Kip Of The Serenes (Collectors Edition) [CD]

At last, Kip Of The Serenes has been re-issued on cd!

I bought Halcyon Days earlier this year and was delighted with it, and became all the more eager to finally hear Kip Of The Serenes when it transpired that it was to be re-released. For a few years I'd been smitten with Robin Williamson's version of "Strings In The Earth And Air", as performed on his beautiful, wayward solo album Myrrh, and had wanted to track down the original. Well, now I have it, and I am delighted, it is quite as lovely as I pictured. The whole of Kip Of The Serenes is equally great, and I am duly thrilled to own a copy!

From the opening of "Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal" to the last notes of "Donnybrook Fair" I'm in "that pleasant waking dream", and I'm speachless. Some songs have so many layers of subtle complexity to them I'm sure I could appreciate them differently each time I listen indefinately. They clearly had an acute sense for the little details and for how to tell their eccentric stories, unexpectedly baffling the listener by introducing a new tune mid-song, only for it to vanish again, as on the mellifluous "Dark-Haired Lady", when "Goldenhair" by James Joyce is quoted to an unexpected jazzy-Brazilian interlude (I have to wonder if there is any connection between this use of "Goldenhair" and Syd Barrett's, or did both DSS and Syd invent the wheel independently?). They were having a whale of a time making this album and that happy vibe rubs off on the listener.

Beyond the album itself there are four bonus tracks, all worthy additions. I think this version of "Mirror Mirror" is greater still than the very fine one featured on Halcyon Days, and the instrumental version of "Strings In The Earth And Air", in all its fragility, is very charming and acts as a great compliment to the album version.

My expectations for this album were exceeded, and now "Halcyon Days", in relationship to Kip Of the Serenes comes over more as an appendix, which in a sense is what it is.

It often seems that when Doctor Strangely Strange are mentioned, the Incredible String Band come into the conversation, but whilst I am sure that they were inspired by ISB, I think that it's unfair to cast them always in their shadow. To my thinking Kip Of The Serenes is stronger than The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter and 5,000 Spirits, it is possessed of some gorgeous intricate music, lyrics of a higher order, and more charm. Where the ISB on occasion might decay into a stoned stupour, everything on Kip... seems lovingly crafted, with great humour and a theatrical ear for the spell-binding that pays off again and again.

This is one of those albums that I feel an instant affection for, accompanied by an impossible wish that somehow I could turn back the calendar to 1992 and have known it since then, because I would have loved it all these years alongside the two Trees albums that came my way at that time. There's probably some means in the Strangely Strange universe to make that wish real...

Been waiting for this in cd form for ages. Bought the vinyl L.P.on the day it came out years ago. My kind of music/song akin to Incredible String Band although it doesn`t have the power/magic of Robin or Mike (of ISB).
Nice bit of nostalgia!

I love this album and have done since it came out in 1969, hence the 5 stars. However, please be aware when buying it that there is one CD pressing that PLAYS AT THE WRONG SPEED, quite a lot slower than it should! This dodgy version is an early 1990s official release from Island Records numbered 3D CID 1004. So that you can avoid it, here are the correct track times from the 2002 remastered re-release (Progressive Line label PL570), which agree very closely with the timings given on the original vinyl version:
1. Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal ... 4.28
2. Dr Dim and Dr Strange ... 7.33
3. Roy Rodgers ... 5.37
4. Dark Haired Lady ... 4.25
5. On the West Coast Hack ... 2.32
6. A Tale of Two Orphanages ... 3.49
7. Strings in the Earth and Air ... 1.52
8. Ship of Fools ... 6.18
9. Frosty Mornings ... 3.59
10. Donnybrook Fair ... 8.48
Judging from the track listing on Amazon's mp3 download version, at least half the tracks are taken from the version that plays slow. If you get it, you will not be hearing the album as originally recorded.
There's a recent re-issue with bonus tracks that has the correct track timings plus lyrics and extensive sleeve notes Kip Of The Serenes (Collectors Edition). I'd recommend that version of this utterly brilliant, thoroughly enchanting, humorous, surreal, delightful, nostalgia-dripping, psychedelic treat of an album.
Singing: "Oh, I have some things on my mind and they're mostly all the time like cardboard scarecrows on a see-saw, but were I to impart those things I held to heart like fitting pieces to the jigsaw ..."