IN THE ROUND

In The Round was my first entry into the reformed Pentangle after their 'classic' l line up had broken apart in the early 70's. The sound changed a lot, with new guitarrist Mike Piggott coming in since the previous CD and, most important, welcoming Nigel Portman-Smith on bass and keyboards. I should warn Pentangle's fans of the early incarnation that the sound changed A LOT! Gone are the almost all acoustic format and mostly of their jazz and heavy blues overtones. On the other hand the music became less pretentious and less intricated. Still they retained their folk credentials, their fine musicanship and added some colour to their sound.

Some would go on to say some songs on this record are almost pop, but I will desagree. Even at their most accessible moments, they are still too sophisticated to be classified as such. This is obvious a transitional record, but a good one. The major fault being the fact that some pieces sound too much like a Bert Jansch solo album (The Open Sea, Saturday Movie) and break the album's continuity, but when Jacqui Mcshee sings lead or duos then the band really shiness. No wonder they record at least three more studio CDs in such direction.

All in all it's a very good CD. The good songs are very memorable, while the weaker tracks are at least listenable and will certainly satisfy Bert Jansch solo career fans.