HEDFAN

It's track A2 that caught my ear. I've played it back about five times and still can't get enough. It starts out like just another rock 'n' roll song from the era, but suddenly shifts upward and into this absolutely gorgeous vocal melody with Nest Howells sounding like she had figured out the coming of bands like Lush a good two decades prior! The song reverts to the standard boogie woogie riffing but now it makes sense, and the fourth time through they shift nicely into a breezy, almost CSN circa "Wooden Ships" type groove. Love it! They then force the arrangement back to the opening riff a bit here, but I'm not sure

This is a really solid piece of work. A3 is kind of a funky clunker, but overall this album is loaded with really nice material and good arrangements. Nice piano work throughout. Excellent guitar work.

Definitely could have been a real winner of an album with a bit more of a defined direction. As such, I'm giving it 3.5 stars but pushing it to four stars because on what was clearly a low budget, this a fairly unique sounding piece of work. Almost like The Carpenters meet Steve Hillage and yet even that can't describe it. Just a really cool vibe. Lots of reverb. I dig the distant production on the vocals. Most of the album sounds like it is coming from four rooms over and it works. Gives it that late '70s, spacey vibe.

The LP I have is a bootleg reissue supposedly from around the early 2000s. Sound is a bit on the bright side. Would be very curious to hear the original pressing but it's a hefty investment. This "reissue" is perfectly listenable for now.

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