Mellstock Band.

I must emphasize right up-front that despite the rather dry (though perfecltly appropriate) title, this is an album for the general listener, and not just for those familiar with Hardy's work, though I pity those who may not yet know it. In my house it is a favourite: at its best spirited, and inevitably illuminating to lovers of Hardy's writing. Unfortunately it is disfigured by a couple of things, one of which can be managed, the other of which probably cannot. As with entirely too many albums, this was put together with no sense of structure (emotional, textural, or poetic) making it extremely and unnecessarily demanding for an attentive listener to enjoy from beginning to end. Those adept at programming a CD player can probably work around this, but after all these years I have yet to make my peace with the technology, and so . . . . Now as to the other problem, the Mellstock singers have the sad, even contemptible mis-assumption that singing downright badly makes a song seems somehow more authentic, more rustic, more old-timey. This is an insult to the music, to the listener, to the entire tradition of folk performance, and ultimately to these singers themselves, who continually demonstrate that they can, at their best, sing very well indeed. Cases in point, Sally Dexter's downright abrasive Track 6, "The Spotted cow", and Track 19, her "Banks of Allan Water" as against the clear and spirited work of Ian Giles in "I Have parks" and "Queen Eleanor's confession". The instrumental work, however, is first-rate throughout. Even with these reservations, It is well worth more than a few hearings.… (meer)