Audio CD review:
Barclay James Harvest - Their First Album

Barclay James Harvest - Their First Album

Band: Barclay James Harvest Title: Their First Album Rating: Release Date: 2002-06-03 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: Taking Some Time On 2: Mother Dear 3: The Sun Will Never Shine 4: When the World Was Woken 5: Good Love Child 6: The Iron Maiden 7: Dark Now My Sky 8: Early Morning 9: Mister Sunshine 10: So Tomorrow 11: Eden Unobtainable 12: Night 13: Pools of Blue 14: Need You Oh So Bad 15: Small Time Town 16: Dark Now My Sky 17: I Can't Go on Without You - Barclay James Harvest, Wostenholme 18: Eden Unobtainable 19: Poor Wages 20: Brother Thrush

these guys should be more well known, oh yes they should "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. This Barclay James Harvest album is pretty good, but the songwriting is probably a bit weaker than some will have you believe. 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. . Brilliant band, brilliant reissue To give you an idea, everything from track 8 onwards is a bonus track, so there are more bonus tracks than the album itself. 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. 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. You can see a complete list of all Barclay James Harvest discography, or go back to the Barclay James Harvest tabs