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Fairport Convention - Jewel In The Crown CD (album) cover

JEWEL IN THE CROWN

Fairport Convention

 

Prog Related

3.74 | 21 ratings

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aapatsos
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars A jewel of 90's folk

Founder Simon Nicol leads a gifted set of musicians (Dave Pegg and Maartin Allcock among others) to the production of a versatile record. With a few exceptions, Dave Pegg and Dave Mattacks have been with the band since the 70's and the line-up has been the same for the 5th consecutive studio release - a feature I have noticed is definitely not common for Fairport Convention!

The band delivers here mature folk music, well-worked compositions with the right amount of cynicism, sarcasm, melody, virtuosity and many more characteristics. Songs like the title track, Kind Fortune, Travelling by Steam provide the more joyful, clever and sarcastic aspect of this album. On the other hand, Diamonds and Gold, The Islands and Summer in December fill the air with beautiful melodies and slow nostalgic folk tunes. The tracks of such approach bring in mind a 90's Camel-esque feeling. Nicol's voice plays an important role, sounding mature and well-balanced between the 'folkier' and mellower moments.

The ''proggiest'' moments appear in the instrumentals A Surfeit of Lampreys and The Youngest Daughter, both being among the most enjoyable moments of the album and the former definitely being a highlight of excellent musicianship. Apart from these two tracks, there are no - strictly speaking - further moments of progressive folk but the variety of moods and sounds definitely compensates for this ''deficiency''.

90's Fairport Convention sound quite different than the 70's band but the ''progression'' of the sound should appeal to most fans of (not necessarily prog-) folk music, as this is a rather enjoyable effort.

aapatsos | 4/5 |

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