GRAVE NEW WORLD

Strawbs

Prog Folk

4.15 | 396 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

The From the Witchwood album gave me an appetite for Strawbs. That album made my heartstrings sing like never before. So I flashed my credit card in the direction of this album.

The opening track Benedictus is one of this band's best ever tracks. Dynamic and melodic at the same time. Excellent stuff ! The next track is best forgotten. The third track Queen Of Dreams is very much down the BEATLES post Revolver alley. In my views, THE BEATLES is a strong influence on the music of Strawbs. Coincidental or by purpose, but it is there. And that is a compliment, btw.

Heavy Disguise is another track with the same leanings. As with the From the Witchwood album, the music on this album is a pastorial mix of pop, folk and prog. Some songs are very catchy and almost upbeat. Others are brooding and very melancholic. The New World is one of these brooding songs. Dark as the devil's paintkit, it is. This is sort of the title track of the album and an excellent song I will remember this album by. The Flower And The Young Man is another melancholic song in the folk rock vein. The organs are superb here and another piece of organs adds a brooding feel to it. The same goes for Tomorrow. Ah Me, Ah My is a folkhall variety song which does not seems right for this album. But it lightens the mood somehow. Is It Today Lord has an GEORGE HARRISON feeling hanging over it with sitars and eastern promises. A good song which makes me miss Mr. Harrison although this is a Strawbs song through and through. The short closing track The Journey's End is almost a lament over the end of the life. Sore and beautiful at the same time.

This album is best described as watching a storm approaching. Brooding, scary, dark.... but at the same time, very beautiful. The colours, the sounds and the smell. Grave New World. The result is another brilliant album from Strawbs and one I will cherish for the rest of my life. It is not as good as From the Witchwood, but it runs it close. I am converted.

4 stars

toroddfuglesteg | 4/5 | 2009-3-31

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