After Jack Orion, which was a real artistic triumph for both Jansch & Renbourn, it makes sense they would collaborate again, but they’ve followed up the deep, haunting and powerful Jack Orion with one of the fluffiest trifles imaginable. This album consists almost entirely of instrumentals. Of the twelve tracks on the album, only two of them feature vocals. The rest are instrumentals that were doubtless a lot of fun to compose and clearly really technically accomplished. Unfortunately they don’t really add up to much of anything. Half of the tracks here (that’s six tracks, if you’re keeping count) are under two minutes in length and the album adds up to around twenty-eight minutes all told. This album feels, not exactly tossed off because there’s certainly skill on display, but kind of thoughtless. The album is kind of pleasant in the moment, a sort of wall-papery easy listening style of acoustic guitar instrumentals. But you’ll be hard pressed to remember a single thing about any of the tracks an hour after you finish the record. There is one exception, a gorgeous version of Charles Mingus’ lovely elegy Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. It’s a surprising choice and it’s given a really emotional reading. It is, perhaps not coincidentally, the longest track on the record by nearly a minute. On the whole, this album is totally forgettable. I get it: Jack Orion was probably exhausting. But try to make an effort next time. 2 stars.
tl;dr – forgettable trifle of an album features mostly undistinguished instrumentals and barely registers as it goes by, though there’s certainly technical skill here. 2 stars.