TIME WILL PASS

Spriguns was a minor folk-rock band led by singer-songwriter Mandy Morton, who has a clean, Sandy Denny -like voice. In addition to this album I have heard the preceeding Revel Wird & Wild (1976), which sounds very traditional folk(-rock) even if the songs are self-penned. On that album I slightly disliked the cheerful folk-naivety on some songs, while it was very well produced by Steeleye Span's Tim Hart. It didn't sound very different from numerous folk-rock bands before, with the female vocalist, some violins and all, but for the same reason this band brought hardly anything fresh to the fading genre.

Time Will Pass is a whole lot better album, though its running time is modestly 32 minutes only. Both the songs and the playing are more solid, and the naivety is replaced by more mature, closer-to-rock approach. It's not as faithful to the folk tradition, instead it's much closer to the mainstream popular music of the time, but in this case it's only positive. Three tracks have a soft orchestration that fits nicely to the whole. The arrangements use also electric guitars and synths effectively. I don't go into tracks individually, but to me this is a good, even album from start to finish. Esoteric Recordings re-released it last year with no bonuses. Mandy Morton continued her career in the 80's as a solo artist before she had a long-term job in the radio.