Sometimes you can go forwards by moving backwards. Purson have settled on the early 70s for the building blocks of their psychedelic Gothic tales – big, bass-driven riffs, swirling Mellotrons and flanged guitars.
With Rosalie Cunningham’s voice the driving force, Purson come across somewhere between Renaissance and All About Eve, albeit with a heavier touch. Despite the title this is not a concept album, although there are certainly musical and lyrical threads running through it.
After the acoustic, mood-setting Wake Up Sleepy Head, the songs vary between the forceful, claustrophobic Spiderwood Farm and Leaning On A Bear, and the pastoral, bucolic Sailor Wife’s Lament and Tempest And The Tide. It all ends up back in the nursery with the dreamy Rocking Horse before the enigmatic, Bowie-like Tragic Catastrophe brings the evocative adventure to a close.
