Unhalfbricking is the third album from Fairport Convention a British folk rock band. I am not the biggest fan of folk music, but i have come to appreciate some of it. Unfortunately, I hate Sandy Denny’s vocals. It is too much like Joan Baez’s voice. My head was hurting as I listened to her singing. I noticed this group has two albums in 1969 in the list, Liege & Lief is their fourth album, so I moved it from its original position #170 to #164. I will review them together.
The band lost their drummer Martin Lamble due to a motorway accident before the album was released.
“A Sailor’s Life” is the one song that sounds decent, but it is more for the musical aspect than Denny’s voice. It starts slow, but builds into a great sounding song. I actually like this song, but I wish someone else did the vocals. Maybe if I listen to it more, then I can ignore or come to like her vocals in this one song.
“Who Knows Where the Time Goes?” has Denny singing lead again, but this is not as airy, so in like it better. The star of this band is the music. They are great musicians.
The last two songs were written by Bob Dylan. Dylan did not release “Percy’s Song” nor “Million Dollar Bash” until years later.
As for Liege & Lief, I thought it lacked imagination compared to Unhalfbricking. Denny left the band because they did not want to do more of their own songs. I agree with her because it is always better to create your own voice than to sing covers. Their successful song was written by her. Only one song “Farewell, Farewell” stuck out from the rest of the album.
Before this album was released they lost two members, Denny and founding member and bass player Ashley Hutchings, due to differences.
Unhalfbricking: 6/10 for creativity and musicianship. Liege & Lief: 3/10 for boredom and lack of creativity.
an ocean roars 