GRAVE NEW WORLD

Strawbs

Prog Folk

4.15 | 395 ratings

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Dark Nazgul

Bless this album. No doubt about that!

"Grave New World" is a great album, though probably not as much as the previous "From The Witchwood". The style of the band remains approximately the same: the album consists of quite simple and mainly acoustic songs, however, compared to "From The Witchwood" the electrical equipment begins timidly to be used by the band. Another difference between the two albums is that Wakeman has been replaced by Blue Weaver: instead "Merlin The Magician" the new keyboardist use mellotron much more.

Listening to the album is very pleasant, certainly undemanding, with the nasal voice of Cousins in evidence in songs like Benedictus or New World, an excellent song features a redundant mellotron arrangement and the use of winds.

Tomorrow is the most "proggy" song of the album, with amazing changes of moods and rhythm, no doubt another highlight of the album. Anothew winner is the beautiful, but unfortunately too short, Hey Little Man, an acoustic song with Cousins on vocals, divided into two parts. Heavy Disguise is one of my favorite Strawbs songs ever: the style reminds me something of Tull and Beatles, with an excellent winds arrangement . Interesting the intro of Queen Of Dreams played in reverse.

The rest is still good, though perhaps not at the same level. Compared to the songs of "From The Witchwood" is most commonly a lower desire to experiment: The Flower And The Young Man and On Growing Older are nice but a little obvious. Oh Me, Oh My is funny but a bit out of place.

In any case this is a great album, less courageous than "From The Witchwood" but probably more pleasant to listen, because it does not demand much attention. If you are intrigued by the band and f you are searching for an album to start with, this is for you.

Final rating 7/10.

Best song: New World

Dark Nazgul | 4/5 | 2012-9-18

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