Some albums aren’t the greatest
albums in your collection, but they have enough associated memories that you
have a hard time not smiling when you put them on. This next one is one of those.
Disc 469 is…PastPresent
Artist: Clannad
Year of Release: 1989, with music
from 1983-1989
What’s up with the Cover? Oh, folk artists, you really struggle with the cover
art. The ghostly face of a giant woman
haunts a field of some kind of grain (I think).
She looks apprehensive about something – maybe it’s the realization that
the foliage is making her look like she has a beard.
How I Came To Know It: In the eighties, I was a fan of an ITV series on
Robin Hood called “Robin of Sherwood” that ran from 1984-1986. I loved the melodramatic flair of the show,
which starred Michael Praed as Robin of Loxley for the first two years. I thought Praed was the best Robin Hood I’d
seen since Errol Flynn, but at the end of Season Two they killed him off. Spoiler alert – it happens when the Sheriff
of Nottingham finally figures out he can track the thieves through Sherwood
Forest with dogs – who knew? This awkward plot and the loss of Praed to the
series were both genuinely depressing.
When Praed later resurfaced as “Prince Michael” on the insufferable soap
opera “Dynasty” I was even more depressed.
Despite
that hiccup, “Robin of Sherwood” remains one of my favourite tellings of the
Robin Hood legend. I really dug the
theme song “Robin (The Hooded Man)”
which I discovered was by the band Clannad.
Although a famous folk band in the UK, I’d never heard of Clannad at the
time, but I went in search of the CD featuring the music from the show. This was in the days before internet
shopping, and I didn’t find it, but I did find the compilation album,
“PastPresent” that had two of the tracks from the show, “Robin (the Hooded Man)” and “Lady
Marian.”
How It Stacks Up: As long time readers of A Creative Maelstrom will know, I don’t ‘stack up’ compilations
because they are not true albums, but just a collection of singles.
Rating: n/a – ‘best of’ albums aren’t rateable!
“Robin
of Sherwood” was a formative series for me – full of melodrama, honour, derring-do
and feats of heroism, but “PastPresent” sadly did not deliver the same
magic.
“Robin (the Hooded Man)” was a very cool
track, and I still enjoy the odd mix of synthesizer, violins, hints of martial
drumming and a chorus singing “Robin, the
hooded man,” all breathy and mysterious.
However, it has never recaptured the magic present when I heard it sung
over the credits as an impressionable fourteen year old, settling in for an
episode of my favourite show. But I
digress…
Back to
the album, which despite helping open my eyes to a new kind of music, was
overall disappointing. Clannad had been
around since the mid-seventies, but “PastPresent” only covers the period from
1983-1989. Regrettably, by this time
they had drifted quite a ways from traditional Celtic folk and into new age. In the eighties a lot of Celtic/new age
hybrids were infected with the same production values that were wrecking rock
and roll at the time, and Clannad did not escape the trend. The songs are flat and fuzzy in production,
and whereas former band member Enya had gone on to show the wonders of layered
production sound, Clannad’s efforts at it are a mixed bag.
On
up-tempo tracks the sound comes off a bit trite. I expect it is supposed to be anthemic but
songs like “Something to Believe In”
and “Stepping Stone” lose their
resonance with the inclusion of drum machine beats, and the sing-song voice
common to folk vocals doesn’t mesh well with the pop production sounds. Even the brilliant vocals of Maire Brennan
can’t rescue these tracks from the ill-placed saxophone solos.
Also on
the gripe list, this record has sixteen songs, which is two too many for almost
any album. Worse, two of those songs are
“The Hunter” and “World of Difference,” both songs that
are not available anywhere else. Neither
song is particularly good, but beyond that I am infuriated with artists that
promote their compilation albums by adding one or two songs that don’t appear anywhere
else. Fine for someone like me (I only
have two of Clannad’s studio albums) but a slap in the face of fans that have
faithfully bought every release, and are now confronted with buying a bunch of
those songs twice just to get the two they’re missing. At least that’s how it was in the days before
singles could be downloaded, which was definitely the case in 1989. Naughty Clannad!
Despite
these disappointing business decisions, on the album’s softer, more
introspective songs the music arrangements works surprisingly well. This is particularly true for the the traditional
Gaelic tracks. My two favourite songs
are “Coinleach Ghlas an Fhomhair” and
“Buachaill an Eirne” two old folk songs
re-imagined in Clannad’s new sound. The
production on both is very new age, but the melodies are so beautiful they can
survive almost any level of tomfoolery in the studio. In fact, counter-intuitively the ambient
sound that is out of place on the more modern songs works well with these more
traditional numbers. Brennan’s voice
sounds ethereal and otherworldly wise. I
imagine these songs are the sort of thing you’d hear walking through an elven
forest like Lothlorien or Mirkwood.
When I
was much younger I used to suffer from bad bouts of insomnia, and both these
songs were staples in helping me get to sleep.
They filled the room with a calmness that helped quell whatever was
going on in my over-active imagination.
For all of this album’s shortcomings, I owe it for that.
I also
owe it for being a very early album that put me on the path toward Celtic folk
music; a journey I’ve enjoyed now for over twenty years. This record is far from perfect, but it has
its moments, and it has given me a few of my own.
Best tracks: Theme from “Harry’s Game”, Coinleach Ghlas an
Fhomhair, Robin (the Hooded Man), Newgrange, Buachaill an Eirne
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