Bright Phoebus [Reissue]

An album to live with, to live long.

It is a genuine classic album. ... Lal Waterson was a hugely significant and individual songwriter, and her spirit--alongside Mike’s energy, his unique, rasping voice and his own songwriting--plus the time capsule who’s-who of a support cast from the British folk scene of the early 1970’s--make this curious work of art individual, heartfelt and fun.

Lal and Mike Waterson’s Bright Phoebus more than lives up to its legendary status. Long lost, it’s a necessary purchase for fans of British folk.

Remains an unlikely and absolutely wonderful and essential listen.

While not an unqualified success, particularly in its sequencing, the overwhelming majority of Bright Phoebus warrants every ounce of the reputation the record has spawned during its absence from the world at large. Where it sags, it recovers quickly, and where it rises, it rides upon thermal after thermal, scornful of gravity.

It’s hard to imagine a more vocally versatile pair than Lal and Mike, whose interplay adds depth to all of these moods.

By trying to escape the constraints of the tradition-bound folk orthodoxy, Lal and Mike Waterson managed to craft an album of songs that sound like long-lost standards.

Though frowned on by some purists expecting the traditional fare of the family band The Watersons, the siblings’ original songs were eagerly accompanied by luminaries like Martin Carthy, Richard Thompson and Ashley Hutchings, who bring a roguish enthusiasm to tracks such as “Rubber Band”, on which even the horns seem to have their cap at a jaunty angle.

A few songs here--best of all, Shady Lady--are full of the kind of 60s harmonic whimsy associated with the Beatles, locating the album in the 20th century, but The Scarecrow remains timeless and terrifying.

Bright Phoebus turns out to thoroughly deserve its reputation as a milestone in British folk rock. [Sep 2017, p.104]