Customer Reviews

Solomon's Seal

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I do agree that this is one of their finest Lp's, and a great joy to have at long last on cd,this is generally regarded by most Pentangle fans as a return to form after the slightly dissapointing "Cruel Sister" and "Reflection" albums (the latter did come out on cd on Line records from Germany in the late 80'S ,but is long out of print).Fans are also well advised to check out the fantastic DVD "Captured Live" which catches the band on French Tv in 1972 performing many of "Solomons seal" tunes

This is IMO a 'shouldn't miss' Pentangle album. It's true
it's not as 'jazz exploratory' as some of their early ones
(also all great-- SWEET CHILD is maybe my favorite folk album ever). It continues & in some ways intensifies the 'Appalachian' aspects of REFLECTION, but with slightly rawer sound (well, for Pentangle) & Bert Jansch is featured a bit more here. Jacqui MacShee's singing is terrific too. REFLECTION should also be rereleased-- but this is very welcome after 30 years of oblivion. Only minus-- I wish they'd added some 'alt. takes' or 'archival stuff' as album IS short. Don't be discouraged by some comments/reviews that the group was 'tired out' by this point--true they broke up soon after, but this has great energy I think.

Try the Cherry Tree Carol and Willy O'Winsbury-the purest traditional voice ever-a nightingale pales...
Try this on a full moon snowy evening....

Ever since I sold my vinyl collection back in 1999, I have missed this album. I am thrilled to have it back. Unlike Mr. Weatherby, I regard this as one of Pentangle's best. (Reflections is also great but not yet on cd to the best of my knowledge & I also like the Pentangle albums, albeit with an altered cast of characters, that came out in the 1980s). Sweet Child & Basket of Light were among the records I sold, but I never cared that much for them.
Anyway, the songs on Solomon's Seal are beautifully done. As examples, there's some nice, subtle electric guitar on the opening track, "Sally Free & Easy." "The Snows" includes some recorder & sitar, & "High Germany" some banjo. Fold in Jacqui McShee's terrific voice & it all fits together nicely as a polished example of folk music par excellence. "People on the Highway" is probably worth the price of the cd alone. Buy it!

I have been waiting for this music to become available again for....25 years?? My vinyl album wore out long ago but I have never forgotten the music -- it is truly in the "love it forever" category -- Willie O'Winsbury, Snows, Sally Free and Easy...Jacqui and Bert are brilliant. I am so happy to be able to hear/buy this again -- I'll be ordering several copies!

The Pentangle was an interesting mix of jazz, rock and folk music that had an almost Renisance period sound. Many of the songs they perform on this album are "traditional" folk songs. Interestingly, I got my first copy of the album from a top 40 radio station in Philadelphia. Times have changed.

While I am not particularly a fan of folk music, I always enjoyed this album because of its musical complexities and unusual style. My parents threw out my original copy after I graduated from college. For many years, I searched for this album on CD, but could not find it. Apparently, the master tapes had been lost. Luckily, several years ago I was able to find it on an extremely good piece of vinyl which appeard to have been virtually unplayed, and then "burned" it to CD. Now, they have finally released it on CD.

The Pentangle was formed by respected folk guitarists John Renbourn and Bert Jansch in the late '60s, and relies on the complex interplay of their usually accoustic axes. (The band was formed during a time that James Taylor called the "great folk music scare of the late '60s.") The band features hauntingly pure vocals by the talented Jacqui McShee. This was the sixth and final album by the original Pentangle band members. The album is roughly evenly divided between "traditional" folk songs and compositions by the band. The Pentangle does some "experimentation" using electric guitars and sitar. I highly recommend The Pentangle's first album, which is much jazzier, or Basket of Light on DVD-Audio. In my opinion, this album is not as good as as either of the other two albums, but still contains some fine traditional folk music and is worth having in a folk collection.

On Solomon's Seal, Pentangle sounds less lively than on any of their previous albums, but the songs are still good enough to make it worthwhile. As on Cruel Sister, the band sticks mainly to traditional folk. Also as on Cruel Sister, John Renbourne's electric guitar gives the album more of a folk-rock feel (as opposed to on Reflection, where the electric guitar playing gives the music more of a jazz feel). For the most part, the unclassifiable, not-quite-jazz, not-quite-folk sound of the band's best work is not especially evident here. Danny and Terry, like an acoustic version of The Who's Entwistle and Moon, usually had an amazing knack for sounding simultaneously tight and all over the place, but here they just sound tight and steady. What they play is complex enough to be interesting, but also uncharacteristically repetitive. When they performed these songs live, they were a bit more, well, lively. They were still capable of doing what they did best, but for some reason, they must have toned it down in the studio when they recorded this LP.
The highlights of the album are "The Snows," "People on the Highway," "No Love Is Sorrow," and "Lady of Carlisle." "The Snows" is an eerie song with good use of drums and sitar. "People on the Highway" and "No Love Is Sorrow," are the only original songs on the album, and, like the best Pentangle originals, they have a simple and mysterious quality reminiscent of genuine folk songs. They also both contain excellent harmony vocals by Bert and Jacqui (a combination that was disappointingly absent on Reflection). "Lady of Carlisle" is an odd but upbeat piece of pseudo-Americana that is reminiscent of "Wedding Dress" from Reflection. "Willy o'Winsbury" is a great folk song, but it is too long and repetitive to remain interesting under repeated listenings. Like Fairport Convention, the Pentangle knew how to develop a long folk ballad and make it more musically interesting, but sometimes they were content to play the same pattern for minutes on end.
If Solomon's Seal had been my introduction to the group, I'd have thought that Pentangle were a high-quality mellow folk-rock band. There's nothing wrong with mellow folk-rock. But at their best, Pentangle were not really folk-rock, and were not really that mellow, either.

The CD, "Solomon's Seal" is one of the best produced by Pentangle.
This is a nice collection of British folk music that showcases the flute-like voice of their female singer. All singers did a fantastic job of drawing interest in the 1960--1970 time period to sometimes ancient folk songs. I think that the Queen of England honored Pentangle for their efforts.
Although this group is no longer together, their work still gives a unique and rich expression of vitality to older tunes and lyrics of British history.

I guess I can still call this an album, I bought this as an LP record back in the early 70's while in High School Loved it then as much as now, nice to have a superior audio version compared to anything downloadable, just a bit too much $$$, music worth the sacrifice, enjoy!

I bought this album in 1972. I was (and still am) a big fan of Pentangle, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and Danny Thompson. I saw them live in 1971. I thought back then that Solomon's seal was their best album, although most critics thought the opposite. After 35 years I still think it is their best, most inspired and most mature album. A classic, no doubt.