GRAVE NEW WORLD

With a few of their best tracks, Grave New World remains today one of the Strawbs most important albums. The first without Rick Wakeman, it features Blue Weaver on keyboards, and he does a good job here (lots of mellotron!). The standout track here, ain my opinion up there in the list of the three best Strawbs songs of all time, is "New World", among the best anti-war songs ever written. But the rest of the album is great too. The two "Hey Little Man" short vignettes are wonderful thoughtful pieces that offer some welcome wisdom, and John Ford's "Heavy Disguise" is a great great song. "Benedictus", "The Flower and the Young Man" and "Queen of Dreams" are all great songs too. The second side of the album is a bit slower, with some filler, such as "On Growing Older" and "Is It Today?", but Tony Hooper's "Ah Me, Ah My" is a huge highlight here, a poignant 1920s-like riff on the feelings of nostalgia. All together, including the filler material, I give this album 8.0 out of 10 on my 10-point scale, which translates to 4 PA stars.

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