DRAGONFLY / TASTE OF LOVE

If I had to choose just one British folk rock band, my choice would be [The] PENTANGLE. The jazzy touch especially on the terrific rhythm section of Danny Thompson and Terry Cox, the crystal clear vocals of Jacqui McShee who's been compared to Renaissance's Annie Haslam, the finesse of acoustic guitars of John Renbourn and Bert Jansch, the elegance of their own compositions and their arrangements of traditional songs. The band's original -- and finest -- era ended with their sixth studio album Solomon's Seal (1972). Even though the group's success wasn't as strong as before, "Pentangle Split" was the front-page headline of the first issue of Melody Maker of the year 1973; on New Year's Day Bert Jansch had decided to leave the band.

According to Wikipedia, "in the early 1980s, a reunion of the band was planned. By this time, Jansch and Renbourn had re-established their solo careers, McShee had a young family, Thompson was mainly doing session work, and Cox was running a restaurant in Minorca." Pentangle's comeback album Open the Door was released in 1984 or 1985, depending on the sources of information. By the time the album was recorded, John Renbourn had left the band to enroll in a music degree course, and his place was taken by Mike Piggott (guitars and violin). I haven't listened to the album entirely. "It´s less jazzy and bluesy than most of their previous efforts and definitely more folk- rock oriented, but it is also very good", says the PA reviewer Tarcisio Moura. With my narrow view based on playing some songs from YouTube, my reception seems to be be very similar, equally positive. Now to this single featuring two songs from Open the Door.

'Dragonfly' is credited to the group and is immediately recognized as Pentangle. Danny Thompson is definitely among my favourite double bass players ever. Jacqui's voice on this tune is in a slightly lower register than in the old days, but still in a very good shape. The violin as a new element fits perfectly to the sound which still has the jazziness too, at least on this song. One might think of CARAVAN with the viola player Geoffrey Richardson (For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night, 1973).

On 'Taste of Love', sung by Bert Jansch, I sense the similar laid back (country-ish) feeling I have witnessed on Jansch's later solo albums -- that IMHO are far inferior to Pentangle. In other words, it's the rhythm section of Thompson and Cox that makes this one better than Jansch's solo stuff. I'm not a big fan of his voice with a slight Pogues-reminding grittiness. The guitar makes me think of Mark Knopfler, more on his solo albums such as Golden Heart (1996) than on Dire Straits. The song is fairly pleasant but not among the best ones on Open the Door.

3½ stars for this single, rounded down since it's the whole album I'd rather recommend.