Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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84 of 86 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A timely reissue of a timeless album, 23 Sep 2004
Fotheringay's sole album was another one of those British folk-rock classics which had become almost impossible to locate on CD so top marks to Fledgling Records for finally making this album widely available again.I'm guessing that you know that Fotheringay were the band that Sandy Denny formed after leaving Fairport Convention. Presumably she was unhappy with the band's forays into pure traditional music since 'Fotheringay' sounds a lot like 'Unhalfbricking'. The music is beautifully mellow and dominated by Sandy's crystal-clear singing and Jerry Donahue's tasteful, understated and skilful guitar playing. The album includes two of Sandy's finest compositions, 'The Sea' and 'Nothing More'. The former, in particular, is a masterful performance. There is also a traditional song, 'Banks Of The Nile', one of those slow ballads that suited Sandy's voice so well. However, not everything on the album is so good. Sandy's then-boyfriend, later husband, Trevor Lucas was given high prominence and two of his tracks, a rather indifferent Bob Dylan cover and the self-penned 'Ballad Of Ned Kelly' bring the standard right down. The latter, released on single to coincide with with the execrable Mick Jagger movie, is an absolute stinker, in fact. Having said this, the Lucas / Denny composition 'Peace In The End' is a great number in a hippy-singalong sort of way and Lucas's brooding reading of the Gordon Lightfoot song 'The Way That I Feel' is, to me, the highlight of the album. This is quite a decent reissue, better than the old Hannibal one. The booklet is the usual high quality production that you expect from Phil Smee with some great photos and memorabilia but, surprisingly, no history. The live bonus tracks are a welcome surprise, although the recording quality is not the best. It is particularly interesting to hear 'Two Weeks Last Summer', a Dave Cousins song dating from Sandy's days with The Strawbs. I was a bit annoyed that they didn't include 'Late November', a song from a never-finished second album which appeared on an Island sampler called 'El Pea' (and various Sandy compilations since), as that would have finished the package off nicely. Finally, the sound quality is good enough, but far from audiophile with hiss noticeable in some of the quieter moments. Perhaps the CD was mastered from a vinyl copy. 'Fotheringay' is a quite excellent album and the absolute highlight of Sandy's post-Fairport career. I recommend this unreservedly.
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23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Phew What a Corker., 10 May 2007
I bought this album, finally, having pretty much exhausted all other Sandy Denny sources. I certainly wish I'd found it sooner.
If, like me, you are a fan of the Fairport Convention at their "What We Did On Our Holidays" and "Unhalfbricking" stage, then you will be mightily pleased with this album. In fact I would go so far as to say, that while it doesn't quite match up in terms of overall quality to the aforementioned albums, in terms of the Sandy Denny contributions, it may be that there is a greater concentration of superb material than can be found anywhere else (outside, perhaps, of a compilation album).
Sandy takes the lead on most of the songs (as you would both hope and expect) and the ones sung by Trevor Lucas suffer by comparison but are not terrible. One odd thing is that on some of the tracks the guitar playing is so like that of Richard Thompson's that I found myself pouring over the CD booklet to see if he was there as a guest performer(he was not).
The sound quality is in keeping with what you would expect of the era and the presence of hiss in some parts may actually indicate the absence of excessive noise filtering, which can have a deadening effect on the sound, rather than mastering from vinyl(as a previous reviewer suggested).
This is an excellent album and a must for anyone with an interest in Sandy Denny's music, and indeed, high quality music of the era.
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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
They're not THAT bad..., 9 April 2006
I really can't add anything to the excellent review above. Fotheringay is the sort of album you'd want to be buried with so you could listen to it in the afterlife.
However, I wouldn't be as harsh as the previous reviewer. Yes, the Dylan cover is a little flat, but not disastrously so. And I don't think Ned Kelly is a stinker at all. I'd say Lucas was trying to hit the same note of gravitas as, say, Levon Helm on The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. I think, vocally at least, he pulls it off, though the guitar does grate a little.
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