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[Declaration of Interest: I played guitar on Talis' previous album, and the drum and percussion tracks for this one were recorded at the Mill House. Other than that? I had nothing to do with this, chief :D]
Initial impressions: /nice/ packaging - no jewel case, just a nice gatefold card (I'm assuming it's recycled, since... heck, why would it NOT be?) sleeve with full colour inside and out, and a lyric booklet as well. Minor nitpick that the inside credits are a tad hard to read, but the cover (in the style of a cross-stitch sampler) looks fantastic.
As for the album? Very clean and forward production - Talis' voice is clear, the guitar and bouzouki do their job beautifully (but let's face it, they're not the meat of what you're listening to this album for!), the other instruments (bass, oboe, bassoon, 'cello, whistle, recorder, squeezebox (synth?)) are dotted through the tracks to add a sweetening and leavening of tone colour and melody where needed. Sounds great, not fatiguing to listen to.
What you /are/ listening to this for, let's face it, are the lyrics (which incidentally can be found at http://www.talis.net/songs.htm). But... having said that... the arrangements are there to set off the lyrics. And they do it damn well.
( So let's go through it track by track.... )
Initial impressions: /nice/ packaging - no jewel case, just a nice gatefold card (I'm assuming it's recycled, since... heck, why would it NOT be?) sleeve with full colour inside and out, and a lyric booklet as well. Minor nitpick that the inside credits are a tad hard to read, but the cover (in the style of a cross-stitch sampler) looks fantastic.
As for the album? Very clean and forward production - Talis' voice is clear, the guitar and bouzouki do their job beautifully (but let's face it, they're not the meat of what you're listening to this album for!), the other instruments (bass, oboe, bassoon, 'cello, whistle, recorder, squeezebox (synth?)) are dotted through the tracks to add a sweetening and leavening of tone colour and melody where needed. Sounds great, not fatiguing to listen to.
What you /are/ listening to this for, let's face it, are the lyrics (which incidentally can be found at http://www.talis.net/songs.htm). But... having said that... the arrangements are there to set off the lyrics. And they do it damn well.
( So let's go through it track by track.... )
