Search - Barclay James Harvest :: Barclay James Harvest

Brilliant band, brilliant reissue

Harken | Brisbane | 05/30/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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. To give you an idea, everything from track 8 onwards is a bonus track, so there are more bonus tracks than the album itself.



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."