FAIRPORT CONVENTION

Fairport Convention's first album is a far cry from the electrified traditional folk that they made their name with, though there are some hints of it here and there on tracks like Decameron. Instead, it's a band very much beholden to the American folk rock tradition - especially the West Coast scene like the Byrds before they went country, Buffalo Springfield, and Jefferson Airplane - and who haven't yet worked out how to perform a similar transformation that those artists had performed on contemporary US folk in the context of traditional British folk.

As a result, it's a very interesting artifact, but like many debut albums from significant 1960s British folk pioneers - think Donovan, think The Incredible String Band - it doesn't really reflect the rest of their work and is interesting perhaps more for that contrast than it is in its own right.