Storm Force Ten [Import]

Storm Force Ten [Import]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The final album Steeleye Span made before their initial breakup finds their lineup in serious transition--the great folk guitarist Martin Carthy had returned to the band after six years away, but several longstanding members had left, and punk and disco had become their Scylla and Charybdis. Consequently, Storm Force Ten is their most experimental album, centered on a pair of long tracks that go rather far afield from the British folk tradition: a strangely glossy cover of the Brecht/Weill classic "The Black Freighter" (from The Threepenny Opera), and "The Victory," a multi-part song about Lord Nelson with a gorgeously harmonized chorus and an L.A.-inflected arrangement. --Douglas Wolk

Tracks:

Awake, Awake
Sweep, Chimney Sweep
The Wife Of The Soldier
The Victory
The Black Freighter (From 'The Threepenny Opera')
Some Rival
Treadmill Song
Seventeen Come Sunday

Amazon.com

The final album Steeleye Span made before their initial breakup finds their lineup in serious transition--the great folk guitarist Martin Carthy had returned to the band after six years away, but several longstanding members had left, and punk and disco had become their Scylla and Charybdis. Consequently, Storm Force Ten is their most experimental album, centered on a pair of long tracks that go rather far afield from the British folk tradition: a strangely glossy cover of the Brecht/Weill classic "The Black Freighter" (from The Threepenny Opera), and "The Victory," a multi-part song about Lord Nelson with a gorgeously harmonized chorus and an L.A.-inflected arrangement. --Douglas Wolk

Customer Reviews:

Quintessential "Classic" Steeleye Span..........2007-05-02

Steeleye Span pioneered folk rock along with Fairport convention (whose music I still haven't picked up yet, though I've been meaning to for variety's sake). If you're a Steeleye Span fan, you will like this CD. Period. It's a Steeleye classic, and one of my many favorites.

Skip the newer releases, like: They Called Her Babylon, Bedlam Born, Bloody Men.

Go for the Classics: Tempted and Tried, All Around my Hat, Sails of Silver, Storm Force Ten, Rocket Cottage, Hark! The Village Wait, Please to See the King, Ten Man Mop, Commoners Crown, Now We Are Six, Parcel of Rogues, Below the Salt, Back in Line.

If you must pick up "modern" Steelye albums, pick up: Time (one of their best "modern" releases) and Horkstow Grange (their other good "modern" release). "Winter" is supposed to also be good, on par with the classics (traditional arrangements of holiday songs), though I haven't yet seen it.

The above "classic" albums cover the early and middle years.

It Isn't Steeleye Span, But I Like It!.......2006-05-30

It's okay.It's kind of like when Jehtro Tull started out bluesy. I'm no too much of a blues fan, but Tull is so talented, they make it sound good. It is the same with Steeleye Span. They kind of went into this weird faze with Storm Force, but they snapped out of it. I hate the mellotrons. But basically it is a very relaxing album, not many of the songs will make you really want to dance. One song makes you feel like you're at the carnival. A new member, John Kirkpatrick, plays the accordion. I don't really like the accordion, I would prefer Pete's violin to John's squeeze box.

mostly great.......2003-11-26

Other than "sweep," which is a bit too trad-stiff and hymn-like, I find this album quite wonderful.

A brilliant return to form.......2003-11-25

After the commercial failure of "Rocket Cottage", Steeleye Span regrouped seriously for the first time in their history, rerecruiting Martin Carthy and adding accordionist John Kirkpatrick for "Storm Force Ten".

Though this might have seemed a fatal mistake, in fact "Storm Fore Ten" was a surprising return artistic form, with Kirkpatrick's accordion adding a touch that had not been seen beforehand, notable at the end of the beautiful, complex Bertolt Brecht tale "Wife Of The Soldier", which Maddy, John and Martin turn into exemplary folk-rock. The next song, the epic "The Victory" was an amazingly enchanting epic of ever changing mood that yet managed not to repeat the same line in its eight minutes. The alternating lines of fuzzed-out rock and mystical folk - and everything in between - enchant in a way Steeleye had not done since "Sheep Crook and Black Dog."

The album's other Bertolt Brecht piece, "The Black Freighter," featured even more prominent accordion work and a tearfully slow chorus that actually fitted the mood of the faster sections of the song. Maddy's amazing voice here has more range and clarity than one might even suspect from previous Steeleye works. Martin Carthy's melodic solo reminds one of the things Tom Verlaine was praised lavishly for at the time of "Storm Force Ten"'s release.

After those two amazing epics, the simple "Some Rival" sounded like a return to earth, but Maddy's melodic and pure voice cannot let the song down. The a capella "Sweep, Chimney Sweep" showed that Steeleye's voices had developed on a par with the band's ability to produce original and challenging interpretations of traditional folk songs, a point reaffirmed yet again by "Treadmill Song" with its quasi-danceable beat and vocal inflections.

The closer "Seventeen Come Sunday" showed how well the accordion fitted into traditional folk songs, and the joyful voices sounded utterly quirky, and by no means serious. John's accordion produced a long yet brilliant melody that recalls the band's best years when it interplays with the fiery guitar at the end of the song.

Though overlooked for many years by both listeners and critics, "Storm Force Ten" is a blend of classic folk-rock and unconventional song structures that sounds like nothing you will ever hear. Though sounding more modern than "Hark! The Village Wait" or "Below The Salt", it was the first time since then that the band was really on form - and at their best Steeleye has few rivals in the 1970s.

Unusual Steeleye and very good........2003-05-04

One of Steeleye's most uncharacteristic albums due to the use of accordion, and the rendition of a relatively modern non-British song (The Black Freighter, a redo of Brecht's Pirate Jenny). Pretty good stuff, though, by any measure. One of their lost treasures.

Average customer rating:

Storm Force Ten
Steeleye Span
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Folk | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0002XNFF2
Release Date: 2004-01-06

Album Description

1996 reissue on BGO of the British folk rock group's 1977Chrysalis album, a collection of covers of mariner's rhymes& classical works. Digitally remastered from the originalmaster tapes with faithfully restored artwork, it containseight tracks, including 'Awake, Awake' and 'The BlackFreighter'.

Average customer rating:

Storm Force Ten
Steeleye Span
Manufacturer: Bgo Records/Ka
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | International | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000250YH2
Release Date: 1997-02-11

Music Review: