THINK OF TOMORROW

Another fine efford by The Pentangle after they return in the 80's. This time Rod Clements had gone and his place was taken by excellent guitarrist Peter Kirtley. This time around the band wrote together all the songs but three tracks, all of them traditional ones arranged by the group. The overall sound is melodic, laid back and tasteful. They ressemble little of that mostly acoustic band of the late 60's and 70's that played a mix of folk, blues and jazz. Their music now is more accessible british folk rock.

There are no fillers and the best features on this CD are the excellent guitars parts (even if they are quite subtle) and Jaqui McShee's beautiful voice. Her singing reminds of a mix of Joan Baez and Annie Haslam (Renaissance). The production is good and this definitly a team efford, with no ego trips anywhere. The best tracks are the beautiful arrangement they made for The Toss Of Golden Hair and Bonny Boy, plus the opener O'er The Lonely Mountain and The Storyteller.

Not much of a prog as we know it, but great music anyway, done by musicians that have nothing to prove. It's all for the sake of the songs. Great CD! 3,5 stars in PA (i'd give it 4 or 5, if this was a folk rock site).

While at this point it was clear that PENTANGLE solo projects were the priority of the group's constituents, "Think of Tomorrow" does mark an improvement over the drab "So Early in the Spring" that appeared a year before. The monotonous and "oh so cool" acoustic blues numbers are still around but tempered by a more earth centered spiritual vibe that some might call new age.

The new approach is introduced immediately on "Over the Lonely Mountain", a lovely languid tune about the destruction of our fellow flora and fauna. "Share a Dream" toes the line between a schmaltzy 1990s CLANNAD and a LINDA THOMPSON ballad and ends up more impressive than either, even if "Ever Yes Never No" and "Colour my Paintbook" are cloying. "Straight Ahead" is an uptempo acoustic instrumental that better incorporates the blues and jazz influences than most of the vocal numbers in that style. "A Toss of Golden Hair" and "The Bonny Boy" actually resuscitate these trad tunes better than analogous attempts on the prior couple of disks, thanks to a new found groove that imparts a certain late 20th century ambiance.

Nothing too exciting here, just a modern folk album with most of its progressive aspects emanating from the group members' jazz and blues backgrounds, and a more contemporary take on the future of music and our planet.

Baby, now it's over?

Out of the five albums that the re-united Pentangle produced since their return to the music business in 1984, Think Of Tomorrow is the least interesting to my ears. The opening track sets the mood, which is slow, lazy, and lacking in energy. I miss the rockier side they showcased on the other albums from this period. What they did in the 80's and 90's is generally electrified and a much rockier affair with a broader instrumental palette than anything they did in the 60's and 70's. I might be quite alone in my opinion, but I definitely prefer the more recent incarnation(s) of Pentangle over the early incarnation. Put the present album is rather weak in comparison with 1984's Open The Door and 1993's One More Road, for example.

Those who enjoy Folk Rock in general, and likes bands such as Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, will be well advised to check out Pentangle's 80's and 90's output, but make sure you don't start with the present album.

Six of one, or a half dozen of the other.

Think Of Tomorrow, a 1991 offering from the reconstituted Pentangle, was recorded for the German Hypertension label in, literally, a rush due some bizarre disturbances with airline booking due the quickly escalating Gulf War and the fact that band was caught off guard by the Hypertension's sudden offer to record the group, which resulted in the group not having quite a full album's worth of material to record.

Lead guitar duties were taken up by Bert Jansch's friend Peter Kirtley, a finger style electric blues guitarist, with Nigel Portman Smith and Gerry Conway returning on bass and drums respectively.

What gives most of this material a kick is that Jansch, having fully recovered from alcoholism, was writing some of the best songs of his storied career was combining themes of ecological demise along feeling relationships and combining them with music that sported brilliant melodies.

Standouts include the album's first four songs which display vintage Jansch songwriting such as O'er The Lonely Mountain, Baby It's Over, Share A Dream, and The Storyteller (Paddy's Song). Jaqui Mcshee sings beautifully in a more 'breathy' vocal style and still has great vocal range to match her penchant infuse this material with emotion without sounding cloying.

Kirtley supplies the gritty blues number Meat On The Bone, which would not sound out of place on a Chris Rea album, and the band follows with a composition Ever Yes, Ever Know, which sounds like one the better tracks on Renaissance's Asure D'or album from 1979. Good Stuff.

Unfortunately, the group resort to traditional material such as The Lark In The Clear Air and The Bonny Boy (a Jansch reworking of the trad. song The Trees They Do Grow High), as well a trite pop rock original titled Color My Paint Book, in order to fill up album space which unfortunately puts a damper to the album's last five tracks.

However, when the music on Think Of Tomorrow is good, it's very good. 3 stars.