Customer Reviews

Barclay James Harvest

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A few years ago EMI kindly reissued the four Barclay James Harvest/EMI albums, very nicely remastered and repackaged with a heap of bonus tracks and great liner notes. To give you an idea, everything from track 8 onwards is a bonus track, so there are more bonus tracks than the album itself.

BJH rode the fence between psychedelic music and prog rock but they also had folk influences from the likes of CSNY who were very popular at the time, and the end sound is easy to listen to, very orchestral, and it hasn't really aged disgracefully at all. They've always carried the label of being a "poor man's Moody Blues", but I think they're more soulful and grittier than the MB, they may be a little less commercial but they are probably more interesting!

Chronologically the album is in the wrong other as the bonus tracks mainly consist of singles (or attempts at singles) and peel sessions recorded before the album was made, with Norman Smith at the desk who also did Pink Floyd's early stuff, their stabs at a hit single do sound a bit like early Pink Floyd only polished-up a bit and not so clearly "psychedelic", not derivite though, it's all good stuff. Afterwards they moved on a bit and the sound on the album itself is a bit closer to prog. All this is explained very well in the essay included in the booklet.

It's well worth your time checking these guys out, I couldn't believe that no-one had reviewed this album yet, it's a cracker. All the ressiues are.

Given I first 'discovered' BJH one frosty winter's night when out walking the dog, for on my 'pocket trannie' was BJH live at a BBC session, it seems appropriate that their first album now comes remastered and with BBC sessions I've never heard. To my ears, there are three outstanding tracks here: the deceptively simple melodies of 'Mother Dear' & 'Iron Maiden' whose lush melodies cloak darker, mysterious lyrics, and the epic majesty of the soaringly apocalyptic 'Dark Now My Sky', driven by an orchestral tempest, and John Lees anguished guitar. Two other tracks follow the partnership with orchestra, the melodically driven 'The Sun Will Never Shine' and 'When the World was Woken', but these are weaker lyrically. The remaining two tracks are simple rock numbers, which sit less well in the overall context of the album.

If this were all there were, I'd give four stars, given the excellence of the best bits, but the exciting discovery for me and I'm sure other BJH fans, is the bonus tracks added. Certainly the simply lovely 'Early Morning', 'Poor Wages', 'Mr Sunshine' and 'Brother Thrush' all featured on a BJH album called 'Early Morning Onwards', but even more exciting are the tracks added from BBC sessions. Although a few of these are of variable quality, the majority are worthy additions to the BJH canon, including an orchestra-free version of 'Dark Now My Sky' with different lyrics and melody. If you're a fan, this album is clearly a must-have; if you don't know BJH, but enjoyed Moody Blues, King Crimson or Genesis in the 70's, check out the samples. A quite wonderful surprise.

I really think this band lives or lived up to their other monicker as the Poor Man's Moody Blues. I'll use this lp for an example of how much I really like their music. Yes, you guessed it,I have some of their music on vinyl. I have two import singles on Harvest,Early Morning & Poor Wages. I have the Harvest label lps on vinyl and a few of the Polydor releases as well. I just had to buy this 4 cd box set called Four Barclay James Harvest Originals. This box set has all first 4 lps in mini-lp sleeve versions,and this one as well. A really nice set from Britain. I have a cd of Once Again on Harvest and I believe it is from Germany and a 2 disc set called The Harvest Years with a lot of singles under another name,as well as lp tracks and their regular singles. This first album, in my opinion, is truly a work of talent and one of their masterpieces,of which they have many. I think if you like the group,you will love this album, it is an album of really great talent and I think you will love all of their music as well as this cd. Mockingbird and Good Love Child are fine examples of their ranges in styles. From the melodic to the rockin'.

This Barclay James Harvest album is pretty good, but the songwriting is probably a bit weaker than some will have you believe. "Mother Dear" was influenced by the Moody Blues (you can tell because the lead singer sounds like Justin Hayward) but the songwriting isn't very strong. It's a good hook the tune has going there, but it COULD be even better. "The Iron Maiden" is AWESOME! I love that verse melody and the neat musical arrangements in the background that really elevate the verse melody to a new level of excitement.

"The Sun Will Never Shine" or whatever it's called, is pretty good, but contains a predictable chorus, and a verse melody that sounds like Love (the band that did the popular Forever Changes album). Overall, pretty good, but there's better examples of brilliant pop songwriting out there.