COMMONERS CROWN

Steeleye Span's seventh album sees the line up unchanged from that which recorded the wonderful "Now we are six", and substantially the same as the one which came together after the departure of Ashley Hutchings. The title refers to the sleeve illustration which at first appears to simply be a gold crown. Closer inspection however reveals the gold pieces to be thousands of figurines of commoners. Individual figures also appear on the rear sleeve, including six of the band themselves.

Drummer Nigel Pegrum was now fully accepted into the band, and as a result drums appear pretty much throughout the album. This plus the more prevalent rock orientation gives the album a generally heavier feel in relative terms. The songs are of course pretty much all taken from traditional folk sources, but in a trend started with "Now we are six", the progressive tendencies of the band lead to more complex arrangements and more ambitious variations.

The feature track is the 8½ minute "Lord Lankin". While not quite of the same quality as "King Henry", the song has a similar make up. It builds from a soft start to a blustering, dramatic core, fiddle and electric guitar competing for instrumental dominance while the complex vocal arrangement sees Maddy Prior and Tim Hart rising superbly to the challenge. Once again, further unequivocal evidence of Steeleye Span's strong (and inexcusably under-appreciated) influence on what we now know as prog-folk.

Other notable highlights include the opening "Little Sir Hugh", a fine vehicle for the vocal talents of Prior. "Demon lover" is a beautiful ballad-like tale which contrasts soft verses with a highly melodic upbeat chorus. This is one of Steeleye Span's forgotten gems. "Elf call" has one of the heaviest rhythm sections of any Steeleye Span song, although the actual piece is fairly traditional SS material.

The jig track for this album is unique in that it combines with some success a Bach violin piece with a traditional Irish melody. On the other hand, "Dogs and ferrets" continues the trend of adding a (virtually) a-cappella harmony song to each album. The closest we get to the children's songs of "Now we are six" is on "Weary cutters", a harmonic lullaby.

Perhaps the strangest track here is the closing "New York girls" which features Peter Sellars on ukulele and ad-libs. The song is presented as an amusing ditty played dead pan, and on that basis it just about works.

The band's popularity continued to grow with the release of "Commoners crown", and in the UK it became their most successful album to date, peaking just outside the top 20. In retrospect, I would not call this the band's finest album, but it still oozes a quality which others can only wish for. The one thing I would say about "Commoners crown" is that it is less obvious than most Steeleye Span albums, and as such requires a little more effort to get. As such it is not one for the superficial browser.

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