Saturday 3 February 2018

Strawbs - Ghosts (1975)


The eight album from this British band.

Strawbs was a quintet on this album with a lineup of keyboards, guitars, bass, drums, congas, percussion, harpsicord, mellotron, moog, electric piano, pipe organ and vocals.
Two other musicians contributed with cello and choral arrangements.

Their previous album, the 1974 album Hero And Heroine, saw the band move closer to symphonic prog. A very good development in my view. You can read my review here

Ghost sees the band incorporating symphonic prog into their take on folk rock. It is as close to symphonic prog as Hero And Heroine.

Ghost is also a dark, gloomy album. An almost traumatic listening experience. Listeners should beware. The opening Ghost suite is dark and even the hit single Lemon Pie is dark.

The rest of the songs are gloomy too with lots of keyboards and guitars. John Hawken on everything with tangents does a great job again. Ditto for David Cousins on vocals.

There are not a single weak second on this album. This is probably Strawbs finest album and a great album. An album worth savouring and enjoy. Yes, there are beauty in gloom. Ghosts proves that.

4 points


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