COMMONERS CROWN

Although less well known as the previous more commercial successful All Around My hat and Now We Are Six, Commoner´s Crown is one of their best ever releases, where they seemed more confortable with the rocking arrangements than before. It is a more well balanced album than Now We Are Six, for exemple. They did a great job combining their traditional roots with the electric instrumentation this time. The big surprise is the presence of famous comedy actor Peter playing ukelele on New York Girls (and also doing some ad lib goon comments to it. It made a funny ending note for the album).

There are some outstanding stuff here, Like the opener Little Sir Hugh, Long Larkin (the most progressive and the strongest cut) and a fine version of Demon Lover (drummer Nigel Pegrum adding a nice flute). As ever the main atraction here is Maddy Prior´s distinctive, beautiful voice, but the playing is also of note, with some of their best performances ever. The right production helped a lot to bring out their stunning musicianship and the very well sung backing vocals. The cover was another well done affir (it even won them a prize).

One of their last truly great albums. 4 stars.