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Fairport Convention - What We Did On Our Holidays CD (album) cover

WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAYS

Fairport Convention

 

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3.61 | 94 ratings

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Eetu Pellonpaa
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
5 stars I was introduced to folk music through this album on a hazy hot summer's day long ago. I remember the start with "Fotheringay" made instantly a great impression to me; The webs weaved by classical acoustic guitars and amplified bass, accompanied with few bells and Sandy Denny's celestial vocals describing the final moments of Queen Mary of Scots, all this uniting as most beautiful and harmonious tonal scenery. Sadly its follower "Mr.Lacey" was more disappointing humorous blues rocker, but luckily the following songs again follow the mellow and moody line which the opening song did set. "Book Song" has some sitars in it, bringing some elements of psychedelic vibes to this serene lovely tune. "The Lord Is in This Place...How Dreadful is This Place" works as a quiet intro for the song "No Man's Land", being then a bit faster paced tune with Ian's lead singing. This one with a big emotional load is followed by Bob Dylan's cover "I'll Keep It with Mine", which forms a bit longer, enforcing mantra-like song of sorrowful happiness. The euphoric progression and sympathetic lyrics carry strong load of positive energy, making me wish world would actually be something like described on this song. The forthcoming releases of this band saw many other Dylan covers following, none of those being very exceptional of quality though like this. "Eastern Rain" pours in, being one of the album's strongest tracks along with its opener. A hazy, peaceful vocal theme is surrounded with silent mysterious sounds, and the descending verse has some stronger instrumentation, giving a release to the tension grown in the song. "She Moves Through The Fair" is a beautiful traditional Irish piece, sung by many legendary artists like Anne Briggs, who was singing purist folk without musical accompaniment in same times and places as when Sandy was developing her own style and searching possibilities for musical success. This version gives the historical lamentation a slightly psychedelic flavoured treatment, being certainly very, very beautiful. "Meet on The Ledge" is then a totally marvelous acoustic anthem, with very sad feeling lingering below the hopeful melodic theme for those who are gone and will be met maybe once again. The players have truly had a great taste in writing these songs, as the traditional numbers, covers and then their own compositions fit together very well. "End of A Holiday" closes the original album as a solo acoustic guitar number. I haven't heard the bonus tracks of the recent re-mastered CD, but with the original tracks I would recommend this classic strongly, and it resides as a very special record to me due the personal experiences I got from it.
Eetu Pellonpaa | 5/5 |

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