WATERCOLOUR DAYS

Watercolour Days is a beautiful song and a worthy opening to an often poetic album. What a pity there is a patchiness in this work, rough edges not quite smoothed out, vocals just a little (and sometimes a lot) uninteresting or ordinary, for what is contained here is not ordinary at all. There is greatness at work here, but its potential remains unrealised, only hinting at all that could be, never quite reaching it. True, the choice of songs (or non-songs at times) is hit and miss, but the high points are worth waiting for; Cold Sweat, Lighthouse, Long Time, Mind Of A Child, I Am The Melody. I love the raw organ power of Cold Sweat, the pictorial scenes and sounds in Lighthouse, but for me it's a bookends of an album, the title track opening, the harpsichord of I Am The Melody bringing a finale tinged with a lingering feeling of déjà vu.

Perhaps it's linked to the fact that, although for me, the crucial Clouds recording is Scrapbook, I actually like this record more, yet it always leaves me feeling sad, as if I've lost something along the way but can't quite place where or when.

There's something timeless in this music that isn't quite finding expression. I wish there were more albums following on, to fill the questions, but there's only silence.