B

Genre: pop

Rating: *** (3 stars)

Title: Earthspan

Company: Reprise

Catalog: MS-2122

Year: 1972

Country/State: UK

Grade (cover/record): VG / VG+

Comments: cut top right corner

Available: 1

Catalog ID: 6102

Price: $20.00

As you can tell from my other ISB reviews, I'm kind of on the fence with respect to these guys. Their earlier albums attracted me to some extent due to the fact they were just so strange - a totally bizarre and unique mixture of influences and idioms. They weren't always particularly listenable, but they were different. And then you get to 1972's "Earthspan".

- In contrast 'Antoine' was sheer over-the-top pretense ... a plodding, shapeless melody with deep, literate lyrics that would have bored the pants off of an English major. Yech. rating: ** stars

"Earthspan" track listing:

(side 1)

1.) My Father was a Lighthouse Keeper

2.) Antoine

3.) Restless Night

4.) Sunday SOng

5.) Black Jack Davy

(side 2)

1.) Banks of Sweet Italy

2.) The Actor

3.) Moon Hang Low

4.) Sailor and the Dancer

5.) Seagull

At their peak in the late '60s, the Incredible String Band were wildly eclectic and virtually unclassifiable. Their blend of world folk musics and whimsical psychedelia made records like The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion and The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter sometimes deeply enigmatic but always absolutely compelling. By the time of 1972's Earthspan, however, the band was past its innovative prime and losing momentum. The core duo of Robin Williamson and Mike Heron remained in place, although both had already released solo albums and the latter's rock orientation would soon place a strain on the band's creative cohesion; Rose Simpson had left in 1971, with Malcolm Le Maistre joining the group, and Licorice McKechnie would quit after this album.

Earlier ISB records offered listeners a glimpse into a unique, occasionally esoteric world of kaleidoscopic sounds and images; Earthspan is a more mundane, one-dimensional affair. It eschews the non-Western sensibilities and the ethnic instrumentation that distinguished the ISB's most captivating work, instead drawing only on European and American traditions.

Whereas the ornate "Banks of Sweet Italy" and the mournful "Sailor and the Dancer" are nautical folk songs, "Black Jack David" (reprised from I Looked Up) is a hand-clapping bluegrass fiddle stomp, and "Moon Hang Low" a bland pastiche of early jazz. Some of the strongest tracks benefit from an injection of electricity into the predominantly acoustic arrangements: Le Maistre's "My Father Was a Lighthouse Keeper," the bluesy Van Morrison-esque "Restless Night" and the stirring, multi-part "Sunday Song," on which Heron and McKechnie trade vocals throughout the track's shifting moods and tempos. While this is a solid record with some great moments, overall it lacks the mystery, the idiosyncrasy and the degree of eclecticism which originally accounted for the band's singular personality, and instead settles for rather unremarkable folk-rock.

MS 2122 (1972)

[Rating31779337]

3scott3

Dec 03, 2009

koeeoaddi_there

Nov 09, 2009

Back when i first heard this album i thought it was the worst album i had ever heard. All of the exoctic weirdness that made the String Band so great had been replaced by Mike and Robin trying to be "serious" songwriters, while Malcom chimed in with a couple of pretentious songs. Actually Malcolm more than "chimed in" because he is almost just as prominent on this album as his senior partners.

Now, however, I have to say that for all its flaws, I adore this album. Sure its a long way from the Hangman's Beautiful Daughter but in its own little way it's just as bizarre as anything else they recorded.

So as I mentioned, the album sees Mike projecting a new image of him as a "serious" songwriter - check out the new hair-do and the picture of him hunched studiously over some paper on the cover like he's mid composition. No cutsie songs here about caterpillars and hedgehogs from our Mike; no instead we get Antoine, which is all church organ and lyrics about some composer or other (brain fails me - I cant remember who at the moment.), or his bombastic music to Likky's words on Sunday Song. And really, here bombastic is the only word that'll suffice once you've heard those huge drums. Hang on a minute? Huge drums on a String Band song? 'Fraid so, but the song is the longest and weirdest here and if you're able to get over your initial shock upon hearing it for the first time, it reveals itself to be a fine ISB song.

Elsewhere, he resurrects I Looked Up's Black Jack Davy as Black Jack David, much in the same way he resurrected the debut's The Tree on Liquid Acrobat. Unlike that earlier re-recording, Black Jack David is by and large entirely pointless, and sports an underwhelmingly lifeless performance, particularly in relation to the I Looked Up version. His closing Seagull is much better fare, as it's slightly more progressive though it's hard to shake the feeling that it's overtly Scientology themed while its coda seems a tad like a bastardised version of A Very Cellular Song's sing-along fadeout.

Like Mike, Robin tries his hand at some more "serious" and contemporary songs in the jazzy (yes, really - they even boast horn sections) Restless Night and Moon Hang Low. Neither song is particularly great, but his Banks of Sweet Italy is better as it finds him in a more comfortable folk setting. The song itself is rather lovely, though maybe it'd be better if it was in a lower key so it wouldn't have forced Likky to screech like a witch on the verses.

