SONGS FROM THE WOOD

Songs From The Wood is a very folky album with lots of nice acoustic tracks, and several heavier songs. Most of the songs are quite catchy and I find most songs very interesting. Anderson's voice is definitely one of a kind, and I think it really fits the album.

The album opens up with the title track. It starts out with only harmony vocals, but soon flute and acoustic guitar will join the jolly vocals. Though the song starts out pretty strange, and I think people will easily dislike it, the song changes into everything you didn't expect of it, a very, very powerful bass riff makes it's entry and the song gets epic. Though the song keeps it's folky vibe, it becomes a fantastic rocking track, really an amazing opener, maybe even the best of the whole album.

Next is "Jack-In-The-Green", an acoustic and very folky track. The song is a very nice one, Ian Anderson's vocals are very nice and the song has a very pleasant ambience. The song does only last two and a half minutes, which does not make it an epic song, but definitely a fun one.

"Cup Of Wonder" is a song in the same style as "Jack-In-The-Green". It's also a very folky song, not just acoustic, as distorted guitar is heard on the background. The song also is more upbeat and the chorus is very catchy. Just as the previous song, it's far from being epic, but it's a very good song nevertheless.

Next is "Hunting Girl", by far the heaviest track on the album. The song starts out with a lengthy intro, a great structural part with lots of organ, guitar and most of all, flute. Martin Barre's guitar in this song is heavily distorted and flanged, it might not be very much in the folk mood of this album, but it gives this song a heavy, raw mood. The song is pretty upbeat and the most striking song on the album, I love it!

"Ring Out, Solstice Bells" is by far the worst track of the album, in fact, it's the only track I dislike. The song is very happy christmas song with lots of annoying claps, I absolutely disgust it.

"Velvet Green" however, is very good. It has lots of medieval influences and is one of the lengthiest tracks of the album. I really like this one, the instruments all are very lovely, they fit the vocals very well and the song knows several nice changes. I can't really say anything bad about this song, but even though that, I don't think it's the best song on the album, it maybe misses the spice of "Hunting Girl" or the power of the title track, it's a fantastic song though.

"The Whistler" is another good track, the vocals are very good, it's pretty epic for a three minute song and there are some nice flute parts in the song. This song really fits in with most of the folky tracks, the biggest difference is that this one is very up-tempo.

"Pibroch (Cap In Hand)" starts out with a lengthy intro, a nice one, but I don't really think it fits with the rest of the songs. The vocal parts are really amazing, this is probably the most epic song on the album, not only because of the vocals, but also because of the lovely middle part. The middle part is very much in the style of "Velvet Green", it gives this song some sort of extra dimension. A really good song, though the intro doesn't really fits with the other songs.

"Fire At Midnight" is just like most of the short songs on this album, a very nice track. "Fire At Midnight" has more distorted guitars than the other short songs and it's a nice ending of this great album.

The bonus tracks of the 2003 remaster are "Beltane", an upbeat rock song, very nice, not fantastic, but a nice bonus track, and an excellent live version of "Velvet Green".

I give Songs From The Wood four stars. It's a fantastic prog album, but I don't think it's essential. If you don't like happy, acoustic folk songs, you shouldn't get this album, but most of the songs are really worth checking out. If you do like progressive folk music and you don't yet own this album, what are you waiting for, get it!