Bill Fay [LP]

Originally issued on Decca's Deram imprint in 1970, Bill Fay's debut album is a soulful and introspective folk-rock masterpiece - With it's warm, lush arrangements and heartfelt lyrics, it showcases Fay's poetic storytelling and enduring from-the-heart emotion. This 180gm vinyl re-issue replicates the original UK stereo pressing. Produced by Peter Eden and orchestrated by Michael Gibbs, Bill Fay's debut album is often stately, frequently poignant, and unfalteringly catchy. Fay's voice, a tentative mix of purity and knowhow is framed by high-period Decca arrangements, full of celestial strings and flourishing horns. The dressing does not take away from the immediacy of the material; a wistful eye cast across post-war Britain, removed from the cliches of the swinging sixties. Here as a hymnal full of kinship, family, encouragement and strangeness. For example, The Sun Is Bored the sun is bored, and the moon wants to get away to another place. Sing Us One Of Your Songs May while inventing The Streets 30 years before Mike Skinner appeared is a sweetly powerful rumination on grief. Methane River conflates pollution of water with a closed mind. Gentle Willie explores the complexities of pacifism; Be Not So Fearful championed by Jeff Tweedy is an aural equivalent of an arm around the shoulder. These are NOT moon-June-love ditties. Comparisons have been made to Nick Drake, but there is also Peter Sarstedt, Gilbert O'Sullivan and Brian Protheroe at play here. Original copies of Bill Fay change hands for three figure sums. For once, you can understand the price tag: this a remarkably accomplished debut.