Reviews
All Around My Hat
By Bob Woffinden
© New Musical Express
4 Oct 1975
Let's begin by getting "Commoner's Crown into perspective. On the whole it wears well -I've repeatedly returned to it, and found it a much better proposition than when I first heard it.
I find it works best, through, as a synthesis of Steeleye's output up to that point, since it contains somewhere along the line most of the ideas and themes the band had tinkered with; for the average Steeleye fan, there is no doubt that it is a fine album indeed and its sales, though initially disappointing, have reflected this - it is now their best-selling album after "Now We Are Six"
On the other hand, it seemed to indicate that Steeleye were running out of steam; it began to seem as though they'd got nowhere else to go.
Thus "All Around My Hat" sees the band, now recharged with a new manager and producer, trying to relocate their sense of direction. They tackle the album positively and single-mindedly, even if this has necessarily entailed forsaking a certain balance in the songs.
The pace is hot, and never lets up; Steeleye are faster and brasher than ever before. Give us a little more bite, said the critics and this is just what has happened.
I'm not altogether sure whether all this works entirely (and certainly Steeleye's origins in traditional folk music are becoming ever more murky), but I feel it succeeds in one important respect.
Apart from "Sum Waves", an instrumental selection of some venom, they have just laid down one fine song after another, songs which without exception contain effective and memorable choruses. Why, virtually all the tracks here are potential singles and, as I understand it, that always was the best way to compile an album.
Hence - and this is my point - the selection of the material, together with the type of production that Mike Batt (Mike Batt?) has provided means that this album is more commercial than the rest of Steeleye's work put together. There are songs here which seem ideally suited for been blasted out of car radios.
Many of the songs are already familiar from their last round of concerts and their current television series (which as so far been disappointing, has it not?). For starters there's "Black Jack Davy", for the love of whom a lady of noble birth forsakes her family and finery. Maddy Prior takes the lead vocal, and there's a lusty male voice chorus, oddly reminiscent of the Monty Python team. It's indicative of what is to follow; Batt has used horns in several places, and Strings on a Steeleye Span record? When they've already got Peter Knight?
"Hard Times Of Old England" (the band have retained their penchant for the traditional song that is still contemporary) has a mandolin introduction, heavy drumming and a nice guitar break from Bob Johnson. A west country song, "Cadgwith Anthem" is done accapella, though Batt effectively throws in a French horn towards the end.
The side closes with "The Wife Of Ushers Well", a song which couldn't find space on "Commoners Crown". That was surprising then, and seems even more so now as it's one of the most successful tracks. The tune is taken from "The Gardener", off Tim & Maddy's "Folk Songs Of Old England - Vol.II". It's where the Batt treatment is at it's most sympathetic, but the fine vocals are a forcible reminder of where Steeleye's unique attributes lie.
"All Around My Hat" is the title track. (And that's something that reflects the wind of change in the Steeleye camp - the use of one of the tracks as an album title is a device they've previously avoided). It's well-chosen as the single because, although not the best track, it contains the quintessence of the Steeleye/Batt approach. Accapella vocals, Steeleye's trademark, are used at the beginning and end and in between the band play at a pace that suggests Batt must be chasing them with a meat cleaver.
The most successful track is "Dance With Me" now that really is something; lovely vocals from Ms.Prior, and a wonderful song into the bargain.
The album's very different to It's predecessors. Meaty, beaty big and bouncy, sure; this is the first Steeleye album that will give you a headache.
Were they ever meant to sound like that? I'm not sure. The album's definitely worth purchasing - "Dance With Me", "The Wife Of Ushers Well", "Gamble Gold" and "Robin Hood" (where the arrangement is slightly more delicate that elsewhere) are value enough - and at the moment it just seems full of jewels.
I'm just worried that it all seems too immediate, a bit to brash, and that it might not have the staying power of their other albums. Mike Batt has certainly filled out the sound in every way, but the production is geared to one overall sound; which is good for the radio, but not always so good for the domestic hi-fi.
Anyway, the album's major blunder has got nothing to do with the music.
The sleeve displays grossly-distorted portraits of the members of the band and employs a device known as Anomorphic projection. This means that if you hold the sleeve and a second piece of cardboard in a certain juxtaposition and squint your eye in a particularly painful way, and if It's the last quarter of the moon and it hasn't rained for three days, you might just see the band portrayed normally, as indeed they could have been in the first place.
Cheap 'n' nasty gimmickry? You bet yer bodhran it is.
*Click here to see the cover & track listing.