THE DOWNHILL CLIMB

Baby Whale is an album I'll keep for the rest of my life. But that's not because of the music's concistency but rather due to part of the albums magnificent content. I feel the album is pulling somewhat in different directions. On one hand there's brilliant folk and folk-rock of the British isles (the first and last three songs) and then there's the middle section of about five or six songs more in the vein of american country styled folk. Now, I do like country folk. It's great but for me it does not mix well on an album. It disturbs me greatly when the magic of the british styled folk (which is a genre I really, and I mean really, love is interrupted by the country styled folk. There is plenty of room for adding elements of styles into the mix (as on the rather countrified but enjoyable Cornfileds, The cuckoo) but on this album it becomes overbearing, disturbing and quite unbearable. I guess hhe country elements grow too powerful on these. I usually skip the mid section when listenening to the album, which I do quite often.

In short I'd say that the purely british styled folk is brilliant stuff indeed. Magical, powerful and intriguing with great vocals and instrumentation. The mid section of the album I'd rather they'd kept away from the album. The reason for me giving three stars is based on this fact, that they kept it on the album and for me it is disrupting. Still, a great buy if you're into british folk of the 70's.