Myths and Heroes - New album

[davidmjs]

Lol.  I think we can safely ignore that particular review...

[GubGub (Al)]

And who is Eddie Cochrane?

To be fair, having now read the review, there is much that I agree with in the more objective comments about the album. In fact, the Levellers comment and the over generous assessment of the current line up's recorded output to date seem the only real howlers to me. Otherwise it is a pretty accurate analysis of a reasonably strong album (albeit one that will not threaten the "classics").

[David W]

Whilst an undeniable improvement on more recent efforts Myths and Heroes doesn't really satisfy me as an album overall. The key thing for me is that whilst the slower "acoustic" tracks work really well the supposed rockier numbers aren't played with any conviction to my ears.
Simon is one of the great acoustic guitarists but doesn't seem to get any guts out of an electric which leaves an odd middle ground - this is especially on the title track and Love at First Sight and also for me Grace and Favour is in need of a big outro in the Spanish Main style.

Having said that there are some things to like:

The overall production was better than recent years, tracks like Man in the Water and John Condon sit well for the current line up and I also liked the sparse nature of Bring Me Back my Feathers and really love Theodore's Song which Chris sings beautifully.

My other slight gripe is that FC seem to have dispensed with Trad Arr stuff which is a real shame, the snippets of morris tunes which crop up sound great and I would love a bit more of that.

DW

[Dave.P]

"Since the current line-up (Leslie, Pegg, Sanders, Nicol, Conway) came together in 1998, making its recording debut with The Wood and the Wire, they’ve not put a foot wrong." apparently...

http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2015/03/fairport-convention-myths-and-heroes/

Myths and Heroes has ,'definite touches of the Levellers'??      

Have you purchased M and H yet Mr Hendo??? (I'm waiting for your comments before shelling out my ten shillings  

[hendo (Dave)]

"Since the current line-up (Leslie, Pegg, Sanders, Nicol, Conway) came together in 1998, making its recording debut with The Wood and the Wire, they’ve not put a foot wrong." apparently...

http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2015/03/fairport-convention-myths-and-heroes/

Myths and Heroes has ,'definite touches of the Levellers'??      

 


Have you purchased M and H yet Mr Hendo??? (I'm waiting for your comments before shelling out my ten shillings  

I've been wavering Dave, after the good reviews but David W's comments have swayed me in to the no camp.
 When I heard  Myths and Heroes at Cropredy I thought it needed Maart , or PJ Wright ( or ,pick folk rock guitarist of choice) putting a big power chord through it.  
I read somewhere that Simon plays his electric through an 8 watt practice amp , which could explain David W's comment.
I also agree that Simon is one of the best , if not the best, acoustic accompanist around.

[MarkC]

Maybe off topic a bit, but I get a sense here sometimes that if the current line up did something much like "L & L" they would simply be accused of imitating themselves. Music is a matter of individual taste and, for the record, I quite like "M & H." Not perfect, but good---really good, even.

But then I freely admit, nostalgia kinda irritates me. That's just me.

[PJayBe]

I do feel that Simon has ONE guitar sound, and unfortunately that provides a sameness to his style. Occasionally it would be nice to get a more distorted feel rather than the cleanness he has, it would really stand out.

Philip

[hendo (Dave)]

Maybe off topic a bit, but I get a sense here sometimes that if the current line up did something much like "L & L" they would simply be accused of imitating themselves. Music is a matter of individual taste and, for the record, I quite like "M & H." Not perfect, but good---really good, even.

But then I freely admit, nostalgia kinda irritates me. That's just me.

Mark, since recent chat on this site about the strength of Myths and Heroes against other  albums I have started , probably far too late, to think of Fairport as several bands, in many ways unrelated to each other.
Liege and Lief was that fabulous Sandy and RT  band , which lasted 6 months.
Babacombe Lee was that wonderful ,IMHO, Swarb led incarnation and with the arrival of Rosie I lost interest.
85 to 96 was another band and I liked some of the stuff, I am the bloke who really likes Wounded Whale and Tam Lin and Jewel in the Crown (the album) yes I know it became too keyboard led and was on the edge of prog rock but I loved it live , particularly at Cropredy.
97 to present a totally different, gentler , more acoustic band.
So I am starting to compare the present line ups albums to each other and ignore the past. 
 

[GubGub (Al)]

"Since the current line-up (Leslie, Pegg, Sanders, Nicol, Conway) came together in 1998, making its recording debut with The Wood and the Wire, they’ve not put a foot wrong." apparently...

http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2015/03/fairport-convention-myths-and-heroes/

Myths and Heroes has ,'definite touches of the Levellers'??      

 


Have you purchased M and H yet Mr Hendo??? (I'm waiting for your comments before shelling out my ten shillings  

I've been wavering Dave, after the good reviews but David W's comments have swayed me in to the no camp.
 

Gotta say that I disagree with David W's comment. I don't think there is any lack of conviction. What it doesn't haver though is the muscle with which it is being played live. It is a wholly decent album which is something that cannot be said of anything this line up has perviously produced (By Popular Request excepted), all of which have had some element of the curate's egg.

Make up your own mind Dave. Give it a listen if only on Spotify (assuming it is there).

[David W]

Played Man in the Water to Mrs W last night - she is not really a FC fan - and she thought the vocals were great but commented that the "spiky" nature of the song, the definite rhythm etc were compromised by Ric's legato playing style.

DW

[hendo (Dave)]

Make up your own mind Dave. Give it a listen if only on Spotify (assuming it is there).

I don't think I'm indecisive. What do youy think?
Seriously Al, I sat down and relistened to Sense of Occasion and Over the Next Hill cos they are never played and i am wary this would be just the same.
 I think your comment that the songs have more energy live, than on the album is spot on.

