OVER THE NEXT HILL

Over The Next Hill is yet another quite strong Fairport Convention album in the same style as other recent albums like Red And Gold, Five Seasons, Jewel In The Crown and Who Knows Where The Time Goes? If you like one of these albums you will surely like the others, but I prefer most of the others to the present one. I particularly like the weakly conceptual Jewel In The Crown. When I say 'recent', I mean since the late 80's which is recent for a band that has been around since the late 60's. This "recent" period from the late 80's till today, has been a very stable period for the band both musically and personally. They may not be the most prolific, but they go for quality instead of quantity which is hard not to praise them for.

The present album is fairly typical of this late period with Folk songs made in Rock style with electric and acoustic instruments including the omnipresent fiddle played by the great Ric Sanders. Some are up tempo jigs and reels like the great Canny Capers and other are Folk songs in mostly British but also some in American style. These are the elements that have always made up the sound of the band. The vocals are this time shared among Chris Leslie, Dave Pegg and Simon Nicol, instead of being handled exclusively by Nicol as on some other recent albums. I personally prefer Nicol and think that having one vocalist only would have made the album more coherent. The closer Si Tu Dois Partir is a remake of an earlier remake that is best avoided in all its versions if you ask me! Consider it a bonus track!

For fans of Prog Folk, the more recent albums by Fairport Convention are well worth investigating. Over The Next Hill is hardly the best of the lot and I would not say that it is the most Prog related either, but it is a fine album by a fine band.

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