I (almost) never write here, but could not resist to share my enthusiasm about this record. Whilst waiting for my box I got a 12-track German-Media-Markt copy yesterday and I can't stop listen to it.
1. What first impressed me is the quality of the production. For me, it's the best thing Mark & Co. have done since On Every Street and perhaps "to date" indeed. I could easy imagine myself testing audio equipment with this one. The guitars sound fresh and crisp, the bass is loud and clear, and so are the drums. No more "muddy sound" as raised here and there before ;-)
2. Speaking about the drums, I really missed them since the DS days and was not too happy with the "best drums/no drums" approach. I think drums fit Mark's songs very well - this is of course a question of personal taste, maybe I just got used to Mark sounding this way in the early eighties and unfortunately didn't evolve too much since then. Whatever the reason is - Mark feeling more comfortable with 'ianto' playing/technical possibilities in the BG/the band's influence I love the result.
3. What I also like is that the 11-Tracker is a very consistent record. Yes this style might be called 'comfort zone', but I'd rather refer to it as spending an evening in a small boat on a calm yet deep sea. And I always liked Mark citing Bob Dylan (incl. one of my all-time fav Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts this time, I almost fell off the sofa) and J.J. Cale. I'm a little worried I don't get most of the stories behind the songs ;-)
4. I find Guy's contribution to the record excellent. Maybe because it is better in place (you have to search for it a little in the background?), it just seems that every small detail is important this time. Normally I would not write this, but I feel somehow 'guilty' being not too sure about it after Beryl is been released.
Please excuse my Polish-English. As I wrote before I just could not resist to write. Hooray!
