchestra style sometimes contrasts with the more electronic sound, and that is apparent right away on the first track, which is a suite of two songs in one track. The first part is more upbeat and a bit weak, but the 2nd part saves it a bit by moving into a more ballad style before returning to the faster tempo again. Not a bad song as the band tries to find it's place in their new sound, but it's not of the quality of before, and it's also as good as it gets, which isn't much so don't get excited. But, then the soft rock sound continues reminding me more of Air Supply (on the ballads) or Lobo (on the midtempo songs) than of the more classy folk artists with their excellent harmonies and tunes of prior years.

Here are a few more notes on a couple of the songs. "The Lovers" is too sappy drenched in sentimental strings to be much good. They do try to stir things up a bit on "Good Time Gertie", and the short piano solo is quite catchy, but overall it ends up being an embarrassing attempt with lousy vocal harmonics in the chorus. They try to turn out their best Beatles clone on "Standing By My Window", but miss it by a mile. 70's pop cliches abound on "Be So Happy" that you can almost imagine naked hippies skipping through fields of green.

This tries to be a romantic record that you could play while sitting on a couch next to your lover with the lights down low. However, if you look close at the pictures on the back cover, you might see through that ruse. Baird looks like he is totally bored and Wincott looks like a crazed madman. Not the image you want to portray if you want to win over the K-Tel "Soft Hits of the 70's" crowd. Not much good on this album, even the fans would probably want to avoid this one.

The quaint Renaissance Folk of the opening song "Saxon Lady" sounds quintessentially English, but if you listen carefully, you can also hear the sound of an Indian sitar, giving the song a faintly exotic eastern ambience. You can almost picture the scene of English folks prancing merrily around the maypole to this music, dressed in garters and gaiters and gaily shaking their tassels and rattling their bell pads - and that's just the men! We're on a mission next with the "Bethel Town Mission", a rambunctious burst of rabble-rousing Folk Rock which sounds like the kind of stirring sing-along-song anyone could join in with on a pub karaoke night, having downed a few bevies of beer beforehand. 'Tis "The Season of the Year" next, a brief pastoral flute and guitar etude, in the style of a jolly Renaissance madrigal, which sounds charming at any time of the year. Jollying things along now comes "Canaan", an inspirational and devotional song of praise which has a spiritual gospel feel to it. If only they played music as rousing and inspirational as this in English church services, the parishioners would be flocking back to church on Sunday in their droves. It's time to round up the sheep now for "Shepherd's Song", a merry Olde Englishe Folke song that sounds as traditionally English as a ploughman's lunch and a pint of beer in an oak-beamed tavern with a thatched roof in the Cotswolds.

Opening Side Two is the BIG bluesy ballad, "Though You Don't Want My Love", a rousing romantic refrain that's guaranteed to raise the spirits up to the rafters, and continuing with the romantic mood comes "Love Sonnet", a beautiful pastoral melody that's positively overflowing with love and passion, although the lyrics reveal a sad tale of lost love:- "Oh my darling you cannot hide, The love you once had for me has died." ..... It's a charming bittersweet tale of a young English gentleman wistfully hoping to rekindle the flame of a lost love affair with his fair maiden, so keep a hanky at the ready. We're off to sunny Spain next for "Spanish Lace", an upbeat and uplifting Folk-Pop song with a bright and sunny disposition, imbued with all of the warmth and happiness of a bright ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds. There's a change of pace for "Minstrel's Song", a mournful madrigal floating on a serenade of strings, which leads us into the rather rude and impolite- sounding "Bastard Song", which turns out to be a rousing Folk-Rock song to sing around the campfire together. It's a spirited song instilled with all of the vim and vigour of "Kumbaya" and more besides.

Amazing Blondel have made quite a dramatic entrance with their debut album of charming English Folk. It's a traditional English Renaissance world of merry minstrels and melodic madrigals. This pastoral Folk album isn't likely to take the Prog- Rock world by storm, but if you're in the mood for some sweet vocal harmonies and lovely folky melodies bathed in a sea of sensational strings, then this could be the album for you.

