Sense of Occasion

[Dubai Danny]

Blew by me and left me fairly indifferent. Sounds more like an album filler than opener, I'm afraid  

A different arrangement and less lightweight vocal might have helped.

The Karine Polwart song that followed was good, though.

[Jim]

so it arrived this morning
 the opener still doesnt do an awful lot for me
but the rest of the cd has its moments, the covers have been well chosen and if they must redo the back catalogue then tam and polly arnt bad ones to revisit  Rics instrumentals are fine  and chris's new songs will grow on me with familiarity

   better than the last few cd's i think but ill need more time to decide where it ranks in the FC canon

[Sir Robert Peel]

If that's Jim's verdict then I'm interested in a purchase.

Thanks for that review, James.  

[Hester]

Glen tilbrook has contributed a song!

How intriguing!  For, as I wrote in the "stalking Loreena McKennitt" thread:

I mean, hands up here if you've travelled to see your favourite singer/band at a series of local gigs several nights in a row.  [Me: Squeeze in Hamilton and Toronto, 1982.]

Cheers, Hester

[Harbottle (Martin)]

This morning listened to the new CD in the car on a shopping trip.

Mixed feelings. I like the opening track, some nice melodies. The remakes are pointless, even if they are both well done and I liked them - it's just. They're remakes. I've heard them before. The last half of the album is strongest. A couple of truly duff tracks - The Vision, for one, with terrible lyrics and a CL one that sounds rather similar to a previous CL one. In fact, my main criticism would be it's too long, and there's too many CL songs - not that I don't like them, the opposite, in fact, but they are a bit overpowering and formed a bit of "chunk" in the first half of the album. The Spring song was excellent, but some of the others somewhat forgettable.

I'll prob listen again. It's hard to do a proper listen when the wife keeps turning the volume down! Overall, I quite enjoyed it. Like most albums these days it seemed too long, with some filler. I'd have rather they did a couple of different tunes (Ones that they hadn't done before) rather than go back over old ground.

[Front Row Nik]

Front Row Fred has played it ALL DAY.  We are currently housebound - foot of snow, car stuck on top of a drift.  I like Untouchable and the VW one, the rest is really growing on me.  It IS good to hear Chris, a good balance between them.  I like the key changes in Tam Lin, much fresher.

Also bought Peggy and PJs album at Shrews but have not been allowed to play it yet.

Nic x

[Harbottle (Martin)]

Front Row Fred has played it ALL DAY.  We are currently housebound - foot of snow, car stuck on top of a drift.  I like Untouchable and the VW one, the rest is really growing on me.  It IS good to hear Chris, a good balance between them.  I like the key changes in Tam Lin, much fresher.

Also bought Peggy and PJs album at Shrews but have not been allowed to play it yet.

Nic x

Yes, I listened to it again and some it's growing on me. I still had the urge to skip a couple of tracks. The real test will come on Monday when I'm in the office. Whether it's good "vanish into writing software" music and drowns out the distractions!

[mikec]

Heard half of it once today and I can say that the first track is much better listened to on a proper system rather than over the web. Whether its a good track or not remains to be seen. I need to listen to the rest a couple of times yet.

Sorry but Galileo's Apology was first through the door today so I've listened to it first. (and mighty fine it was too)

Seeya later in the week when I've more time.

[Chris]

Heard half of it once today and I can say that the first track is much better listened to on a proper system rather than over the web.

Yes, that's always going to be the case....

[GubGub (Al)]

Picked up my copy at the gig on Tueday and have just given it another listen. I must say it fared better this time than on the first spin.

For me, Fairport haven't really made a wholly consistent album since Who Knows Where The Time Goes. There are no more than half a dozen tracks from the last three albums that would make it onto my personal Fairport compilation. There is a cosiness that has crept into their studio work that is embodied by the title track of Over The Next Hill & Keep On Turning The Wheel. That said...

After an unpromising start with the aforementioned Wheel and a rather pointless XTC cover that adds nothing to the original, there is a lot on here that is growing on me. The second half of the album is pretty strong throughout. I agree with previous posters that the album is probably too long overall and the re workings of old songs are becoming irrelevant and tiresome because they fail to better the originals. I could mount a defence of Polly On The Shore though as it takes a different and not unpleasant approach to the song and is, effectively by an entirely different band, Peggy aside.

So, this morning I have mostly been enjoying everything from track 9 onwards. Personally I would probably lose tracks 1, 2, 5 & 8 but even South Dakota To Manchester which I initially found rather monotonous is beginning to reveal its attractions & Best Wishes looks set to become a standard to sit alongside Ledge at the end of live performances for years to come.

