DÉJÀ FOU

Order this album direct from Witchwood records off the Strawbs website and with a little luck you will get an acoustic sampler thrown in too. That was a nice surprise especially the acoustic version of ' Golden Salamander' off Nomadness. Deja Fous marks all new material which is a pleasant surprise with the classic line up of Hawkens/Cousins/Coombes/Cronk and Lambert. Primarily though Cousins and Lambert are the main influence with Chas Cronk taking more of a back seat for a change. It is not a bad album at all. Cousin's voice understandably not as strong as it was in his heyday. The best tracks for me are the more acoustic sets like the opener ' Riviera Del Flori' and ' Face Down In The Well' but ' Barren Land' and ' If' are also very strong. The only weak track for me being ' Under a Cloudless Sky'. Check out also the last track ' NRG' which marks a complete change in direction ( eastern influences).So we have a new Strawbs album in 2004. Will it be their last? I for one hope not.

I'm afraid that it may be time for David Cousins to hang it up. I just could not get past the fact that he sounds like an old man on this album. Previous albums showed that his voice was getting weaker, but here it has gone past the point of redemption. Musically, the album is a mixed bag. The scales tip more towards folky than prog, at least in terms of loudness. Most of the melodies and chord progressions are familiar to the point of mediocrity, and the lyrics seem uninspired. And what a crappy cover! Yes, the last song IS a real departure, but it's probably there only because Rod Coombes had a bargaining chip or two to play. And where's John Hawken? Missing In Action for most of the album... Two stars, but only for completionists and those who have an overwhelming need for more Strawbs product.

Shine on silver (haired) sons

Over the years, the Strawbs have become more of a family than a band, with numerous members coming and going while Dave Cousins remains the father of the house. So it was that in 2004, the line up which recorded the fine "Hero and heroine" album some 30 years previously reconvened to record this release. It should be said though that while Chas Crock, Rod Coombes and John Hawkin all make significant and valuable contributions, this is primarily an Dave Cousins and Dave Lambert project.

We open with a brief instrumental introduction featuring chromaharp which leads into one of the highlights of the album. "Under a cloudless sky" sets out as a soft reflective number but builds quickly through some fine vocal harmonies. The track has welcome echoes of "The vision of the lady of the lake" from the band's earliest days in both sound and structure, Cousins voice retaining all the passion and drama it had way back then. Robert Kirby's orchestration of the track is dynamic but sympathetic.

The string quartet who grace the album come to the fore for the first time on "Face down in the well", a melancholy soft ballad of the type Cousins delivers so well. The tracks tend to alternate between up tempo songs and gentle ballads. Dave Lambert takes on occasions lead vocals such as on his self composed "Cold steel", one of the upbeat numbers.

"Russian front" is another major highlight of the album, the 7 minute track cumulating in a frenzied instrumental. This contrasts starkly with the following "Here today, gone tomorrow", which sees Cousins delivering a delicate prose, accompanied only by piano.

Only the closing "NRG" lets the side down. This electro pop number may have simply been a fling at chart success, but the strange combination of Oriental and Celtic influences with a thumping beat and trite lyrics all adds up to a track too many on the album.

In all though, this is a fine Strawbs album which incorporates some of their old prog inclinations with lighter songs and delicate ballads. The sun continues to shine on the Strawbs.

I was quite interested to listen to the line-up who released one of the best Strawbs album. It was back in '74 with Hero & Heroine. In the meantime, my feeling is that when you listen to this work is that the great inspiration of those remote days has gone away and that this album sounds rather flat.

Some good folk tunes, no doubt (If). The ones who were expecting some return to a more symphonic side of their work won't get it. No mellotron, very little keyboards in general and a lot of acoustic guitar.

The country-rock Cold Steel brings some rhythm to the whole which is seriously lacking of diversity. Some songs being really on the minimalist side like Sunday Morning. This Barren Land reminds me seriously Jerusalem (from ELP) during the vocal parts. The whole melody is just reproduced; but on a lower tone. Not a bad song after all.

Highlights are difficult to find. The rocking Russian Front could have been one of those, but both the intro and the closing parts are weak. It should work pretty good on stage though. The last ballad of this album is one of my fave: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow is quite melancholic and moving. It is a very delicate piece of music which contrast with a very, hum, special closing track.

I believe that a great opportunity have been missed here. Sometimes, such a reunion leads to a very good album (as Kansas did for instance). Two stars for Already Crazy - Déjà Fou.

Where is the NRG?

Deja Fou opens with a very subtle and mellow instrumental that perfectly sets the mode for the album, or at least the first half or so of the album. This instrumental leads directly into the first proper song, Under A Cloudless Sky. This is an excellent (semi-) ballad, of the type of which this album has many, but a strange choice to open the album, I think. Face Down In The Well continues in the same style, it is an acoustic ballad based on guitar, cello and with some female backing vocals. Yet again this is an excellent song.

On A Night Like This is the first up tempo song of the album and unfortunately it falls completely flat. This is easily the worst track on Deja Fou and possibly the worst in the whole Strawbs discography! This is pretty much the same type of music to which very old people in my country likes to dance! It is very light-weight and completely lacks punch.

The song If returns once again to the mellow mood of the first two songs. Cousins sounds very much like Cat Stevens on this song. And this is yet another excellent mellow ballad song with a subtle string section, acoustic guitar and vocals. Cat Stevens would envy Cousins for this beautiful song! Banjo features heavily in Cold Steel, which is otherwise a very conventional and ordinary rock song. Nothing special here.

Sunday Morning is yet another song in the slow, mellow mood. Once again, this is primarily based on acoustic guitar and vocals. At this point it almost doesn't matter how good the song is, because it feels like more of the same anyway. There are simply too many songs of this type on Deja Fou. But judged on its own merits this too is a very nice tune.

The greatness of The Barren Land cannot be ignored, however, even if it too starts out as a song in the acoustic ballad mood all too familiar by now. But it develops into a full on Strawbs attack with some electric guitar soloing and marching drums. Finally! I hesitate to call this Prog, but it is the closest thing on this album so far.

When The Lights Came On is pure pop song that would have fitted perfectly on Deep Cuts. I kind of like it! And it is at least a different type of song from the majority of this album and that alone deserves some credit.

Russian Front and NRG are the only two tracks on the whole of Deja Fou that really rocks. Strangely (and unwisely, I would say) these two songs are put towards the very end of the album. These songs are also the only two that could be said to be a bit progressive. However, these songs - at least - have a more full on band sound, with more keyboards, drums and electric guitars. Just the type of thing this album would need more of, really. NRG is very different from the rest of the album and feels a bit as if it was just tagged on at the end, while really belonging somewhere else. It is a great song though with a Far Eastern sound. Strange way to close the album. In between Russian Front and NRG we find a very good piano ballad called Here Today, Gone Tomorrow.

There are indeed several great songs on this album and only a couple of not so good ones. But there is very little in terms of Prog and there are too many ballads of the same type and sound to keep it interesting for the listener throughout. The instrumentation is often too minimal for my taste with only occasional electric guitars, drums and keyboards. The keyboards are also not varied at all, staying mainly with a brass-like sound. Another minor problem is that the vocals of Cousins are often slightly too loud in the mix.

For Strawbs fans this album is very welcome and, indeed, very pleasant. But for the average Prog fan this is just a good, but non-essential release.

Hyped as the reunion album for the classic lineup of the mid 1970s, "Deja Fou" delivers nothing like that product, not even allowing for the passage of 3 decades and a host of technological improvements. Instead the first Strawbs album to include all new material since the 1970s is more like an Acoustic Strawbs effort with keyboards and drums occasionally added in. It also suffers from a variety of production missteps, from the mismanagement of Dave Cousins aging voice to inconsistent volumes, that even in the 1970s would not have been tolerated.

Yet "Deja Fou" delivers on so many other fronts that, if regarded on its own rather than by comparison, it succeeds brilliantly. The opener "Riviera Del Flori/Under A Cloudless Sky" is reminiscent of "Flying" off "Bursting at the Seams", with plenty of mellotron that unfortunately does not surface enough elsewhere, and some excellent vocal harmonies that almost compensate for Cousins' obvious straining. A preponderance of delicate string laden ballads like "Face Down in the Well", "If", and "Sunday Morning" threaten to bring down the proceedings, but the lyrics and/or melodies are so strong that they pass by as a story read by a cherished parent. The strings themselves arranged by ex-Strawb Robert Kirby are simply sumptuous.

A few more rocking numbers do provide contrast, such as the banjo-driven Dave Lambert tune "Cold Steel", the well constructed "Jerusalem" re-adaptation "This Barren Land", and even the rollicking cold war throwback "Russian Front", cheesy synthesizers notwithstanding. Unfortunately, the closer "NRG" is just too much novelty song to effectively showcase Cousins' increasing interest in Moorish influences. The following album would succeed much better in this regard. The real gem, after nearly 5 years of reflection, is "Here Today Gone Tomorrow", a delicate and wistful ballad featuring mostly just Cousins and Hawken, and one that should rightfully have ended the proceedings.

"Deja Fou" can be seen as Strawbs floating the idea of a full fledged band effort, which would come with "The Broken Hearted Bride" a few years later. It is worth approaching if you enjoyed their acoustic albums and concerts but want a little more muscle. It is an alluring mix of the sanity and the madness of all the group's incarnations.