Customer Reviews

Nomadness

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

 

 

Thank God that A&M finally remastered and released this CD. I've had that horrid muddy sounding CD of Nomadness from Australia released by some low quality CD making company called "Progressive Line" Records. Although I do appreciate that they did release the CD that we were all waiting for, but it's been so disappointing because it sounded like a copy from an old cassette tape. I don't even know if it was legally released and A&M just didn't care at the time. It does seem to be a pattern though that crappy movies and CD's come from Australia. Don't they have any quality control over there?

Anyway, I've really taken to love this album all over again. The remastering sounds wonderful (probably because the Progressive Line CD sounded like crap)! You can hear such great detail to the instrumentation separation. For the Strawbs themselves, this is a bluesier, funkier, comical as well as serious, effort on their part. The Strawbs left A&M on a positive note because their next album from Oyster Records just didn't have the progressive sound and variation that "Nomadness" possessed.

If you have the CD from Progressive Line from Australia, get rid of it. Get this new remastered version now. I now have about 20 CD's of the Strawbs. And now I feel that my Strawbs collection is complete. All I want now are the A&M releases of the Hudson-Ford albums. All us Strawbs fans are waiting for these. And maybe a remastered release of Dave Cousins: Two Weeks Last Summer. I have the 2003 release of this CD from SDR Records, but it should be remastered too.

Just got my remastered editions of the first two Strawbs albums as well as this one. Big hands up to Universal UK for finally reissuing and remastering these long lost fan faves. Upon relistening to this set all these many years later (my vinyl was so worn from play it never made it out of my parents' basement!), I can fully appreciate the way Dave Cousins sang, Dave Lambert's guitar versatility, Chas Cronk's engaging bass lines and the way the group interwove their vocal harmonies. To Be Free, the lead off track acquires new sarcasm and slyness. Hanging In The Gallery remains an unsung ballad worthy of being a modern-day classic, while the humor of Back On The Farm and Tokyo Rose showcase a prog-folk band that weren't above poking fun at themselves and their world on occasion. The two bonus tracks are fine additions while the liner notes provide ample details on the group's history and how they got to Nomadness. As stated elsewhere, this was the group's last A&M Records album (they signed to Deep Purple's Oyster Records subsequently), though far from their last. People often dismiss the latter-day stuff, yet do follow up and get Deep Cuts, Burning For You and their latest. No other band crossed so much territory so consistently well and so wonderfully. As for these three latest remastered editions, "it's good to see the sun again..."

PS - While I applaud Universal's decision to finally make these three lost classics available again, I also must give 'em a right kick in the pants for failing to reissue Hudson-Ford's brilliant albums for A&M (Sony should do likewise for the one they have stuffed in a vault somewhere...I know...waiting on a miracle!). Strawbs fans continue to await CD releases for Nickelodeon, Free Spirit and Worlds Collide with baited breath!

It took them long enough to get around to releasing this in a legit CD format (let alone the remaster)..Legal hassles and all, I suppose.

I've been a Strawbs fan since the early days....and have been waiting patiently for this..I needed it to complete my collection.

The sound quality is superb....If you've scored the GHOSTS and HERO CD's....this one falls right in..as far as production quality.

AND..If you like Strawbs...then you'll most likely like this as well...

A word of warning tho......Many Strawbs fans list this as their LEAST favourite album....Me excluded...I always liked it..

Going through the Stawbs reviews, I learned the CD I had was the Australian bootleg! That explains the dropouts and volume level changes throughout the album, and especially Hanging in the Gallery. This new remastered version takes me back to my vinyl days, when all my Strawbs albums were imports. As other reviewers have said, don't think twice, just buy this.

A while ago, I owned 3 LPs for the Strawbs: Hero and Heroine, From the Witchwood, and Nomadness. I am happy they are now available as CDs and now own all three. They are all quite good - I liked the Strawbs and still do. However, I have not found Nomadness quite up to the quality of the other two. While I liked just about all the songs on the other two, I did not care for a few on this one, notably Little Sleepy and Tokyo Rosie. Aside from being a notorious figure during World War II, Tokyo Rose (Rosie) is a silly song at best. Also, while the other two seemed to have a theme that ran through all tracks, Nomadness seems to wander (maybe that is why it is called by this name!).

It is a good CD and there are several outstanding songs like Golden Salamander, Promised Land, and Hanging in the Gallery, and I recommend purchasing it, especailly if you like the Strawbs. However, if you want to own only one or two Strawbs CDs, I would recommend buying Hero and Heroine and From the Witchwood before buying this one.

Love the title. Is it Nomad-ness? Nomadness. No-mad-ness. Nevertheless this is a highly crafted album of Strawbs music post baroque Ghosts: Renaissance. Waited for an affordable reissue/remaster. When this popped onto my radar screen I had to buy it. It is well worth the purchase price.

Did Peter Gabriel ape Dave Cousins or vice versa? This album feels like a post 1974 Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Genesis refry. And Dave Lambert does a good Steve Hackett guitar imitation.

Lacks five stars due to the fact that Peter Gabriel seems to have aped Dave Cousins; And the closeness to Genesis' masterwork: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.

Despite the seeming derivativeness of this last Great Strawbs A&M album; It is highly listenable. And good. Dave Cousin's vocals have that ability to chill you. It is still eviced here. Apparently Genesis's The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway had a more immediate resonance than I thought inferentially writing some 34 years down the pike. Even the bonus tracks are chilling. Is this another Strawbs' concept album?