TEMPTED AND TRIED

Steeleye Span

Prog Related

3.51 | 13 ratings

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SouthSideoftheSky
Special Collaborator
Symphonic Team

"Apart from the pain it's a pleasure"

After 1986's merely decent Back In Line album, Tempted And Tried certainly was a return to form for Steeleye Span. Indeed, this is a strong album for the band! After a couple of albums of mostly original material, the band opted for a return to traditionals here with only a few exceptions. The band's trademarks are all here including male and female lead vocals, the latter by the very distinctive Maddy Prior, fiddle a plenty, mandolins, electric guitars, drums and bass and some occasional keyboards.

The album flows quite well from start to finish and it is diverse enough to keep it interesting throughout. The first three tracks are rather typical Steeleye vocal numbers, but then comes a nice couple of interconnected reels followed by the unusual and slow Betsy Bell And Mary Gray that consists of only Prior's voice and violin and the similar Searching For Lambs only interrupted by the catchy Folk Pop of Shaking Of The Sheets. This shows most of the different aspects of the band quite well; Pop, Rock, Folk. The progressive side of the band is, however, not at its strongest on Tempted And Tried. But this side surely exists, the most progressive song of the album being The Cruel Mother with its guitar solos and some presence of keyboards. This is followed by Following Me which is the least proggy and most poppy song here. The Fox is a nice little tune to close the album.

This is not Steeleye Span's best album but neither is it their worst. Not the best place to start, but worthwhile for those who enjoy the band and British Folk Rock in general

SouthSideoftheSky | 3/5 | 2010-4-1

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