Seven For Old England - Maddy Prior

Advantages: Maddy Prior on excellent form
Disadvantages: none

...Arthur the King is an intelligent and thought provoking album. If you were trying to categorise it, it would have to be filed under 'serious Folk'. What we have here is a collection of ten songs exploring the Arthur 'myth'. Nick Holland and Troy Donockley join Prior and between them theyweave a beautiful sound. The quality of the song cycle is remarkably high with Queen & Sovereignty and Once and Future King standing out. As a coda, there are five traditional songs unrelated to the central theme. This album doesn't fall too short of 'must have' status. Prior is in enchanting voice throughout and the subject matter is of almost universal interest. Buy it and rediscover your Celtic roots. It is an album that continues to reinvent Prior as one of the Godmothers of British Folk and makes All Around my Hat sound as if it came from different... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: A number of highly infectious, incredibly catchy songs
Disadvantages: The tracks don't sound as good on CD as they did live

...Adequate Seven were a UK band that use to often get misplaced in the genre bracket of 'Skacore', however their sound was always far more than this in truth; bridging the divide between Funk and Hardcore, fusing the two in order to produce their own unique brand of music. I feel that the band were always at their best when they opted to show off their more Hardcore side, however the band do this less so on their second album 'Here On Earth' in favour of exploring their funkier nature. Unfortunately in the December of 2006, having been around for 6 years and after playing over 500 gigs the band decided to call it a day. This was a great loss for UK music as Adequate Seven were an exceptional live band; however their music still lives on today through the records that they released. 'Here On Earth' kicks off with the catchy single... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Good collection of songs for those who were fans of the band
Disadvantages: Missing a lot of their top singles.

...A collection of the greatest songs by Shed seven, the long time workhorses of the Indie-rock / Britpop scene. This album does include a few of their classics such as the student anthems of Speakeasy, Bully boy and the more gentle and catchy Going for gold, as well as including one of my personal favourite songs in the brilliant parallel lines. The problem with this album however is they seem to have failed in their balancing of mixing their best songs in with some of their B-sides and rareities as there are too many of their best songs missing. Very conspicuous in their absence are the great hits Dolphin, On standby and Chasing rainbows which means this album would be better suited to a true fan of the band rather than someone looking for a "best of" album and hoping to hear all of their best hits! This would be a very good... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful