TIME HONOURED GHOSTS

At first, this may sound somewhat weaker than other BJH albums, but it does have hidden depths.

The tracks which start each side of the LP "In my life" (no relation to the Beatles song) and "Song for you" have similar structures. Each starts with an upbeat section, leading to a slower, melodic, closing part. The style works well for BJH, and gives the songs a slightly more prog feel.

While previous albums had included tracks with similarities to other peoples' songs, this takes a whole new twist with the song "Titles". The track is made up entirely of Beatles song titles, and also borrows from their melodies. It's a reasonable pastiche, but has something of a corny feel to it (the song is revisited on the "Nexus" album, where it is given an extra verse and longer closing section).

"Jonathan " is influenced by the short story "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" (which also inspired Neil Diamond's concept album of the same name!), and bears a suitable light, soaring atmosphere.

Woolly Wolstenholme's "Beyond the grave" is one of BJH's most powerful tracks ever. It swims in keyboards, building from an almost inaudible start to a magnificent symphonic crescendo. The closing track "One night", seems at first to be something of an anti-climax, but it is in fact a haunting melody, which belies it's apparently simple 4 verse 4 chorus structure.

In all, a deceptively understated album, which, like a malt whisky, take time to mature, but is certainly worth getting to know.

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