Folk
Noah’s Barks pages relating to the folk music genre.
-
The Beatles – “The Beatles”
Everything The Beatles were is encapsulated in this double album. From R&B rock, to folk, to psychedelia and beyond. This is ‘The Beatles.’ (read more)
-
Comus Retrospective
(Original publication date unknown) There are few artists as expressive as telling a story as Comus. I wrote a bit about it in my review for First Utterance, particularly for their song “Diana,” but it’s true for their entire library (small as it is). Roger Wootton gets incredibly into the macabre stories he tells, yelping… (read more)
-
The Byrds – “Turn! Turn! Turn!”
A solid album by The Byrds, but I’d have to say this one is only for fans. There are a couple of great songs on here, but an equal or greater amount of material are merely decent or good. The Byrds started to write more of their own material on Turn! Turn! Turn!, but they… (read more)
-
Paul Simon – “There Goes Rhymin’ Simon” (1973)
There Goes Rhymin’ Simon is Paul Simon’s third solo album, but it’s the first that shows the next evolution in his songwriting after his work with Simon & Garfunkel. Though predominately driven by folk rock instrumentation like always, we see Simon incorporating many new instruments such as electric guitars, organs, and livelier percussion that’s heavier… (read more)
-
Comus – “East of Sweden: Live at the Melloboat Festival 2008”
Er, how to critique this? The performances just sound so… impassioned. The opposite of what Comus should be. They are almost the exact same as their studio counterparts, just in worse quality. “Diana” is just too abrasive here and not very listenable. There’s a little bit of improvising in the middle of the songs but… (read more)
-
Comus – “First Utterance”
An all-time favorite album, ‘First Utterance’ is shocking, anachronistic folk rock that caused a career shift and death of its band, Comus. (read more)
-
Comus – “Song to Comus: The Complete Collection”
First Utterance is an essential album, and the remastering of it on Song to Comus: The Complete Collection is very tasteful and enough for me to consider it an improvement over the original (apparently the first CD issues of First Utterance had terrible sound quality, so there’s another reason to get this set). There are… (read more)
-
Grizzly Bear – “Shields”
No Grizzly Bear album is well-rounded, but Shields comes closest. For the first time, its sonic peaks are worth traversing an album for, especially since they’re tactfully spread out. (read more)
-
Fairport Convention – “Liege & Lief”
A great British folk rock album, but that sort of thing often isn’t for me. After listening to a lot of this stuff you get a bit tired of the same medieval vocabulary and woodwind instruments. They take you to a certain time and place, which is great, but the more you visit a place… (read more)
-
David Bowie – “David Bowie” (1969)
There are some serious hints of brilliance on 1969‘s David Bowie in its beautiful psychedelic/folk songs “Space Oddity” and “Letter to Hermione.” “Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud” and “Memory of a Free Festival” also deserve some mention. Most tracks on here have interesting segments to them, like the beginning of “Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed.”… (read more)