Lindisfarne
Fog On The Tyne

THE REVIEW

Once upon a time, as far as I am aware, these guys weren't as unknown as they are now - in fact, it seems that when it was released, in 71, this album even achieved a decent success - only to be completely forgotten by the average listener later. But this, actually, can be useful to play the know-it-all card and bring out "the rarity" in music discussions ("Jethro Tull?.." - disdainful smile - "...and do you know Lindisfarne?" - disdainful smile, etc).

The problem with reviewing an album like this is clear and well-defined: it's Folk-Pop music, meaning, it's music you can talk about for at most ten seconds without becoming boring. What can you say, folk chords are always the same, the humble, sincere, and sentimental singing you know, the moody acoustic strumming is well-known to everyone, on the list we also have the refrain choruses, the harmonica, the rustic melancholy, and all the other hallmarks of the genre. I am reading just now - confirming what was said at the beginning - that this album, to put it with measured pretension, "topped the charts and did hit #1!".

In fact, the funny thing is that every song on this album is terribly well-written and delightfully pleasing to the ear; "Meet me on the corner" opens the record and is a super moody harmonica-supported song, which is surely preferable to many others if you find yourself with a guitar in your hands and someone to impress - for instance. There is so much talk about "folk" but in reality, there are a thousand shades of this glorious musical genre, and in this album, there's almost a song for each sub-genre: for the drunk, there's "Allright On the night", for the Newcastlers, the title track, and for the Scottish lords, "Scotch Mist" doesn't go unmentioned - ah and how the violins play in the suspender enthusiasm of the closing "No time to lose", it leaves me breathless, almost.