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Rating: Back to business, back to stepping on the accelerator with pop ‘n’ roll, "7-Tease" from 1974 marks a huge comeback for the Scottish artist; actually, despite what one might think, Donovan never left, but the uncertain result of his last album, "Essence To Essence," the eleventh in eight years of a recording career, could have suggested the beginning of a descending trajectory, yet this wasn’t the case. Compared to its ill-fated predecessor, "7-Tease" is a burst of color and energy; this time, however, no glam rock, Donovan proposes a perfect potpourri full of multicolored nuances: a lively, immediate, fun, and extroverted album with a pop vein not heard since "Barabajagal," drawing heavily from the broader context of the era’s pop, which is arguably the best pop ever.
"7-Tease" is an album to be discovered, exceeding the most optimistic expectations: the infectious drive of "Rock And Roll Souljer" is the very essence of pop rock in its most anthemic form, and it’s just a taste of the formidable up-tempos of "7-Tease," which deploys a range of sounds from the carefree pop-folk of "The Great Song Of The Sky" to the Elvis Presley-style rock ‘n’ roll of "Moon Rok", featuring another great anthem like "The Voice Of Protest", which perfectly captures the spirit of its time, remaining more relevant than ever today, just like the light yet caustic irony of "How Silly", a very "kinky" text over a delightful retro pop base and the incisive boogie-woogie of "Salvation Stomp", all great entertainment songs, which ensure that "7-Tease" has great appeal and, despite their heterogeneity, form a harmonic and cohesive whole, thanks also to the omnipresent use of soul-flavored backing vocals that further enhance the feeling of energy and color that pervades "7-Tease" and constitute a valuable musical enrichment, as well as a distinctly stylistic trademark.
The other side of the coin is obviously the sweeter, more reflective side, and even on this front, "7-Tease" presents no weaknesses: particularly notable is the wonderful "The Ordinary Family", an acoustic ballad framed by a stunning string arrangement where one can fully appreciate Donovan's wonderful voice in one of the most intense and heartfelt performances of his career: this song, the album's high point and the masterpiece to remember alongside "Rock And Roll Souljer", manages to convey contrasting feelings of reflection, disillusionment, hope, and inner conflict in a moving crescendo, but that's not all: Donovan perfectly learns and applies the lessons of the best Bee Gees with two languid love songs like the very sweet "Your Broken Heart" and a "Love Of My Life" that boasts an intense crescendo in its finale, without forgetting territories more familiar to him like the subtle psychedelic folk of a velvety and semi-acoustic "Sadness", which marks a pleasant soft interlude amidst the vibrant colors of "7-Tease," showcasing another fluid and beautiful melodic line and the more shadowed, twilight, and fascinating "Ride A Mile". These two songs are already a step forward, a delightful preview of what will be the style of the subsequent masterpiece, "Slow Down World."
Like "Open Road," like "Cosmic Wheels," and more understandably like "Essence To Essence," even "7-Tease" failed to achieve significant sales: in this case, the blame lies solely with the record label, Epic, completely disinterested in Donovan to the point of letting a potential smash hit like "Rock And Roll Souljer" fall into oblivion, wasting what could have been a significant source of profit. However, in the end, who cares about these trivialities, Donovan's music will always be available to those who wish to listen to it, defying clichés and commonplaces, and "7-Tease" joins the ranks of the great masterpieces of this extraordinary artist, an album perfectly in line with its times and in its own way splendidly sly, always with intelligence and depth, and that alone is enough to deserve the highest marks.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
06 Sadness (02:39)
Sadness is in your eye
Who could have made you cry?
My lullaby
Roll along the sleepy dream, deep
Roll along the sleepy dream, deep
Salty tear down your cheek
Drowning the words you speak.
My lullaby can dry your every care
Roll along the sleepy dream, deep
Roll along the sleepy dream, deep
Sweet dream, my baby lie
Here in my arms tonight
Don’t cry I’ll hold you tight,
And soothe all your worriy away.
My lullaby can fly you out of there
Roll along the sleepy dream, deep
Roll along the sleepy dream -
Sweet dream, my baby lie
Here in my arms tonight
Don’t cry I’ll hold you tight,
And soothe all your worries away.
Sadness is in your eye
Who could have made you cry?
Sadness is in your eye
Sadness
12 The Quest (03:32)
Why veil the sun?
Why darken the water?
“Thy will be done” if you think you ought to.
No-one can see you when you’re on your own.
No-one can be you.
Take your time don't hurry;
It's alright don't worry!
You've just begun for to awaken.
Do walk, don't run!
You’re not forsaken.
No-one can free you from your own prison.
No-one can see you…
Take your time, don't hurry!
It's alright, don't worry!
-Instrumental Solo-
It's alright, don't worry!
15 Age of Treason (04:21)
On a lone and windy hilltop beneath a roof of tin
In a little wallpapered bedroom I done my growin'.
'Twas there I dreamt my dreams, I hung my jeans
And wandered through my puberty as all do.
My mother was a tight nut bound up with false guilt
Strapped up in her fearing wall she had built.
The independent girl in a dark and cruel world
She'd lost the way to say, "OK, now lay back".
We disagreed on most things, I shouted peace and love
The family is mankind, the symbol of the dove.
She only saw the surface of things before her face
But I was young and argued on for hours.
My father he liked poetry, a scholar he might have made.
Had nothing, born a poor boy barefoot and underpaid
So the man worked with his hands up and down the land,
His dreams forgot he thought that I must follow.
With his marks as worker's wisdom he'd read a thing or two
He once had been a Mason but he never followed through.
Always kind and thoughtful, smelling of mushy oil
And he read me poetry of visionaries.
I flunk my way to college, a looser kind of school
But we bobbed and played time arty, feeling cool
Just to live an artists diggin' the ravin' scene
Reading Kerouac and Ginsberg well deuced.
I was not academic, Art and English neat,
The history of mankind I liked that a bit.
And what was I to do ? The choices they were few,
I done right disgrace to the working classes
I done right disgrace to the working classes
I done right disgrace to the working classes
I done right disgrace to the working classes
16 What the Soul Desires (02:33)
There is a rapture that my soul desires
There is a something that I cannot name.
I know not after what my soul aspires
Nor guess from when the restless longing came
But ever from my childhood have I felt it
In all things beautiful, in all things gay
And ever has its gentle unseen presence
Falling like a shadow cloud across my way.
It is the melody in all sweet music
In all fair forms it is the hidden grace.
In all I love, a something that escapes me,
Flies by pursuit and ever visits face.
I see it in the woodlands, silver beauty
I feel it in the very breathing of the air.
I stretch my hand to grasp for I can't touch it
When I do, well I know it is not there.
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la
La la la la la la la la la
But ever from my childhood have I felt it
In all things beautiful, in all things gay
And ever has its gentle unseen presence
Falling like a shadow cloud across my way.
There is a raptu
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