1. "The Leaving Of The Country Lover" (6:34) the first two minutes are made up of a beautiful Aaron Copeland-like intro called "Prelude" followed by the strings and crumhorn-supported folk song. (13/15)

2. "Young Man's Fancy" (5:20) has a little BEATLES and a little TRAFFIC feel and sound to it. The antique instruments only come in as ancillaries or at the end, but the strings are ubiquitous. Beautiful outro. (8.25/10)

3. "Easy Come, Easy Go" (6:09) nice rock folk guitar foundation with the BEATLES/WINGS-like vocals. Pretty song. Ends with a classical guitar solo (called "Solo" on some copies of the album).(8.75/10)

4. "Sailing" (4:30) John Denver. (7.25/10)

5. "Lesson One" (2:50) solo guitar with lone male vocalist. Nice song. (8/10)

6. "Festival" (3:27) the other male Dan Fogelberg-like vocalist takes the lead here. Lots of female b vox and strings. (7.75/10)

7. "Weavers Market" (4:35) opens with "Lucky Man"/"Stormcock" guitar strumming within which male pans in and alternates with kazoo. I like this vocal (Paul Rodgers) even though it's rather ad hoc and unpolished. Female takes lead in second with many sea-shanty drunk-on-the-dock voices behind and around. Actually a very cool song. (9/10)

8. "Depression" (3:25) nice gentle 12-string picking opens this one before flute joins in and then clear male voice. This is beautiful. And emotional. (9.75/10)

Total time 36:50

3.5 stars; a nice addition to the Prog Folk catalogue but nothing too exciting or ground-breaking.

- The Paintings (Three Pastoral Settings For Voices, Flute, Guitars And Orchestra): 1. "Seascape" (6:13) nice pastoral music using ancient instruments that fails when the multiple voices sing the choral sections. (8/10)

2. "Landscape" (7:38) a continuation of the previous song with slightly different themes and weaves but using the same pacing, flow, and instrumentation. Voice and oboe enter together in the second minute while the orchestrated background weave supports beautifully. The lead vocal, melody, and lyric are much more engaging here and even the little choral support is improved from the previous "setting." At the 4:00 mark a different voice adds something in the left channel while an instrumental section seems to go on. Nice guitar work within the orchestra but it sometimes it feels a little buried there. The flutes and oboes and strings are definitely more forward in the mix. The final minute going out is kind of a slowed down, choir-supported crescendo. (13.5/15)

3. "Afterglow" (3:40) a third "setting" using the exact same pacing and structure, hand percussives, recorder, bass, oboe, multiple male lead voices and antiphonal choir help present this more light and frivolous song. (8.5/10) - 4. "A Spring Air" (3:41) guitars, orchestra, flutes support this more-traditional folk-sounding tune. The entire feel here feels so RenFair appropriate. (8.75/10)

5. "Cantus Firmus To Counterpoint" (3:21) presents itself as a religious (Christmas) choral song of the pre-Thomas Tallis era--almost as if the congregation of a small countryside church service were being recorded. Some of the voices are able to be singled out due to their . . . idiosyncracies. (7.75/10)

6. "Sinfonia For Guitar And Strings" (3:11) (from the suite 'For My Ladys Delight') an instrumental just as the title indicates--a guitar with orchestra strings backing it--though the appearance and takeover of a harpsichord in the second section surprised me. The third and final section reverts back to strings support though there is a more Spanish feel to this section. (9.25/10)

7. "Dolor Dulcis" (Sweet Sorrow) (3:25) acoustic guitars, orchestra strings, support this minstrel-like folk song (a courtly love song?). The chorus presents in the choral form that we've now come to expect. The lyrics bring this one up to a higher level than the music alone might do. (9/10)

8. "Lament To The Earl Of Battesford Beck" (3:11) an odd and eerie song using electronic engineering techniques to create some of the sonic landscape here. Weird--especially for a song to close an album with. (7.5/10)

Total Time: 34:42

Four stars; an excellent addition to any lover of Prog Folk music and a great example of the effort within progressive rock music to explore, recover, and preserve the instruments, styles, and traditions of older musics-- here pre-Enlightenment.

