Mostly Autumn - For All We Shared

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Artist:	Mostly Autumn
Title:	For All We Shared
Label:	Cyclops CYCL 080
Length(s):	66 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1999
Month of review:	01/2000

Line up

Bryan Josh - electric guitar, vocals, 6-string+12-string acoustic, e-bow
Heather Findlay - vocals, 6 string acoustic, tamborine
Iain Jennings - keyboards, vocals
Liam Davison - additional electric guitar, vocals, 6-string+12 string acoustic
Bob Faulds - violins
Stuart Carver - bass
Kev Gibbons - low whistle, high whistle
Allan Scott - drums
with help from
Angela Goldthorpe - flute
Che - djembe

Tracks

1)	Nowhere To Hide (close My Eyes)	6.10
2)	Porcupine Rain	4.38
3)	The Last Climb	7.58
4)	Heroes Never Die	9.31
5)	Folklore	5.47
6)	Boundless Ocean	5.40
7)	Shenanigans	3.48
8)	Steal Away	4.54
9)	Out Of The Inn	6.41
10)	The Night Sky	10.25

Summary

I've heard some good things about this band, combining folk music with Floydian influences. The front photograph seems to be of Sean Connery descening a cliff, but it might as well be a lookalike.

The music

Nowhere To Hide (Close My Eyes) opens with people singing (but not seriously) and then the singing really beings, a-capella. The song itself is quite catchy and up-tempo. Think a bit of Ark and Abel Ganz here: modern melodic rock. This time however with an intermezzo on violin. After another chorus, the music becomes slowly building up to a further repetition. Porcupine Rain is somewhat in the same style, but bubblier. The drumming is not terribly varied and the music is again quite catchy. The Last Climb opens much more quietly with singing birds and acoustic guitar. The vocals here reminds a bit of Dark Side Of The Moon-era Floyd. A bit depressing sounding, with a spaceous violin. Very relaxed and not without beauty. Later on a guitar takes over from the violin and the likeness to Floyd becomes stronger yet. Heroes Never Die is the next one up. After a Floydian intro the vocal part is mostly acoustic. The music has a bit of a folky expression here. The guitar solo at the end is again a winner. Intense and melodic. Folklore is not surprisingly somewhat folky. It opens with something akin to bagpipes and the violin sets in for a jig and this more or less continues until the end (except for a short intermezzo). Boundless Oceans is a ballad like track with flute and violin. A bit on the Iona side. Shenanigans is a Faulds track with whistles and some up-tempo violin playing. Nice melody and energetic. Steal Away opens with thunder and lightning. The vocal part is not particularly but the orchestral continuation makes up for that. Out Of The Inn is a folky piece again, this time from the hand of Josh. They did not take the trouble to put the lyrics in the book. Anyway after the folk musician in the bar, the music gets underway. Again, some very nice melodies here (and the djembe). Halfway through the pace picks up. The closer is the ten minute plus The Night Sky. A great captivating track thoroughly in the Floydian style, but with lots of room for keyboards.

Conclusion

After a first listen, I wondered what everyone was giving up about, but as you can read in my review I've come to grow quite fond of some of the material on this album. There a folky side and a prog side to the band, but they also tend to write rather accessible pieces (opening the album for instance). The folky things are nice, but I tend to go more for the longer Floydian pieces. A good album.