The album also sees the emergence of Malcolm Le Maistre as a songwriter, and his contributions are generally positive, though im not quite sure about the opening My Father Was A Lighthouse Keeper. The problem is the offkey harmonies and the strange mix where the drums seem to be the loudest instrument on the track. The result is rather a bizarre track to with which to open the album, and one which makes it difficult to initially warm to the album. Indeed, that song was the major initial stumbling block for me getting into this album in the first place.

His two other tracks - The Actor and Sailor And The Dancer are much more effective, the latter surprisingly being the strongest track on the album. Perhaps the addition of Oh Did I Love A Dream would have been more welcome than the opening track, but then its mood is similar to that of The Actor which maybe explains its exclusion. Or rather that The Actor was co-written with Robin, so that probably explains its inclusion.

Strangely, given how evenly the writing credits are shared between Mike, Robin and Malc, Likky only contributes the lyrics to one song with her Sunday Song. This begs the question as to why her Secret Temple wasn't included. If you've heard the BBC version on the Across the Airwaves section, you'll know its almost vintage ISB in its weirdness and it's as good, if not better than anything contained on this album. However, if you've heard the unfinished studio outtake on the Tricks of the Senses you'll know that for whatever reason, that version just doesn't quite cut it. Either way, Likky's contribution here is much reduced, which may indicate that she was on her way out or that was her reason for leaving in the first place. Who knows.

So, to sum up most of my comments about individual songs actually seem pretty negative but this album's an odd one because of that fact. There ARE so many flaws with this album, but as a whole its an idiosyncratic one that sees the band trying to do something normal and mainstream, and though they largely succeed there's still something ever so slightly odd about this music. Certainly not as odd as their earlier work, but odd nonetheless, and that to me is the charm of this album. No, the only time that they would ever manage to do something totally straight was on next year's folk-pop No Ruinous Feud album, which is about as different from this as this is from The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter.

MS 2122 (1972)

[Rating6316568]

playing_watten

May 24, 2009

This album is just killer. Not the mystical eccentric pastoral folk people know The ISB for. Complex, gripping and very moving songs on this album. Side A is one of the best ever. Sunday Song is especially remarkable.. sometimes I can't believe its only seven and a half minutes long -- it can feel like you've spent a whole lifetime in the song. Amazing.

MS 2122 (1972)

[Rating22776891]

Altair82

Apr 30, 2007

English

A bit strange seeing a mostly string band entering through the fields of a close, close jazz sound. I felt that in some songs. Examples: Maybe Restless Night and specially in Moon Hang Low.
Coming out of that, for me, is their best album (of those I had the oportunity to listen) the creativity and diversity keeps constructing his way.

Sunday Song continues what they've done in the last song of the referred 71 album.
Just for the first ten seconds of Black Jack David I could bet of which band was all about. It's traditional folk, of course, but it has that touch...
Banks of Sweet Italy is beautiful. Likky's voice, for start, would leave many doubts about it. It's one of those things that make me smile.
The Actor presents an aspect I hadn't listen so far: a picked guitar with a piano in the background. Was it for the new voice (or member) that appears in the album?
Sailor and the Dancer shows that the ISB is not a any band, condemned to oblivion of its time.
A strong 4.

MS 2122 (1972)

[Rating9230908]

ochsfan

Sep 01, 2006

When the ISB remade the song "The Tree" from their debut for inclusion on Liquid Acrobat..., it served to encapsulate how their sound had evolved over the intervening five years. When they remake _I Looked Up_'s "Black Jack Davy" for Earthspan, it sounds rushed, and lacks the earlier spark. Where the various imperfections of earlier ISB albums added to their charm, Earthspan accomplishes a boring perfection.

_Earthspan_ was the group's attempt at "going mainstream", and the album's lead track. "My Father Was a Lighthouse Keeper" was enjoyable, uneventful folk-rock that almost succeeded in redefining their sound towards the sort of plasticity that would foster top-40 success. In attempting to become more radio-friendly, the group has been rendered flat and lifeless.

Part of the problem is the muddy production, which makes the smattering of good material here ("Antione", "Sunday Song") difficult to decipher. Also, both Williamson and LeMaistre seem to have suddenly developed a preoccupation with jazz-influenced material, when they might have been wiser to follow Heron's more rock oriented leanings from the previous album. Even the one song that sounds most like the ISB of old, "Banks of Sweet Italy" can't recapture past glory, as Likky tortures us with the highest notes of her upper register.

_Earthspan_ is the musical equivalent of a caged animal. It exists estranged from its true purpose, resigned to being a shadow of what it might be. Though still beautiful in its own way, its spirit is utterly broken.

MS 2122 (1972)

[Rating6022830]

jordiprog

Dec 15, 2005

One of my favourite albums of all time. Best songs: My father was a lighthouse keeper, Antoine, Banks of sweet Italy, Restless night

MS 2122 (1972)

[Rating3338815]

vitalwill

Jul 11, 2005

This album sees the latest addition to the band Malcolm LeMaistre beginning to assert himself and the band changing to a fundamental bass/drums/guitar sound rather than their customary assortment of acoustic accoutrements and generally thought by ISB purists to have signalled the beginning of their protracted demise. However, the cleverness and quirkiness still shines through and the strength of the narrative voices in the band was glowing.