Another one I don't remember buying, although I did go through a phase of buying almost any Real World release I came across.
This is the result of a series of drop-ins over a couple of weeks at the Real World studios, with Propellerheads' Alex Gifford seemingly involved at every stage.
Opening track, My Mother Is Not The White Dove, sung by Canadian, Jane Siberry, is a lovely, slow, rambling song, with Gifford's smooth sax, and African instruments organised by Ayub Ogada, a great start leading into the longer Ginger, a gentle, guitar led piece beautifully brought to life by Andy Sheppard on sax and Nigel Kennedy's violin, the eleven minutes just flowing by. Chinese Canon sees Cheng Yu and Zhon You playing a gentle melody on Chinese instruments, backed by Penguin Cafe Orchestra's Simon Jeffes, and Yodel 3 has Jeffes and Gifford working together on a laidback guitar theme, sounding very Penguin Cafe.
Youth and Age is a Coleridge poem, set to a smooth background, sounding not a million miles away from Jah Wobble's Inspiration of William Blake, with Sheppard returning on sax for the lovely Which Way Out, his solo backed by a quiet chant, before a merry joust with the vocals, before Gifford shows of his sax virtuosity on the moving Thought On The Departure Of A Lifelong Friend. Cage Dead has a 1930s lounge feel, Kennedy's violin driving another Jeffes piece, while the mournful Morecambe Bay brings proceedings to a close, sounding like the theme to a particularly sombre film.
I've been surprised how much I enjoyed this and certainly intend to revisit it. In my opinion, it's the sax playing of Gifford and Sheppard which provide the highpoints of this snapshot of events at Real World.
4* - a lovely listen, which I suspect will reward further visits.
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