BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: BABY JAMES HARVEST (1972)
1) Crazy (Over You); 2) Delph
Town Mom; 3) Summer Soldier; 4) Thank You; 5) One Hundred Thousand Smiles; 6)
Moonwater.
I used to think this was a «bad» album, and a
real downer of a closer for the first and best period of BJH's presence on the
scene. But a more just and balanced look would rather suggest that this is
merely a «problematic» album, one that reflects pressure on the band from
within (creative bickerings — something that inevitably creeps up when almost
everybody in the band writes his own material) and without (apparently, some or all of them were exhausted from
touring). And when Barclay James Harvest have problems, they don't beat around
the bush: they simply fall back upon their influences and become even more
derivative than usual, which is their own trademark way of being «uninspired».
The first «problem» is the name of the album
itself — clearly alluding to Sweet Baby
James. Not a smart move: it's bad enough to make a pun on a James Taylor
album if you are going to make
something that sounds like a James Taylor album — it is completely
incomprehensible if you are not going
to make anything that sounds like one. At best, the album opener ʽCrazy (Over
You)ʼ may be said to sound like Crosby, Stills & Nash — in fact, it does sound very much like Crosby's ʽLong
Time Goneʼ in its chorus — but overall, it wobbles between art-pop and progressive
structures, never truly attempting to toy with the «California sound» or any
other introspective schools of soft rock. And the wobbling seems a bit out of
control.
The album returns to epic format: side A is
dominated by Lees' anti-war suite ʽSummer Soldierʼ, and side B is ruled by
Wolstenholme's orchestral suite ʽMoonwaterʼ — apparently, the two were recorded
separately, with Lees and the rest of the band working in Stockport while
Woolly was rearranging the different pieces of the «Barclay James Harvest
Orchestra» in London. The former is decently sewn together, and features at
least one highly memorable «symphonic guitar» theme in the middle, one that
probably wouldn't be refused by a Steve Howe — however, on the whole it just
doesn't have enough muscle to convey the anti-war sentiment properly (and the
straightforward lyrics with their rally-like structure and clichéd imagery do not
help much). The track's heavy use of sound effects at the beginning, with
church bells, marching feet, gunfire, and looped tapes of "kill, kill,
kill", may have been inspired by ʽThe Unknown Soldierʼ — but as far as my
nerve centers are concerned, the Doors achieved much, much more over that
song's three and a half minutes than Lees does here in ten.
That said, the Lees opus is still enjoyable and
mildly touching, which is far more than could be said of ʽMoonwaterʼ — who on
Earth wants to hear Woolly Wolstenholme do a straightforward Mahler tribute,
particularly if (as usual) it comes out sounding like Max Steiner instead? This
is neither proper Barclay James Harvest, nor proper progressive rock: just a
lot of romantic melodrama, aping late 19th / early 20th century masters
without any major purpose.
Of the remaining songs, ʽDelph Town Momʼ is
pleasant, well orchestrated folk-rock with a jazz streak; ʽThank Youʼ is a pleasant,
upbeat rocker combining elements of «power pop» with a brawny «pub» attitude,
although its repetitive looped riff is promoted a bit too heavily; and ʽOne Hundred Thousand Smiles Outʼ is a rather
strange tribute to ʽSpace Oddityʼ and ʽRocket Manʼ at the same time (the
freshly released ʽRocket Manʼ must have been the stimulus, but "can you
hear me there below?" is way too similar to "can you hear me major
Tom?" to be a coincidence — granted, Les Holroyd's singing is also at
times highly reminiscent of Lennon's style, so the song is a real crazy
mishmash of influences).
Overall, except for ʽMoonwaterʼ, which is
simply an important-sounding waste of time, each of the songs has something to
offer for the not-too-demanding art-pop lover. The album's major problem is
that the band is once again short on genuine creativity — for their self-titled
debut, this could be excused, but now that they had almost begun coming into a
style of their own on Short Stories,
Baby James looks «regressive» in
comparison: solid if judged exclusively on its own merits (and ultimately deserving
of a skeptical thumbs
up), but somewhat disappointing when viewed in context.
Check "Baby James Harvest" (MP3) on Amazon
George: You have been way nicer to Barclay James Harvest than I could be. I just finished finally getting thru all of their HARVEST YEARS best-of, which covers their 1st 4 albums you reviewed here -- & most of it was pretty bad. Occasional good songs -- "Mocking Bird," "Brother Thrush," "Taking Some Time On," "Ursula" -- but most of it sucked. They had some talent, but not too many ideas, & most of the time they just weren't very inspired, as you said. There was a time I could've appreciated something like "Dark Now My Sky" just for the outrage of it ... but I'm not 16 anymore.
ReplyDeleteI think there are some bright spots in their later albums ("Ring of Changes," "Hymn," "Poor Man's Moody Blues," "Spirit on the Water," etc.), but those later albums are also wildly uneven.
Anyway, hope you continue with the BJH reviews, & it's nice to find your blog. I'd read a lot at your old website after seeing your comments at Mark Prindle's Reviews, & it's good to see you're still at it. Keep up the great work....