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Barclay James  Harvest - Turn Of The Tide CD (album) cover

TURN OF THE TIDE

Barclay James Harvest

 

Crossover Prog

2.60 | 118 ratings

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rupert
3 stars So they had a hit in 1980 to propel the album... and the hit was POP... making you wonder what "Turn of the Tide" would be about. It took me some years to forgive "Life is for living", another few to start diggin' it and another few to even love it... my first impression was "With WOOLLY... THIS wouldn't have happened" although I always thought of my favourite band having such a huge hit-single as only fair.

The album itself seemed better, especially because of "How do you feel now" ( a beautiful ballad by John Lees ) and the closing-track "In memory of the Martyrs", while "Echoes and Shadows" would have made it as a BJH-classic if there only weren't that silly Lalala-Refrain... "I'm like a Train" is full of surprises and "Death of a City" has got a fine groove ( though, to me, the electric guitars sound a little too dry ). I do like "Waiting on the Borderline", too, but "Highway for fools" - though with a rock- attitude - is something of a 08/15-number, as we in Germany say and "Back to the wall" suffers from strange guitars ( nonetheless you got hooked on the groove first ).

I completely dislike "Doctor Doctor" that perhaps should have been a joke but it's just not funny, only superfluous, and I wonder why there had been any overdubs made for "Life is for Living"... the single-version sounds far better with the drums upfront and more space in it ( check it out on "Endless Dream" if you like the song itself ).

By now it became obvious what loss the departure of Woolly Wolstenholme was... you had to lower down expectations, really, but all in all "Turn of the Tide" was still an album with undeniable BJH-trademarks... right time, right place and quite interesting.

Rupert

rupert | 3/5 |

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