STORMCOCK

Often regarded as ROY HARPER's peak, or at least first summit, "Stormcock" continues in the vein of "Flat Baroque..." in its more straightforward folk song approach, but is much more cohesive with no real filler. The problem with which I'm wrestling is that, while his earlier FolkJokeOpus' best tracks could be appreciated independent of lyrics, here the listener has to offer lip service to the poetic depth, which I suppose could also be considered a strength. I feel like something was lost along with the desperate melodicism of songs like "She's the One".

Harper compensates by embellishing these 4 drawn out pieces with spacey effects like multi tracked vocals and stunningly timed orchestrations, with "The Same Old Rock " and "Me and My Woman" being the consummate examples. A lot of us lovers of prog folk melodrama will cite PERRY LEOPOLD's "Christian Lucifer" as an unjustly buried and perennially obscure prog folk classic, and he was clearly an aficionado of DAVID BEDFORD's orchestrations. Honestly, who wouldn't be?

While the opener and the rather overstated "One Man Rock and Roll Band" are just good, it's the two aforementioned tracks that crow 4 stars over all whispered detractors.

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