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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Steve Tilston is an accomplished singer-songwriter and guitarist probably best known for having written several songs recorded by Fairport Convention. This is an almost entirely solo album (there's some very understated percussion on the odd track), in which he plays both acoustic guitar and arpeggione. The arpeggione is an extinct form of bowed guitar, which looks like the illegitimate offspring of a guitar and a cello and sounds much more like the latter than the former. I'm not entirely sure why you'd want to go to the considerable trouble of resurrecting this thing, unless you happen to be a very good guitarist who likes the sound of a cello but can't play one. I suspect he's got over it now - no sign of it at the three gigs I've been to, and I don't recall it on the recent (and highly recommended) album Ziggurat either.
Weird instruments aside, this is a fine album. I don't think he knows how to write a bad song, but this set is especially strong. It got heavily plundered for the 2007 box set (four songs included direct, and three more as cover versions), and it's a measure of the strength in depth of the songwriting here that the one I ended up humming after first listen was one of the four Tilston compositions (there are also two interpretations of traditional songs) that didn't make it on to the retrospective: "Never Enough", a gentle reflection on the end of a relationship.
I really don't have anything at all to criticise on the record proper: if you like acoustic singer/guitarists, you really should buy this. I will whine a bit about the packaging: while being told the guitar tuning for each track is no doubt useful for guitarists, I was disappointed not to get any lyrics or song notes, which you do get on Steve's more recent releases on his own label (on the other hand, the gushing intros by Nigel Schofield which are also a feature of the latter are something I certainly can live without!). Aside from the better sound quality, you don't gain much from buying this on CD rather than MP3 - except that I note that the long narrative ballad "The Turncoat", which is the album's centrepiece, isn't available as an MP3, likely on account of its 11-minute running time.
If by some miracle you've managed to wind up here without already owning some of Steve's work, I'd suggest starting with Ziggurat rather than this, if only for the entertainment value of track 2, a theme song for the credit crunch. But of the three other Tilston albums I've acquired (as a fairly recent convert) since the start of 2009, this is my favourite. And it isn't one he seems to carry around to gigs, so you might as well buy it here!
Weird instruments aside, this is a fine album. I don't think he knows how to write a bad song, but this set is especially strong. It got heavily plundered for the 2007 box set (four songs included direct, and three more as cover versions), and it's a measure of the strength in depth of the songwriting here that the one I ended up humming after first listen was one of the four Tilston compositions (there are also two interpretations of traditional songs) that didn't make it on to the retrospective: "Never Enough", a gentle reflection on the end of a relationship.
I really don't have anything at all to criticise on the record proper: if you like acoustic singer/guitarists, you really should buy this. I will whine a bit about the packaging: while being told the guitar tuning for each track is no doubt useful for guitarists, I was disappointed not to get any lyrics or song notes, which you do get on Steve's more recent releases on his own label (on the other hand, the gushing intros by Nigel Schofield which are also a feature of the latter are something I certainly can live without!). Aside from the better sound quality, you don't gain much from buying this on CD rather than MP3 - except that I note that the long narrative ballad "The Turncoat", which is the album's centrepiece, isn't available as an MP3, likely on account of its 11-minute running time.
If by some miracle you've managed to wind up here without already owning some of Steve's work, I'd suggest starting with Ziggurat rather than this, if only for the entertainment value of track 2, a theme song for the credit crunch. But of the three other Tilston albums I've acquired (as a fairly recent convert) since the start of 2009, this is my favourite. And it isn't one he seems to carry around to gigs, so you might as well buy it here!
Format:MP3 Download|Amazon Verified Purchase
Being a proud possessor of 10 albums by Steve Tilston, and listening to music for around 50 years, and in particular a listener of Folk Music for around 40 of those years. I am not a musician but a listener of Music interested in the sound of Music, and its emotional affects. I firmly believe Steve Tilston to be one of the finest of English Folk Music's musicians, singers, and writers. I would buy an album of Steve Tilston singing the BT Phone Book - because I know he could turn it into the sheerest quality imaginable. Solorubato is a very fine album with some extremely accomplished playing and song writing - a recommendation to anyone who is interested in pure music for its own sake, and a writer whom has his finger upon contemporary issues.
Steve Tilston is clearly a genius and always comes up with thought provoking songs, and sublime guitar playing - something that remains with the listener long after the music has finished. Music to me is a deeply personal thing, and any Music that is to be listened by me has to have some deep resonance, any Steve Tilston Music can do this. I myself do not like to single out any specific track in order not to give an impression that the album only consists of one track - instead I am interested in the totality of Music - Steve Tilston fulfils this category - wonderful and breathtaking. Indeed what is particularly important about Steve Tilston is; he is able to inject and illustrate finely irony and pathos in his voice and his playing, important in grabbing the listener's attention - making the Music come alive. I do recommend this album, as with any Steve Tilston album - because this man is a living legend - easily in the vein of other English Folk Music's geniuses. Indeed an Arpeggione is employed in this album, and it is sublime too - giving the Music a very Baroque feel. Wikkipedia say of the Arpeggione:
"The arpeggione is a six-stringed musical instrument, fretted and tuned like a guitar, but bowed like a Cello, and thus similar to the Bass Viola da Gamba. The body shape of the instrument, is however more similar to a Medieval Fiddle than either the Guitar or the Bass Viol."
If anyone has the slightest interest in Baroque Music will know these instruments have a unique sound. Indeed Steve Tilston employs this instrument to superb effect in John Renbourn's Group album "Ship of Fools."
Solorubato is worth investing in - buy it today! Solorubato
Steve Tilston is clearly a genius and always comes up with thought provoking songs, and sublime guitar playing - something that remains with the listener long after the music has finished. Music to me is a deeply personal thing, and any Music that is to be listened by me has to have some deep resonance, any Steve Tilston Music can do this. I myself do not like to single out any specific track in order not to give an impression that the album only consists of one track - instead I am interested in the totality of Music - Steve Tilston fulfils this category - wonderful and breathtaking. Indeed what is particularly important about Steve Tilston is; he is able to inject and illustrate finely irony and pathos in his voice and his playing, important in grabbing the listener's attention - making the Music come alive. I do recommend this album, as with any Steve Tilston album - because this man is a living legend - easily in the vein of other English Folk Music's geniuses. Indeed an Arpeggione is employed in this album, and it is sublime too - giving the Music a very Baroque feel. Wikkipedia say of the Arpeggione:
"The arpeggione is a six-stringed musical instrument, fretted and tuned like a guitar, but bowed like a Cello, and thus similar to the Bass Viola da Gamba. The body shape of the instrument, is however more similar to a Medieval Fiddle than either the Guitar or the Bass Viol."
If anyone has the slightest interest in Baroque Music will know these instruments have a unique sound. Indeed Steve Tilston employs this instrument to superb effect in John Renbourn's Group album "Ship of Fools."
Solorubato is worth investing in - buy it today! Solorubato
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