Trollheart

Time to return to my

and look at a time when Pendragon had been around for a while.

Album title: Not of This World
Artist: Pendragon
Nationality: English
Year: 2001
Chronology: 6
The Trollheart Factor: 10

Track Listing: If I Were the Wind (And You Were the Rain)/Dance of the Seven Veils ((i) Faithless (ii) All Over Now)/Not of This World ((i) Not of This World (ii) Give it to Me (iii) Green Eyed Angel)/A Man of Nomadic Traits/World’s End (i) The Lost Children (ii) … And Finally

Comments: I must admit, I was somewhat taken aback to see the scorn and often vitriol directed against the last Pendragon album I reviewed here, their second, Kowtow. I don’t believe in any way it deserved any of that lambasting, but I think fans are united in praise of this one, which comes from a place fifteen years later. Featuring some of their by-now-standard suites, it’s an album that really for the most part needs to be listened to in one sitting; taking individual tracks out - with the odd exception - kind of doesn’t work, as the whole thing flows better when taken as one major work of music. There is, as the album begins, a musical motif that runs through much of the album, a phrase that will recur in other tracks and indeed right at the end, and it opens the album too as “If I Were the Wind (And You Were the Rain)” - surely one of the longest titles to kick an album off - rings out the guitar notes behind sighing wind before percussion cuts in and we’re off.

For a long time, this was one of my favourite Pendragon songs, and I even used it as a wake-up alarm, till it started getting on my tits. Now I’m over that and I love it again. There’s the usual passion and emotion you expect from this band, both musically and vocally from Barrett, who never seems to give anything less than one hundred percent in his performances, whether it’s his voice or his guitar, or indeed his songwriting. I do have to take slight issue with the backing vocals, which have a very Pink Floyd feel, and given my comments about their shamelessly ripping off Roger and Dave and the boys, well, it seems a little much. Still, it’s a small quibble. Beautiful piano work as always from Clive Nolan, and it takes us into the first suite.

“Dance of the Seven Veils” is split into two sections, both pretty much more guitar-driven than the opener, the first part slow and reflective, the second more bouncy and looking back to the likes of “Saved by You”, “Back in the Spotlight” and “Nostradamus”. Being the longer of the two, the second part slows down in the middle then picks up again, running to a big powerful finish and into the second suite, the title track in fact. Here’s where the keyboards of Nolan really come into play as he romps along beside Barrett, over half of the first part of the suite instrumental. Another motif starts here which will continue through other songs, and those Floydian backing vox are back.

Some lovely Spanish guitar here from Nick to take us into the second movement, “Give it to Me” which only lasts just over two minutes and is driven on warbly keyboards into the first real ballad, the sumptuous “Green Eyed Angel”. Beautiful guitar work supplemented by lush synth lines. Even with three suites on the album, the only other standalone track, “A Man of Nomadic Traits” runs for almost twelve minutes. It’s sort of a mini-suite in itself, with changes through its length, an instrumental interlude, two in fact, and some great almost acoustic guitar work from Nick. Nearly half of its run is actually taken up by a superb instrumental section, and it takes us into the final suite, “World’s End”, which is broken into two parts, and in which the original motif comes back into the song, allied to the second in a quite breath-taking masterpiece of musical talent and songwriting.

Here we get almost a reintroduction to the album, the same guitar phrase but extended now, linking later to what I guess we could call the “Not of This World” theme, but the suite begins with “The Lost Children”, which is the larger part of it, seems to be a ballad but kicks up halfway with a big striding keyboard and guitar section that takes us into the closer entitled, rather appropriately, “... And Finally.” This partially reprises “Not of This World” and fades out on the basic motif from that track, essentially a second ballad.

Oddly, my copy, having two extra bonus tracks, also has a bonus instrumental, called “A New World”. It’s short, decent but really more a coda, perhaps an unnecessary one, which might be why it appears only on this reissue I happen to have. The other bonus tracks I can do without, as they’re on other albums already.



Track(s) I liked: Everything

Track(s) I didn't like: Nothing

One standout: Impossible

One rotten apple: Also impossible

Overall impression: One of my very favourite Pendragon albums, this has it all. I feel they may have reached their peak here and this, for me, is a massive step forward, giving them the impetus to go on to even better things.

Rating: 9.9/10

Future Plan: I really need to hear their latest, Love Over Fear...

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018