CONSTRUCTIVE MELANCHOLY (30 YEARS OF PEARLS BEFORE SWINE)

If you want to have a more comprehensive compilation of this American, singer-songwriter based folk rock band, you may better get the 2-disc The Wizard of Is (2004)*. This 69-minute compilation concentrates on the so called middle period, ie. the albums These Things Too (1969), The Use of Ashes (1970), City of Gold (1971) and Beautiful Lies You Could Live In (1972) on the Reprise label, excluding the first two PBS albums and the ones released under Tom Rapp's name.

Together with Balaklava (1968) this one, for now, entirely makes up my acquaintance to this band which I happily stumbled upon a month ago, thanks to a Facebook friend recommending them. I didn't avoid some frustrated feelings of the somewhat blurry way the output, or half of it, is represented here. For example no information of the source albums or co-performers on each track, nor track lengths -- and the liner notes are printed in a very small font on page-wide columns, difficult to read for a middle-aged listener! But these things aside, this really is a charming set of acoustically oriented, atmospheric and mostly fairly calm folk rock with a fairytale-like psychedelic flavour. If you like e.g. TIM BUCKLEY, SHAWN PHILLIPS, NICK DRAKE, early LEONARD COHEN, DONOVAN, INCREDIBLE STRING BAND, LINDISFARNE, TREES, MAGNA CARTA, FOREST and RALPH McTELL, you'll probably enjoy Tom Rapp's music.

The running order of the 26 tracks is unchronological and seemingly haphazard. If only there weren't so lengthy spaces in between the songs (another feature I've never liked), the whole would feel more like a tailor-made, artistically well-thought musical journey as I bet it intends to be. I'm not going to write much of separate songs (partly because my computer refuses to play the CD properly). There are a bunch of songs I'm not fond of; they tend to have some slightly irritating feature, perhaps a bit too much of either naiivety ('Froggle') or a country flavour. Most songs however are very nice or even spellbinding at best. Tom Rapp's warm and a bit uncertain voice often carries the story-telling aspect, sometimes backed by a beautiful female voice. The instrumentation is often colourful, finishing the magical atmosphere.

For those already having a couple of the four short albums, such as The Use of Ashes which is almost entirely represented here, this compilation may not be that necessary. For a newcomer with a suitable taste for psych- flavoured folk rock this set easily brings a lot of delight and rare charm. Therefor strong four stars, despite some inadequate features in the representation.

*) Or maybe this one is the better compilation of the two, after all: I'm not familiar with The Wizard of Is, but I just noticed from my library database that it contains demos and live recordings.