WAKEMAN & COUSINS: HUMMINGBIRD

This is pretty sleepy effort. Wakeman mostly tinkles on the piano and Cousins strums acoustic guitar and sings. He sings loudly. Too loud, in my view. His voice overpowers the keyboards on many of the tracks, which is hard for even a devoted Strawbs fan to take. It is often said that Cousins singing is an acquired taste. If so, this is not the album to acquire it. And too many of the songs are reworked Strawbs songs from the previous century. Considering both of these artists prolific output, you'd have thought they'd come up with more that's new. That said, there is some fine music here. The songs featuring the additional musicians, such as All in Vain, The Young Pretender. and Higher Germanie, don't seem to suffer as much from Cousins booming voice. And the couplet formed by Can You Believe and Via Bencini is a perfect pair, hinting at what this album might have been.