CAUGHT IN THE LIGHT

I thought 3 years of rest would have helped the band coming back with another inspired effort, a sense of freshness or even maybe something a little bit different. But sadly, what we have here is the same old BJH. LES HOLROYD starts the show followed by a LEES song which of course is followed by another HOLROYD track an so on and on for a total of 12 songs. If you guess the 2 songwriters wrote 6 tunes each, great news !you are absolutely right.

I am a little bit annoyed writing this review because i think i am starting to repeat myself as the same qualities and the same mistakes which prevailed on all the recent BJH recordings are of course present again here on CAUGHT IN THE LIGHT! As BJH is clowning itself, so am i. Thus i will keep this review shorter than usual.

What do you want me to say? That, yes, LES HOLROYD songs are most of the time dull, generic, always the same plastic synth sounding ballad with no meat as usual? Yes sadly nothing has changed so far. For one good track WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE, we must still endure THE GREAT UNKNOWN or SILVER WINGS, songs it seems we already have heard in the past, the only difference is they had a different name on the albums of the past (i mean 80s).

COPIL ROMANIA is another attempt at writing something like KIEV, but it just only partly succeed because of the ''dramatic'' effects of the vocals. Trying too hard is not always good when sometimes keeping it simple and real is better.Sometimes you can feel the authenticity of an emotion, but when you try to force it, it comes flat.

So there is not much anything new in the world of LES HOLROYD, but would thii time JOHN LEES help to bring some spark again? Sadly , he is not coming with any new masterpieces either. Just when i thought he got it right with his rock songs like the excellent 2 he wrote for WELCOME TO THE SHOW , he drowns again even badly with the ''funny'' SPUD-U-LIKE . One thing for sure, we don't have time to get bored with LEES material as we can always expect something different, be it good or bad as opposed to the colorless blandness of HOLROYD's songs.

KNOYDART is not very inspired either,BACK TO EARTH and FOREVER YESTERDAY at least reach vintage quality LEES level where he brings passion to his compositions by singing his heart out with natural emotion, not fake like Holroyd on COPII ROMANIA. ONCE MORE is a fun nice tribute from John to the emblem song of the band MOCKINGBIRD. I guess John Lees loves all those musical trips to the past.This is one of the highlight of this album. Sadly the last track THE BALLAD OF DENSHAW MILL is not really the expected epic as it clocks as over 9mns. The music doesn't really get adventurous or elaborated as one would have expect. Not bad but a few minutes less wouldn't have hurt this song.

This is another BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST recording repeating the same formula album after album with not too many new surprises . The same Ol', same Ol, same old story! Barclay James Harvest and other short (predictable)stories!!! This is not a great album, this is not bad either as usual! Right in the middle!

2.5 STARS

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