[GubGub (Al)]

Seriously Al, I sat down and relistened to Sense of Occasion and Over the Next Hill cos they are never played and I am wary this would be just the same.

It really isn't. I am not fond of those albums at all but that's why I say find somewhere to sample it and preferably give it more than one listen.

I was not excited or enthusiastic about the prospect of the album (though I had liked more than half of Festival Bell) and it was looking to be the first Fairport album I had not immediately acquired since I first came to the band nearly 30 years ago. I mostly bought it because I went to the gig and they played many of the songs there. I have been more than pleasantly surprised. There is nothing twee and plinky plonky and there are no songs with "London" in the title!  

[Ronald]

Maybe off topic a bit, but I get a sense here sometimes that if the current line up did something much like "L & L" they would simply be accused of imitating themselves. Music is a matter of individual taste and, for the record, I quite like "M & H." Not perfect, but good---really good, even.

But then I freely admit, nostalgia kinda irritates me. That's just me.

Mark, since recent chat on this site about the strength of Myths and Heroes against other  albums I have started , probably far too late, to think of Fairport as several bands, in many ways unrelated to each other.
Liege and Lief was that fabulous Sandy and RT  band , which lasted 6 months.
Babacombe Lee was that wonderful ,IMHO, Swarb led incarnation and with the arrival of Rosie I lost interest.
85 to 96 was another band and I liked some of the stuff, I am the bloke who really likes Wounded Whale and Tam Lin and Jewel in the Crown (the album) yes I know it became too keyboard led and was on the edge of prog rock but I loved it live , particularly at Cropredy.
97 to present a totally different, gentler , more acoustic band.
So I am starting to compare the present line ups albums to each other and ignore the past. 

I have the same problem, I followed them till 1978, then bought the two cds from 1989/90 and then lost them for a while, when a couple of years ago I started listening to them again I realised the above.
I think the reason is that the sound of the early Fairport is embedded in my brain, but with coming and going of bandmembers it is obvious the sound changes. I just have to adjust my brain (well what's left of it).

Have played the cd now three times and several songs are really growing on me, even the ones I did not like at first.

[RobertD]

One of the things I like about the album is that (acoustic-ish though it may be) there are some actual riffs throughout, and when is the last time you could say there was a truly memorable riff by Fairport? There are also subtle textures that are different than the recent albums, and eliminate the twee as Al points out, not to mention some excellent song choices. I would say the title track, Clear Water, The Gallivant, John Condon, Bring Me Back My Feathers and Fylde Mountain Time are worth the price of admission alone IMHO

[Carl F]

Mark, since recent chat on this site about the strength of Myths and Heroes against other  albums I have started , probably far too late, to think of Fairport as several bands, in many ways unrelated to each other.

...

So I am starting to compare the present line ups albums to each other and ignore the past. 

That seems like an eminently sensible approach to follow in my opinion. When there have been so many disparate versions of the vehicle that we know as Fairport, it is difficult to make a meaningful comparison with what has gone before, and perhaps better (certainly simpler) to compare releases from the current band on the merits of the current line-up alone. Certainly, the current “Chris Leslie” era of Fairport seems quite distinct to the years with Maart that preceded it, and with the “classic” years that preceded that (which themselves saw many distinct variations within a time period no greater than either of the two main post-reformation “eras”!). It avoids a certain amount of hankering for the past, that’s for sure (not that there’s anything wrong with that – I stumble into that particular rut often enough)!

I picked up my copy of the new album at the Birmingham Wintour gig. None of the previously performed new material had particularly grabbed my ear, and I don’t find that the recorded versions of these songs (“Myths and Heroes”, “Bring Me Back My Feathers”) have built on that. I can’t admit to recommending it in as rosy terms as a number of reviewers have done, but I have found the new album to be as pleasing as much of Fairport’s output (recorded and live) over the past decade or so: Perfectly pleasant, satisfying if not outstanding as a whole. There are some outstanding individual tracks that I particularly enjoy – “Clear Water”, "Love at First Sight" and “Home” being the three that I rate most highly, and “The Gallivant” is good fun – but a couple of others that I could happily miss.

Out of the albums of new material that the “Chris Leslie” incarnation of Fairport has released, from “Who Knows Where the Time Goes” onwards, I’d place it about level with “Over the Next Hill” in my personal estimation, which is to say around middle in that particular league table.

[Harbottle (Martin)]

Just listening to the vinyl. So far, I'm enjoying it a lot more than I've enjoyed the band's output of recent years.

 

[Andy Tuck]

I am pleased that I decided to buy it. I seem to be listening to less folk recently and straying back to rock, the stranger the better. But, for what the current lineup do, this is a good album and after three listens it will definitely be staying on my playlist and not collecting dust like some Fairport albums of this period.

In fact I would say it is a good folk rock album and won't disappoint. No it hasn't got the energy of bands like BTP, but then FC are 50 years older.

[iPat]

It's a very good Fairport album: REALLY well recorded by John Gale; a surfeit of good Chris Leslie material; Ric's best composition perhaps ever ("Gallivant"); Simon playing a lot of wonderful electric guitar; and back at Woodworm. The only thing I would have suggested is that Simon sing "Grace and Favour." The album feels a bit out of balance vocal-wise, too much light Leslie vocal sound. He is a wonderful singer, but his voice lacks the depth of Simon's increasingly rich baritone.

[Shane (Skirky)]

The more I listen to it, the more I'm convinced that they missed a trick by not getting Dame Judy in to sing Man in the Water. It's just so her style.  

[Will S]

The more I listen to it, the more I'm convinced that they missed a trick by not getting Dame Judy in to sing Man in the Water. It's just so her style.  

Maybe, and I would like to hear her sing it.  But I think that what lifts that song above the normal already is the vocal arrangement.  I just love it!