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| Track list: 1.Níl Sé Ina La (Níl Sé'n La) 2.Thios Chois Na Trá Domh 3.Brian Boru's March 4.Siobhán Ní Dhuibhir 5.An Mhaighdean Mhara 6.Liza 7.An tOileán Úr 8.Mrs. McDermott 9.The Pretty Maid 10.An Pháirc 11.Harvest Home 12.Morning Dew 13.An Bealach Seo 'ta Romham Running time: 43 minutes Released: 1973 |
I don't really recall the wheres or whys of this purchase. Why this Clannad album (and no others)? Why Clannad at all? I can make a guess at the second question - it must have been after I fell in love with the sound of Gaelic folk song from hearing Julie Fowlis - but the first will remain a mystery. I have preconceptions and prejudices going in here, and I suspect that this might not be the most interesting thing I ever hear, but you never know. It packs 13 tracks into the same time that Vangelis used for 8 on The City last time out, so at least it will keep things moving.
We open with a chanted Gaelic vocal over some resonant drumming and with a suitably ethnic sounding string section. It wanders a bit then falls into a bluesy, bassy solo. It really is a very odd track. I rather like the music but the vocal is atrocious. The overall sound is a hodgepodge of weirdness.
What follows is a more traditional Irish folk sound, the strings and vocal harmonies both harking back to rural folk music. I am far from impressed or enchanted with it though. A tinny quality to the sound really dates this record, and the sensibilities are more faux-folk than sounding genuine. It's as inaccessible and bland as the ancient film version of Around the World in 80 Days that I have on silent is utterly awful. I find myself more drawn to the subtitles on the film than the notes on the album though; I should turn it off really.
Track 4 seems to be Scarborough Fair by another name - at least the first melody is straight from that standard. Folk tunes were certainly shared and re-used so I guess that is no great surprise. The number is more agreeable for the familiarity, but I have to say I am not enamoured of the female vocalist at all. There are some less aggravating moments here, but I find myself paying less attention with each passing note. It somehow seems to combine the excesses of 70s rock with a horribly cliched approach to folk. It's all so... ridiculous, stereotypical and off-putting.
We open with a chanted Gaelic vocal over some resonant drumming and with a suitably ethnic sounding string section. It wanders a bit then falls into a bluesy, bassy solo. It really is a very odd track. I rather like the music but the vocal is atrocious. The overall sound is a hodgepodge of weirdness.
What follows is a more traditional Irish folk sound, the strings and vocal harmonies both harking back to rural folk music. I am far from impressed or enchanted with it though. A tinny quality to the sound really dates this record, and the sensibilities are more faux-folk than sounding genuine. It's as inaccessible and bland as the ancient film version of Around the World in 80 Days that I have on silent is utterly awful. I find myself more drawn to the subtitles on the film than the notes on the album though; I should turn it off really.
Track 4 seems to be Scarborough Fair by another name - at least the first melody is straight from that standard. Folk tunes were certainly shared and re-used so I guess that is no great surprise. The number is more agreeable for the familiarity, but I have to say I am not enamoured of the female vocalist at all. There are some less aggravating moments here, but I find myself paying less attention with each passing note. It somehow seems to combine the excesses of 70s rock with a horribly cliched approach to folk. It's all so... ridiculous, stereotypical and off-putting.
The extent to which this mess is dated is quite remarkable. Simple harp tunes like Mrs McDermott are on the better end of the offerings here, but even here there is a twangy quality to the sound that is really hard to like.
The Pretty Maid is actually in English, but the switch of language doesn't help. I have absconded, run out on my duties here... stopped paying attention. None of what I am hearing is engaging me at all. Too bad. Unfortunately not bad in an entertaining way either - it didn't offer me a lot to write about. Repeating the same observations many times does not make for an interesting writing or reading experience, and there isn't anything funny about my dislike of these pieces either. Too cliched is about the size of it. If I didn't already know the date I would have put it as late 60s rather than early 70s, but it has none of the enduring appeal of classics from that age - probably because of the tweeness, and the fact that folk has moved on into more agreeable areas.
Just waiting for it to stop. There. At last.
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