FROM THE WITCHWOOD

An album of rich sound that has a delightful feel of coming from a far distant age or land, but much of it's beauty is marred by slightly odd sound engineering (levels of the various instruments with regards to the vocals--Rick Wakeman almost always relegated to a distant room somewhere in the basement). At the same time, there's a TRAFFIC "John Barleycorn" feel to a lot of this. On the positive side, this is perhaps the album that feels most closely aligned with true folk music traditions (despite several songs sounding as if they came from Beatles albums ["Thirty Days" (9/10) and "Flight" (8.5/10) "Cannondale" (8.25/10)). Señor Wakeman gets to shine in little ways, mostly with his organ, especially with "The Hangman and the Papist" (8.75/10), the Argent-like "Sheep" (8.5/10), the free play beneath "Cannondale." I like the gentle, more folk-sounding songs like "In Amongst the Roses" (9/10), "Witchwood" (8.75/10), and the opener, "A Glimpse of Heaven" (8.75/10), though not so much the Jefferson Airplane-like "The Shepherd's Song" (8/10). Plus, I have to admit that I do enjoy the two Beatles-like songs.

A solid four star album that is certainly pleasurable and interesting--though not quite on a level, IMHO, with Ghosts or even Grave New World and not as memorable as Hero and Heroine.