Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
It comes out of the blue, the element of exquisite surprise that hits on the type of scale when Jethro Tull brought out Songs From The Wood, when Genesis launched Selling England By The Pound onto an unsuspecting world or when the great 70s Progressive Rock explosion looked to any number of bands willing to explore the English, British Pastoral tradition. The fusion of Folk with the tantalising expression of Rock thrown in so heavily that it was as beautiful to listen to as a dawn chorus after the worst storm and being thankful to see the sun rise in the East.
Whilst Joshua Burnell doesn’t stray into the heavier aspects of the pastoral, he certainly uses the greats as a stepping stone, as a guide, to bring out the very best in his album Into The Green and it is a best that has the listener captivated, charmed and wanting to feel the warmth of story-telling, so abundant in the pastoral, used to full effect and with generosity at its heart.
It is the power of the story-teller that keeps you transfixed throughout the search for a meaning, the hidden quest that comes with any Progressive Pastoral set of songs. The hidden depths, the urge to scour the song’s lyrics like some haunted investigator or close reading expert; one who is able to offer the illumination of truth so sorely needed in a cynical and unkind world.
Joshua Burnell offers this with tantalising wonder, the story set between the heartache of music, of the joy of fantasy made corporeal and buzzing with anticipation. It is every fantasy dream, everybody who sees the humour within songs such as Genesis’s Dancing With The Moonlight Knight will catch on to the terrific sense of wonder, whimsy and C.S. Lewis like approach that Mr. Burnell places before the delighted masses.
In tracks such as The Old Man And The Tree, Fair as Heather, the astonishingly good The Enchanted Wood, The Deep, The Dwarf and The Winner’s Side, Joshua Burnell spins a tale of wholesome endeavour, of greatness and intrigue, but also one of loss, the despair that somewhere along the line the gleaming shrines we have come to worship are as rotten and desolate as the blasted empty heath in King Lear; the journey back to a more serene time is a road many will never understand.
A giant of an album that should be on everybody’s summer listening.
Ian D. Hall