TWO WEEKS LAST SUMMER

Released in only a few European countries (excluding the U.K. and the U.S) when the album Blue Angel first came out in 1972, it was because the album truly had all the hallmarks of a Dave Cousins solo album at that time. The contemporary Strawbs album released with great success at that time was the U.K. hit producing Bursting At The Seams. BatS was vitrually chock full of clever catchy tunes from Tears and Pavin, Part of The Union, Laydown and the mega progressive Down By The Sea.

By comparison, Two Weeks Last Summer seams restrained and very individualistic with Cousins accompanying himself solely on piano on several tracks (who knew he could play?) and woodwind accompaniment on another song (with an instrumental intro) The World/That's The Way it Ends. Cousins' first ever outing of October To May was done completely acapella. While his voice was still vibrant and charming at this point in his career, these songs simply fall short as symphonic prog.

Where Cousins does excel is in the heavy prog of the three suite title track that utilizes some heavier than usual lead electric guitar from guest player Millar Anderson, who makes the track sound more interesting and dramatic than it actually is. The lack of a mellotron is surely a missing asset (compare this with the live 40th Anniversary Edition featuring Blue Weaver's mellotron magic.) It's not a bad prog song, but it palls in comparison with Cousins' future three suite masterpieces such as Autumn, Ghosts and the now properly sequenced The River/Down By Sea on the CD reissues of Bursting at the Seams.

Unfortunately, the straight up rock song The Actor is ruined by Cousins' use of annoying oscillating vocal manipulation on the songs verses, which renders the lyrics indecipherable.

Two Weeks Last Summer is not a bad album but it got the limited reception that it actually deserved due to a majority of the song's simply not being up to snuff. Which really is a shame as the album is well produced and sounds great. 3 stars as it's the only Dave Cousins solo album that actually contains new material and not make overs (save We'll Meet Again Sometime), as has been his want since releasing solo albums since 1980.

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