review by thomas

This is not a successful follow-upper to the sometimes brilliant ”Below the Salt”, on this album real drums are introduced on some occasions in the sound, as well as a rockier approach. Especially the electric guitars are turned up real loud. This is not the reason the album fails; because there are obvious evidences of songs were it all works out fine. The electrifying “Alison Gross” and “The Wee Wee Man” are good examples. The former ends with so much feedback and distortion you’d think it’s Hendrix or Jimmy Page playing, the latter – while a good electric rock track in itself – suffers enormously from the bands decision of repeating the chorus “His beard was long and white as a swan/His robe was neither green or grey/He clapped his hands – down came the mist…” every other second. Other songs as “One Misty Moisty Morning” and, although to a lesser degree, “Alison Gross” also suffer from this. “Rogues In a Nation” is a shot at repeating the grandiosity of last year’s “Gaudete”. It doesn’t make it that far but it’s a good try, though it’s too long. “Robbery With Violins” is a good instrumental, the name says it all. The mystic and enchanting “Cam Ye O’er Frae France” is the real masterpiece on the album (in fact the only one). It’s largely build on Prior’s amazing vocal performance, which is very complicated and trying. Songs like “The Ups and Downs” and “Hares on the Mountain” are especially disappointing, they are just so lame and silly. Some tracks don’t do anything at all, this seems to be because the band is clearly in the phase of forsake the “Below the Salt” and earlier album sounds for the future “folk-commercial” sound of “All Around My Hat”. The band at this time seems very confused at just what they wanted. Alright, so this album isn’t on pair with “Below the Salt”, but it isn’t as bad as it seems on comparison to that album. It is in the shadow of “Salt” but on it’s own it’s a decent album.