Ah that sad old story about the genius who was almost completely overlooked at the time of his being a genius. Poor Bill Fay. He honestly is a fucking genius, and this album is a showcase of all that genius. It is so perfect.
The album is raw, emotionally, instrumentally and production wise. I think it works better than his first album, which is all orchestrated and lush. I should try and add some context to this here thing. Uh well Bill Fay is a British singer-songwriter, released two fucking genius albums in 1970 (self-titled) then this one in 1971. The albums sold very poorly, so the poor dude was kicked off his label. He recorded a follow-up to this album in the late 1970s but it wasn't released until 2005. It is all pretty sad, especially since it is sooooo goddamn good. But he has a bit of a following these days, namely Jeff Tweedy and Jim O'Rourke who have covered his stuff. This is how I heard of him. Oh and Current 93 cover the title track, man those dudes are creepy.
I dunno how much I can actually say. The album is dark. The lyrics are beautiful, and really dark. I really like his singing, really restrained. The melodies are beautiful. My favourite songs are Pictures of Aolf Again, Omega Day, 'Til the Christ Come Back, Laughing Memory. That is just off the top of my head, all of the songs are brilliant.
I am fairly sure the few people who read this (if anyone) have heard it, so this is probably redundant. But if you haven't I strongly suggest it. I read some reviews on RYM for it and a fair few people seemed to think it is pretty overrated, so I dunno perhaps I am wrong. Actually no I'm not, don't listen to those bastards, it is goddamn genius.
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