TIME HONOURED GHOSTS

I consider Everyone Is Everybody Else to be the pinnacle of Barclay James Harvest's career but the band managed to follow it up by another quality release which is not always a given. I think that Barclay James Harvest did a great job with this release because the band actually built upon the work they've done previously while still exploring some new territory.

Time Honoured Ghosts kicks-off with In My Life which is probably the best rocker that John Lees has ever written. Overall I think that Lees' compositions have a slight advantage here to Les Holroyd's material with the slight exception of the magnificent Moongirl. Woolly Wolstenholme finally gets one of his compositions on the album and although Beyond The Grave is probably the most prog-related composition featured here it falls out with the contrast set by Lees' and Holroyd's work. This is quite strange considering that non of the composers have changed their individual styles but it could be because the orchestrations on their Harvest-albums hid the relatively basic song structures that Lees and Holroyd have always been aiming for.

Although Time Honoured Ghosts may not be a must have album it's definitely one of the highlights in the band's discography.

***** star songs: In My Life (4:39) Titles (3:49) Moongirl (4:51)

**** star songs: Sweet Jesus (3:30) Jonathan (4:45) Beyond The Grave (4:08) Song For You (5:20) Hymn For The Children (3:39) One Night (5:21)