[davidmjs]

There are no more than half a dozen tracks from the last three albums that would make it onto my personal Fairport compilation.

Wow.  Is this an 18 CD compilation then?

[GubGub (Al)]

I'm thinking multi disc boxed set! I did try to actually do this about 15 years ago, pre CD burning facilities. It ran to 4 C90s. I'd probably only have to add one more tape to cover subsequent releases though.

[mikec]

Heard half of it once today and I can say that the first track is much better listened to on a proper system rather than over the web.

Yes, that's always going to be the case....

Well as many folks had commented on how poor they thought it was when they listened to it on Mike Hardings show I thought it worth pointing out that on a proper hifi it sounded much better. As I think so did you Chris.

[Harbottle (Martin)]

Picked up my copy at the gig on Tueday and have just given it another listen. I must say it fared better this time than on the first spin.

For me, Fairport haven't really made a wholly consistent album since Who Knows Where The Time Goes. There are no more than half a dozen tracks from the last three albums that would make it onto my personal Fairport compilation. There is a cosiness that has crept into their studio work that is embodied by the title track of Over The Next Hill & Keep On Turning The Wheel. That said...

After an unpromising start with the aforementioned Wheel and a rather pointless XTC cover that adds nothing to the original, there is a lot on here that is growing on me. The second half of the album is pretty strong throughout. I agree with previous posters that the album is probably too long overall and the re workings of old songs are becoming irrelevant and tiresome because they fail to better the originals. I could mount a defence of Polly On The Shore though as it takes a different and not unpleasant approach to the song and is, effectively by an entirely different band, Peggy aside.

So, this morning I have mostly been enjoying everything from track 9 onwards. Personally I would probably lose tracks 1, 2, 5 & 8 but even South Dakota To Manchester which I initially found rather monotonous is beginning to reveal its attractions & Best Wishes looks set to become a standard to sit alongside Ledge at the end of live performances for years to come.

South Dakota thingy reminds me of a 10cc song... Rochale to somewhere else, or something.

[GubGub (Al)]

From Rochdale To Ocho Rios. B Side of Dreadlock Holiday if memory serves me correctly. Not their finest hour in either case.

[Anne T]

I've just ordered my copy from Amazon. I meant to get it in High Wycombe on Saturday night, but the queue after the gig was a bit long and we needed to get back home sharpish. When ordering, I noticed that the Amazon sales rank stood at 92! That seems pretty good - will we be seeing Fairport in the album charts soon?

[NeilMcLaughlin]

Just wanted to say that I ordered mine from the new website as soon as I knew it was possible to do so, and this may very well be the first time someone in Ohio got a Fairport CD in Ohio on the first day of the official release...so well done on speedy delivery!  As soon as I get a chance to listen to the whole thing I'll add my two cents worth of opinion on how it stacks up.  I am certainly jealous of those of you on the wintour getting the electric guitar version of Simon live, but don't reckon I'll ever make it over that way to witness it first hand.

[MPinelli]

I am certainly jealous of those of you on the wintour getting the electric guitar version of Simon live, but don't reckon I'll ever make it over that way to witness it first hand.

It really wasn't all that long ago that the full "electric" line-up has been over here in the US. I think the last time was 2004. I think the trio of Simon, Ric and Chris is quite excellent, but I certainly would like to see the full crew back! Is anyone listening??  

[Linkster]

May I say that IMO this Fairport album is absolutely the finest sounding studio album in their entire catalog.  A big congrats to Mark Tucker for his brilliant engineering, Steve Hill at Woodworm and of course to Simon, Ric and Rob for assisting with the mixing.  There is a great deal of natural ambiance and transparency, which is difficult to achieve in a studio environment.  Absolutely stunning work and no better example than on Maestro Sanders' Your Heart and Mine.  But really the entire disc is uniformly excellent and should be embraced by audiophiles and music lovers.

[mikec]

Interesting that some are saying the album is too long. I wonder whether thats because in folks views the quality of some of the songs lets it down or that overall its just too long. I'm not sure how the latter can be a problem though.

In the early days of CDs most of them were about 45 minutes long cause that was what we had got used to with vinyl but now that most realise a commercial CD can hold up to 75 minutes of music (give or take) why shouldn't an artist use the space.

Lazarus put some extras on their live CD which was very welcome and not unsurprising really knowing Maart.  

So whats wrong with FC filling up the available space. Should they have cut the number of tracks and possibly put something else on as a wee surprise/gift for their 40th celebrations perhaps.

But.. if some are saying its too long cause they simply don't like some tracks then thats a different ball game as I can't see us agreeing on which tracks should be dropped