Cogs, Wheels And Lovers [CD]

Cogs, Wheels and Lovers is Steeleye Span's 21st studio album in 40 years. That's not bad going really. With a lot of bands that stay around for that long you generally come across signs of wear and tear. Steeleye have admittedly had difficult periods, but they are well and truly in the past as this album demonstrates.

The Gallant Frigate Amphitrite is as good as any opening track the band's done. Driving and rocky, it has something of Van Diemen's Land about it as they both talk about journeys by sea. There's some fantastic drum work courtesy of Liam Genockey and the intruments all fit in fantastically. The second track, Locks and Bolts, Is a lovely soft number and is pretty typical of the sound that Steeleye have developed since They Called Her Babylon in 2004.

Creeping Jane is up-tempo and fun song about a racing pony (if you remember Skewball from Ten Man Mop, this song is in a similar vain). It uses a similar formula to All Around My Hat: 12/8 time with a harmony chorus with Peter's violin, Rick's bass and Ken's guitar all complimenting Maddy's singing well (even with a quick guitar solo from Ken at the end!). Just as the Tide is a wonderful song about a sailor and his love, and really ought to be a classic.

My favourite track on the album is probably Ranzo, an almost American-sounding sea shanty. It's a fantastic arrangement by Peter Knight, featuring only a clap-track, pizzicato violin and harmony vocals. It's a brilliant sound that I'm not sure I've ever heard from Steeleye before. It's short (just under 3 minutes long), but it really shows Peter's ability and versatilaty as an arranger (check out Gigspanner if you haven't already).

The Machiner's song is equally interesting: it gives us an introduction and percussion line of machine noises. The vocals are quick and tell the story of a normal day's work as a machiner, and then it literally grinds to a halt at the end of the song. Our Captain Cried is a slightly melancholy song, set to the tune of "To Be A Pilgrim", the same tune used for the chorus of Fighting for Strangers. A similar live song coupled with Margold/Harvest Home was included on the compilation, A Rare Collection.

Two Constant Lovers is probably my other favourite song on the album. It's almost Dark-Eyed Sailor-esque, but with a different, much sadder ending. This is another of Peter's songs, and he handles it very well. This is followed by the much more up-beat Madam, Will You Walk?. It's pretty much the London of this album, with effetively the same formula as Creeping Jane. It's a good singalong number which listeners will probably recognize it from this year's tours with Pete Zorn.

The Unqiet Grave is similar (but slightly different) to Tim Harries' One True Love, except in this case the protagonist's love speaks to her. The introduction and instrumental breaks are billiantly haunting, especially Peter's violin. Thornaby Woods is a bouncy song with a very interesting arrangement with very quick vocals that take some careful listening to work out! There's also a hidden track which a quick internet search tells me is called Selkie or The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry, to give it its full title. It's a beautiful yet sad song about a Selkie who reveals to a woman that he is the father of her child, who then says he will come and the child from her. It's every bit like Betsy Bell and Mary Gray; a duet by Maddy and Peter featuring fantastic singing and fiddle work.

This album is fantastic. Maddy and Peter have truly owned it. The album is very much theirs, in the same sense that Bedlam Born was Tim's album. The only slight criticism I can make of the album is that it would have been nice if Ken and Rick had each done a song of their own. Other than that, there isn't a track I don't like, and there's plenty to keep any Steeleye fan going.

Oh, and just a PS, as Amazon haven't done it, here is the track list:

1. Gallant Frigate Amphitrite
2. Locks and Bolts
3. Creeping Jane
4. Just as the Tide
5. Ranzo
6. The Machiner's Song
7. Our Captain Cried
8. Two Constant Lovers
9. Madam will you Walk
10. The Unquiet Grave
11. Thornaby Woods
12. The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry

Steeleye Span on top form, Maddy in great voice. I'd take respectful exception to the last reviewer's assertion that "Our Captain Cried ..." takes its tune from Bunyan's "To Be a Pilgrim". I think the direction of tune transit may be in the opposite direction. Mr. Vaughan WIlliams could probably elucidate, if he were still alive!

Joking aside, this is brilliant. I wondered how the famously irregular "Creeping Jane" (time signature 1:1) would fare under the Steeleye regime. It gets the full "All Around my Hat" Treatment and it makes better sense here than it did then, evoking the gallop of a racehorse, as per the subject matter. It's lovely to hear "Just as the Tide ..." getting an airing and I love the quirky "Ranzo", so different from Kate Rusby's wispily lovely version and also from the usual bellowed, testosterone-charged shanty-version.

I was narked by the Guardian's comment in a review of this CD that "... (Steeleye) can't look back to a legendary lineup involving Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson". I would have thought that Maddy Prior and Martin Carthy, not to say Ashley Hutchings and John Kirkpatrick, would count fairly heavily on the credentials scales. I would also class The Grauniad's "...may not have the historic appeal of those other great British folk-rock pioneers Fairport Convention" as a load of spherical objects.

Go and buy this. You know you want to.

This is the sound of a band who have come to an uncommon understanding of their true strengths, Maddy Prior is in excellent voice and the songs, arrangements and production are as good as Steeleye Span have ever had. Fans can argue about the merits of this album in comparison to their past glories but if anyone was looking for better than this at this stage in their career is kidding themselves this is a damned fine incarnation of this band, Peter Knight is on great form on Fidddle and Rick Kemp's bass has none of the rather plodding feel that became the Steeleye Span sound around the Mike Batt production era.

They one great thing that is so obvious here it that they have developed a much stronger understanding of the need for musicality in the songs. Sometimes in the past the story telling element of the songs had too much emphasis and while the songs have very strong narrative structure the sound of the music is given much more attention and so much better an album this is for that. I have always loved this band, since seeing them in the Caird Hall, Dundee when they were promoting Below the Salt. After that concert my brother bought that album and I bought Please to See the King and I have followed then since, off and on. This is a really welcome album and fans will not be disappointed