Time for a little review...
Amazing! This truly is a wonderful album in all aspects. Very well written songs, delicate playing, interesting lyrics and all very well produced. It sounds both fresh and familiar at the same time, which is a very good thing. The songs are varied, yet still connected. What also strikes is how personal this effort is with such obvious references to Mark's past. Also nice to see the lyrics matching with the chosen pictures in the booklet.
For me the standout tracks are Laughs, Basil, Lights, Silver Eagle and Wherever I Go. Sound quality is really awesome, crisp and clear yet warm and organic. Maybe the best ever, along with KTGC as for sonics. The guitar work is classic, as tasteful as can be. Just listen to some of those Gibson fills in Basil, they seem to directly come from heaven. Also very nice slide playing throughout the album and then there's that really cool wah in Broken Bones. And not to forget that wonderful electric guitar tone in Silver Eagle, probably a Gretsch which I formerly thought only Richard could do that well.
On the other hand there are also things I don't like that much, such as the handclaps on Broken Bones, the Shanty-like sing along by the band in Laughs, Ian's washboard in Skydiver. But those really are minor things.
As for the bonus songs I disagree with a lot of you. I think the main album is very well chosen from this set of songs. I would probably only add Heart Of Oak as it's such wonderful little song and there' s no other song on the record with only Mark and his acoustic guitar. For me My Heart Has Never Changed would also be good enough to make it, but when you've already got Silver Eagle on I understand the decision for it to end up as a bonus. The other songs are imho not of the same quality as the album songs. For example Terminal Of Tribute To has this really simple en predictable chorus that maybe sounds ok the first few times but would definitely become annoying for me after a while. Also the timing of the words onto the music sounds as they seem not to fit well on multiple occasions in this song, and last but not least the choir-like backing vocals on the outro singing teeeeer-miiiiiiii-naaaaaaaal oooooooooof...... is really awful. But the intro, middle8 and guitar solo are superb. Do not get me wrong, overall it's very nice bonus material.
I think it is pure bliss that Mark at this stage in his career is still so compelled to write songs and record them with such care. This new collection of songs is surely a wonderful gift which I can't get enough of for a long time, probably the rest of my life. Thank you so much Mark!
