Search - Dave Cousins, Conny Conrad :: High Seas

Best Strawbs album that isn't a Strawbs album

W. Schmidt | Beaverton, Oregon USA | 08/08/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Having no idea who Conny Conrad was I never got around to this until now, despite being a big fan of the Strawbs and Dave Cousins. I figured it was an acoustic folk collaboration. Man, did my jaw drop when the first track, Call to Arms, came on. This is the heaviest, proggiest song that Cousins has been involved with since the Strawbs days of HERO AND HERIONE and GHOSTS. Right down to the mellotron (or damned good imitation of one) the song echoes back to anthems like "Down by the Sea", and has one of the most impassioned vocals Cousins has delivered since "Grave New World". But what about the rest of the album? The songwriting is all very strong, with really great melodies. I find it much more satisfying than DEJA FOU, the last "real" Strawbs album. The only drawback (and the reason for 4 instead of 5 stars) is the production - the mix is murky and Cousins' voice gets completely buried in a few cases (what the hell is he saying on "Haiku"?). Other tracks feel like demos, with off the rack synth sounds filling in for what should have been real strings or other instruments. Nevertheless, if you ever enjoyed the powerprog days of the Strawbs or Cousins at the top of his game don't miss this album! It's a great surprise! (And I'd mention more about Conrad, but I still don't know who he is! On the merits of this I'll do some investigating and find out though!)"

A Serendipitous Find

Kurt Harding | Boerne TX | 03/31/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Even though I am a big Dave Cousins/Strawbs fan, I had no idea High Seas existed until a couple of weeks ago when I just happened to notice it in the "Customers Who Bought This Also Bought..." section on the product page of another CD I was interested in. It has proven to be a serendipitous find and is so good I'm sure more would be sold if the CD was listed in all of the proper places.

I largely agree with the first reviewer on the quality of High Seas. There are some tremendous pieces here that rank with the best of any of Dave Cousins' other projects. It also serves as a vehicle for the introduction of German musician Conny Conrad to the legions of Dave Cousins/Strawbs fans who may never have otherwise heard of him.

The first song promises one hell of a prog album. The rest of the album largely delivers on that promise. My favorites are: the stirring The Call To Action; Deep Inside, the music of which instills feelings of foreboding; the dreamy On The Horizon; My Oh My My except for the somewhat cheesy refrain; the quiet romance of Its Just My Way Of (Loving You); and the relaxing strains of Haiku and The Feng Shui Symphony.

A couple of songs are a tad weak, but overall High Seas succeeds spectacularly. The listener gets just six minutes short of an hour's worth of music which could have been more given the price being asked.

And so here's a little aside as that brings us to the question of price. I got the import version from amazon for about nineteen dollars, it is now thirty-five. All fine and dandy. But there is another version containing the same songs that I knew nothing about because I had clicked on the link to this import version from the product page to which I earlier referred (the domestic version was not mentioned). That one can currently be bought from amazon partners for as little as five dollars! Guess which one I'd have chosen had I seen both choices!

The problem is really that unless you know that "Cousins and Conrad" are the artists, then you cannot find this CD if you are looking for it as of the date of this review. Type in "High Seas" and the search yields nothing. Ditto for searching under "Dave Cousins". I did not try under Conny Conrad, but I can imagine the result would be similar. At any rate, if amazon fixes that, then many more copies of this fine CD should be sold.

If you are a Dave Cousins/Strawbs fan or know nothing of them but like Conny Conrad, then you should find High Seas much to your liking. Get it while its still available."