I first heard many albums from the early 1990s after borrowing them from Deal Library or the DVD rental shop in the High Street. I'm not sure I was even aware of TMC, house band of 4AD records and their owner Ivo Watts-Russell before encountering this, the project's final album. But it made a deep impression and I've enjoyed it for three decades.
Opening with an ambient two note drone leading into a string quartet, The Lacemaker is an overture whose themes will reappear later on, and the first song proper is the gentle and lovely Mr Somewhere (a cover of a song by Australian band, The Apartments) sung by Caroline Crawley, and accompanied by guitar and cello. Andialu is an original piece, minimalist and repetitive, feeling more like an interlude than a piece in its own right, leading into With Tomorrow, another simple quiet piece, originally by Gene Clark, sung by Deidre Rutkowski with lots of echo making it feel darker than the original. Again, there's an interesting musical interlude in Loose Joints before Kim Deal and Tania Donnelly do a fine job on You And Your Sister (originally by Chris Bell).
The cover of Nature's Way (original by Spirit) isn't nearly as convincing as others, but the sparse I Come And Stand At Every Door sung by Deirdre and Louise Rutkovski brings a haunting quality missing from The Byrds' version. Bitter is an original piece, a bit of a vocal drone for a couple of minutes before a guitar solo wakes it up. Baby Ray Baby seems to be a baby babbling as the guitar from the previous track dies away, with a faint air of a nursery tune, and is bafflingly out of place. Several Times (originally by Dutch band Clan of Xymox) ends the first half - It's nicely done, but a bit dull.
The second half (it was a double LP on vinyl) opens with a reprise of The Lacemaker, followed by a cover of Syd Barrett's Late Night (original here) by Caroline Crawley, almost acapella (there's a quiet drone underneath). It's slower and very beautifully done, but I'm not sure it conveys the vulnerability of the original. Ruddy And Wretched is yet another instrumental interlude of little interest, leading us into a pleasant version of Help Me Lift You Up (original by Mary Margaret O'Hara) again, pleasant but no more, certainly more interesting than the original, and that's followed by an uninteresting Carolyn's Song (with echoes of Mr Lacemaker thrown in), originally done by Rain Parade. D. D. And E. is a pleasant little vocal interlude segueing into one of my favorite songs on the album, the beautiful 'Til I Gain Control Again (covered by dozens of C&W singers, but originally by Rodney Crowell) done minimally and with any hint of country and western exorcised. Dreams Are Like Water is a longer, original piece, which has a decent song at the core of it, but is dragged out by some over-indulgent instrumentals, and it's followed by a fine version of Chris Bell's I Am The Cosmos, which to these ears surpasses the original, with (Nothing Like) Blood ending the album, a band written track, which feels like it's trying to encapsulate the whole album into a finale, which it fails in.
But for all that, there's so much on this album to enjoy, and it's great to hear Watts-Russell paying tribute to some of his favourite artists with sympathetic covers.
4* - a lovely album of esoteric covers and original material
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