Customer Reviews

Live at the Cambridge Folk Festival

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Track listing is out of sequence. Performance varies from fairly energetic but not exactly rocking, to woozy. I expected something folkier. Snappy take on "The Yip! Song", cute a cappella harmonizing on "Uncorrected". When the band takes on its well-played, medium-slow, shiny, langorous groove, the words don't stand out quite enough, and the music loses me, as is typical in Robyn Hitchcock's post Soft Boys bands; "Globe of Frogs" works with this treatment, the rest is just okay.

While nowhere as good sounding as 1985's "Gotta Let This Hen Out", this unofficial (in that it was a BBC recording, and not released through the band's regular label at the time, A & M) live album recorded in 1992 is still worth owning.

It's a little on the short side, but the band's last two albums, 1991's "Perspex Island" and 1993's "Respect", are well represented, and we also get excellent renditions of "Egyptian Cream" from the band's 1985 debut "Fegmania", and the title track of 1988's "Globe Of Frogs". I however, could have done without the A Cappela "Uncorrected Personality Traits" from Hitchcock's solo album "I Often Dream Of Trains" and would have instead prefered something from one of the band's other albums. I would have also preferred to have a recording of the band at one of their regular shows, as this was an acoustic set.

As mentioned above, the sound isn't as clear and dynamic as on their official 1985 live album, but it sounds decent enough. If anything, it sounds more live because of this.

Note: The track listing on the sleeve is not in the correct order.