Also, Steve Winwood would become a temporary member of the band on this album as he provides bass, and Simon Kirke from 'Free' would play drums. Paul Rodgers also from 'Free' and later 'Bad Company' would also sing some vocals on the track 'Weaver's Market'.

There was a slight difference on the track listings of the two different labels used to distribute the album, but the music remained the same. Island records left off the tracks 'Prelude' and 'Solo' from the track listing, but integrated those songs into 'The Leaving of the Country Lover' and 'Easy Come, Easy Go' respectively. Edsel Records listed the tracks correctly, as separate tracks. That's why there is some confusion over track listings.

'Prelude' works as exactly that, an opening, or prelude, to the album. It is a plesant, pastoral instrumental with slow sustained notes that provide an orchestral style introduction. This flows right into the track 'Leaving of the Country Lover' which fades in with acoustic guitar and vocals, with drums added later. Strings also join in later with some nice brass flair. As with all the music on this album, it is a nice, mellow folk melody that easily gets you in the mood for the album. The music is simple and quite accessible, with some nice flourish. Just after 3 minutes, the orchestral prelude theme returns bookending the track nicely.

'Young Man's Fancy' fades in with a more complex melody and immediate percussion, but still mellow and acoustic. The track has a more progressive aspect, but is still very accessible. Strings and a crumhorn joins in towards the middle, contributing to the pastoral feel of the album. The lilt of the rhythm increases just before a fade into another orchestral interlude. A sudden crash of cymbals and percussion brings in 'Easy Come, Easy Go', and a more airy and upbeat track that is somewhat more pop oriented starts. 'Solo' finishes off the suite-like feel of the first side of the album with an acoustic and pensive guitar solo.

'Sailing' starts with a jangly and cheerful pair of guitars and then vocals start. Again, we get a simple folk sound with a slight leaning towards pop, but not overly annoying. There is some slight string accompaniment, but the acoustic guitars hold the weight of the instrumental backdrop to this happy sounding tune. Percussion is kept light on this consisting mostly of a tambourine.

Now we begin the downward descent into schmaltzy sounding pop/folk ala John Denver that take up the next 3 tracks. First is 'Lesson One'. This one is just vocals and acoustic guitar. Then it's 'Festival' which is more upbeat 'gigue' style and has a chorus that sticks in your head for better or worse. At least you get some background vocals provided by Sue Glover and Sunny Leslie. Kind of silly, but kind of quaint too. It fades into a quiet piano interlude towards the end. Next follows 'Weavers' Market' which features Paul Rodgers on vocals. It does have the feel of a stripped down Bad Company track, but with some folkish dance flair. He trades lead vocals with one of the female background singers. Again, it's a bit charming and a bit corny at the same time.

'Depression' ends the album. It has a more folkish feel that was popular at the time. It's a nice slower melody backed up by acoustic guitar and flute and it breaks away from the corniness of the last 3 tracks. It's a nice, peaceful closer.

So, this is really the last good Amazing Blondel album that I really enjoy. Yeah, there is some poppiness that is starting to come into some of the tracks, but overall, it is a nice guilty pleasure to listen to when you want to hear something mellow with a happy undertone throughout. A few tracks are corny, like I said, but there is still a strange attraction to them at the same time. This was also apparent on their past albums, but it was after this that the band really got to the point that their music became embarrassing as they try to incorporate a more pop sound over the folk sound they had become famous for. This is the last of their albums I feel comfortable giving 4 stars to as a traditional style folk album.

You get two types of music here; boring soft rock (worse than "Bread" , or more similar to "Lobo") and plastic soul/funk. This is really bad. You could tell that there were some heartfelt attempts like in the instrumental section of "Big Boy", but even those were drowned out by schleppiness.

The attempt obviously didn't work because the album didn't sell very well and the band went on hiatus for many years, after which they attempted a revival, but didn't have a lot of luck with that either.

If you are thinking you might even get a little semblance of their earlier years, where they actually brushed up against excellent Prog Folk music, well don't bother. This is really terrible, unless you like really bad 70's pop.

