With wonderful clarity of voice, thought, style and wry, worldly perspective, this 24th solo LP from the 85-year-old folk legend exudes grace, charm and humour, showing she has lost none of her magic and poignancy, one best known in some of her older songs, such as I’m Gonna Be An Engineer. Billed, sadly, as her last album of original songs, it was written and recorded with her family (musician sons Calum and Neill MacColl, and Neill’s partner, composer Kate St John), and it is full of many gems, mainly with piano and guitar accompaniment that allows her strong and sensitive voice to shine through from first to last with a general theme of life-spanning perspectives. The bittersweet and tragic love story Dandelion and Clover’s narrator is little girl who awaits a boy to come round to play, but a year later he dies, but constantly returns in her memory. Beautiful melody The Invisible Woman is from the perspective of a pretty young girl who becomes an attractive woman who is always the centre of attention when young, but is gradually ignored as she ages. Other highlights include Lullabies for Strangers, The Puzzle and Tree of Love, written for her partner of 30 years, Irene Pyper-Scott, with whom she got together after her long-time husband Ewan MacColl, died in 1989. How I Long for Peace and All In The Mind are heartfelt political and environmental pleas, and closing track Gotta Get Home By Midnight is a clever, sprightly take on the Cinderella tale, reversing time from being 100 years old and getting younger. Fabulous. Out on Red Grape.
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