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The Pentangle - Cruel Sister CD (album) cover

CRUEL SISTER

The Pentangle

 

Prog Folk

3.50 | 77 ratings

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Tarcisio Moura
Prog Reviewer
3 stars After Pentangle's masterpiece Basket Of Light came Cruel Sister and it was a big let down after such great efford the year before. Not that it was bad, far from it. But one must see that the band was not on one of their most inspired moments, so Bert Jansch (along with bassist Danny Thompson and drummer Terry Cox) let singer Jacqui Mcshee and guitarrist John Renbourn take charge this time. Cruel Sister is, therfore, very much the duo's baby, really. There is littlle of the band's fantastic jazz, baroque and blues approaches here. This CD was made entirely of traditional folk tunes arranged and performaed by Pentangle, but not everybody plays on every track (When I Was In My Prime features only McShee singing a capella for exemple). There is not a single original song on the entire record.

The result is nice, but not much else. Only Renbourn and McShee seemed really interested. The 18 minute version of Jack Orion was not quite successful: it is just too long and the prog parts they tried to devolp seem ragged. somewhat forced and rather dull. The remanining tracks are nice, but pale in comparison to their previous work. I guess this is an album that will satisfy the trasditional folk fans more than The Pentangle's real audience.

In all I think Cruel Sister is a good CD, but not one of their best. It has its moments and you'll enjoy it if you like the more traditional folk side of Pentangle.

Tarcisio Moura | 3/5 |

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