The band ventures away from folk a little bit here and there throughout the album. For example, "Canaan" introduces a bluesy aspect in the vocals, which I was surprised to hear actually work. It definitely sounds like there is a brass section on a few of the songs, but they are not listed in the line-up. There is also plenty of more traditional sounding songs here, including the excellent "Shepard's Song" which is over 6 minutes of acoustics, vocals and a very nice lute melody. I like the variation in the vocals and the harmony present in this song. At this point, on the second half of the album, the songwriting tends to suffer a bit more, but improve a bit on "Minstrel's Song" especially with the longer instrumental break, but still don't quite reach the quality of the first half of the album. The album ends on a low point with the kooky (and, yes, dated) "Bastard Love". This unevenness takes the album from a 4 star to a 3 star rating. But overall, it's still an enjoyable album to listen to on occasion.

Who cares if some of the lyrics are a little corny, because most traditional folk have corny lyrics, at least they sound corny nowadays, but originally they didn't. I am also surprised that this doesn't sound too dated for the most part, but when they revert to trying to produce pop music in later years, they do sound dated. It's nice that this is not so much the case in this collection of tunes.

With the variety of styles here, the band was obviously trying out different sounds to see exactly where their niche was. Of course, as we know, the band would follow the more folk music route then the rock and blues sound, and for the first few albums after this, they do quite well, but at times tend to lack a bit in the variety that is apparent in this album. After the "Blondel" album in 1973, the band would start to venture away from folk and try to introduce pop elements to their sound, and that is where things take a turn downward, seemingly getting worse as time progressed. This is too bad, because they were a decent folk band, even if the sound was not so variable at times and also quite simplistic.

I do like the variety here, and the use of instruments of all kinds, and that the band doesn't just rely on vocals, but have plenty of instrumental passages to keep things interesting. Fun to listen to, but uneven at times. However, it is still mature and interesting enough for a debut album.

This particular album is one of the better ones in their discography. The 3 main musicians present for this album is the best line-up of the band. This particular album consists of all acoustic music with a very sparse use of percussion. In fact, only 2 songs on this album have any percussion in them. This album consists of a suite of songs over 20 minutes long and 5 more shorter tracks.

The Suite is the focal point of the album and one of the highlights of the band's career. It consists of 10 short songs that are both vocal and instrumental. The movements are quite varied enough to keep the listener from getting bored of the style of music in that some are quite lively while others are pastoral in feel. The instrumentals usually consist of a spotlight on a certain instrument while the vocals are easy to understand and deal with topics not unlike the topics chosen for the original genre of music that the band emulates. This gives this record it's feeling of authenticity. The topic for this suite has to do with the town and country of Lincoln, England (the Latin name for Lincoln is Lindum). The title Fantasia is a little misleading in that a fantasia is usually a free form musical work and this suite is not really free form, but more structured as folk music is expected to be. This track is a very good suite and is enjoyable throughout.

After the suite, there are 5 shorter tracks that pretty much follow the same style. "To Ye" is a straightforward track in the same style, but is slightly less interesting as the suite. It is really nothing special or much different from any thing else on the album. "Safety in God Alone" is probably the best of the shorter tracks here, but it leans a little more to a modern sound with piano, acoustic guitars and what sounds like a tambourine or something similar. The harmonics on this one is also more modern sounding, however, this sound does not take away from the entire album, but actually offers some needed variation in the music. "2 Dances" consists of two very short acoustic instrumentals, one at mid tempo and the second with a nice lilt. These are nice additions to the album. After this we get another vocal in "Three Seasons Almaine" which is another straightforward track with some nice instrumental backing. The last selection is an instrumental called "Siege of Yaddlethorpe" which has a slightly out of place feel to it. I believe the sound is a harmonium playing an appropriate sounding melody, but sounds so out of place in the acoustic instruments. Jim Capaldi from the group "Traffic" adds some nice military sounding drums throughout the track which I believe are overdubbed onto the track.

Overall, this is one of AB's best efforts and most of that comes from the Suite, though the additional songs are a nice touch also. I don't know if I can call the entire album a masterpiece, but the suite comes close to it. However, there is really nothing new or noteworthy to call it essential. I can easily give this a strong 4 star rating however. It is great music and very nice to have as part of my collection.