Search - Claire Hamill :: Love in the Afternoon

An undiscovered gem

I H SMITH | Bedfordshire United Kingdom | 07/18/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Claire Hamill has been around on the UK Folk scene since 1971,but has yet to escape her 'cult' status and achieve a broad public acceptance,which is a great pity.This Album was recorded in 1988 hard on the heels of her critically acclaimed all-vocal work,'Voices'. It opens with her snappy folk ballad,Glastonbury;a homage to the festival.It's an immediately catchy,memorable song,but Hamill doesn't believe in letting her audience get complacent;'Japanese lullaby' which follows is an equally memorable but much starker and colder piece.This is succeeded by 'the Crossing',a harking back to the layered vocal tracks of her previous album,and easily on a par with them.Each succesive song offers something different;from the sensual and yearning 'Calling to you' to the tender title track. Only 'Horses' is a bit of a let-down.A cliched piece that equates wild horses with freedom;something that was 20 years out of date when the song was written! Aside from that,this is an album of constant delight.Ballads,Folk songs,Instrumental Tone Poems..they're all here,waiting to be discovered."