Search - Steeleye Span :: Bloody Men

Bloody-*minded,* presumably

G. Moses | Men...Of...The...Sea! | 02/14/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is Steeleye Span's nineteenth (!) studio album. I am giving it three stars, but I want to let it be very clearly known that these are the most *relative* three stars ever endowed upon anything. They are granted in recognition of the facts that the album has some admittedly fairly entertaining moments, and that it's not a complete artistic disaster, as They Called Her Babylon was.



The best thing here is "Bonny Black Hair," by far the dirtiest thing the band's ever done. It's kind of refreshing to here them singing about casual sex with none of the crippling shame/stigma that typically haunts their work on the subject. "The 3 Sisters" is vaguely catchy, as is "Demon of the Well." "Whummil Bore" is intriguingly elliptical. The five-part "Ned Ludd," comprising the second disc, isn't great, but it's not terrible either, and you've got to appreciate that the band can still embark on something so ambitious after all these years. The first part even puts to music words by John Clare, which is pretty cool. Overall, the verdict is this: none of the songs make me want to fling myself down a steep embankment. That's more than can be said for TCHB.



However--and this cannot be emphasized strongly enough--if this were one of the band's classic seventies albums, giving it two stars would be extremely generous. The appeal of Steeleye Span was that they offered highly evocative renditions of Olde Englishe folke songes, with imaginative and highly memorable arrangements. Apart from the inexplicably excellent Time, none of their post-seventies albums have done much to recapture this dynamic, and Bloody Men offers only the most faint, barely-audible echo of the band's former greatness. Some may call this judgment unfair, but I assure you, it is entirely accurate. Please call to mind some of the band's best classic songs--"Copshawholme Fair," "King Henry," "Sheep-Crook and Black Dog," "Cam Ye O'er Frae France," "Boys of Bedlam," "False Knight on the Road," "Little Sir Hugh," "Demon Lover," "Edwin," "Drink Down the Moon," "Montrose," I could seriously go on all day--and then try to tell me with a straight face that anything from Bloody Men comes anywhere near to touching them. Even the (pointless) remake of "Cold, Haily, Windy, Night" doesn't come close.



So basically, while not completely worthless, this is an album for true diehards only. It's impossible for me to imagine anyone who doesn't already have the rest of the band's catalogue finding anything at all edifying here. If you're not already acquainted with the Span experience, check out Below the Salt and Commoner's Crown, and work backwards and forwards from there, approaching the band's many reunion albums (always excepting Time) with extreme caution. If you do this, you may ultimately end up getting some modest enjoyment out of Bloody Men, but it's certainly not a major artistic achievement by any standard.

"

A Fine Effort that Grows on the Listener

Andrew E. Larsen | 03/06/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

""Bloody Men", Steeleye Span's 20th (not 19th) studio album, is an album much like "They Called Her Bablyon" in its general sound (unsurprising, since the two albums have the same line-up). The band's first 10 albums (their 70s output) are almost entirely their arrangements of traditional songs, but since the 70s the band has been releasing albums with a mixture of traditional pieces and new songs they wrote themselves, and "Bloody Men" leans toward new material. So if you have a strong preference for their early-period traditional arrangements, this album will probably disappoint you somewhat. On the other hand, if you enjoyed albums like "Tempted and Tried" and "Babylon", you will probably like this one as well. The stand-out track is definitely the traditional "Bonny Black Hare", which is quite close to the sort of song they were doing in the 70s, and arguably as good as much of their classic material. The riddle-song "Lord Elgin" is quite pleasant, if somewhat poppy, and "The 3 Sisters" is also rather in the vein of their early material. "The Story of the Scullion King" is rather like the title track on "Babylon", though not as good. But after the first 10 songs, the album has a surprise in store, a second CD with a 5-song cycle dealing with the Industrial Revolution and the Luddite movement, culminating in a song about the Peterloo Massacre. While not brilliant material, the Ned Ludd cycle is well-done and a sign that the band is still charting new paths in the field of British folk-rock. Throughout the album, the performances are solid, as one would expect from musicians with more than a century of musical experience between them. Peter Knight's fiddle playing stands out on a number of tracks, particulary "Bonny Black Hare", where a careful listener will notice that the lead instrument is not a rock guitar but rather Knight's electric violin. Maddy Prior's vocals are solid, although she no longer has the high range that made her early-period material so wonderful. If the band has a problem at the moment, it's that with the departure of Bob Johnson, the band no longer has a male vocalist with a solid voice. Ken Nicol and Rick Kemp both do decent turns on lead vocals, but neither of them is a stellar singer. Overall, however, this is as good an album as the band has produced since 1996's Time."

Another Fine One from Steeleye!

Mark Cloud | Murrieta, CA USA | 03/05/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Gosh, I get tired of people who think nothing of value has been produced since the 1970s. If you think that, nothing will change your mind, that's it, end of story. However, if you are a bit less mired in the past, this record is every bit the equal of the wonderful "Bedlam Born" and "They Called Her Babylon."



I am reminded of a recent quote from John McEuen of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: "We're not this good in spite of our age, we're this good because of it."



Enjoy."