Review:

on 2011-02-21 CharlesMartel Said:

Everything about this albums screams at me that I am not going to like "Everyone Is Everybody Else". Everything I ever read about or heard of Barclay James Harvest suggests I should avoid this. For a start this is prog-rock. Not just prog-rock, but rather a sort of second division, uninnovative prog-rock. For a second, it is slow in tempo with a lot of weak male harmonising overdubs. Third, I generally like lyrically strong songs, and lyrically, this is not strong.

Put all that together and there is a lot of weak singing of rather poorly constructed lyrics over some slowed down acoustic semi-folk. I have never known why prog rockers sometimes feel the need to launch into songs about some event or other, and then disguise it so that they think you are going to have to delve deep to find the hidden meaning? Is that the essence of prog rock lyricism? There are some fine examples of this banality here - "Negative Earth" is about the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission; "Mill Boys" is about the declining Lancashire cotton mill business. Still, at least these events are rooted in real life, which is more than you could say for the dribblings of Yes or some of Barclay James Harvest's fellow prog rockers.

Perhaps the least successful of all the tracks is "The Great 1974 Mining Disaster". That title is a none too subtle rehash of the Bee Gees "New York Mining Disaster 1941" made to fit with the 1974 Miners' Strike in the UK. This is about prog rockers attempting politics and the result is poor. Anyone can see through the thinly disguised characterisation - a sailor oh so gay is then British Prime Minister Ted Heath, while Mister Groan is miners' leader, Joe Gormley. Even good old David Bowie gets a look in - a major out in space. Worst of all for a political song - it doesn't really try to make you take sides. It is merely a quasi-allegorical description of events.

So why do I like this album? Well, some of the songs are not too bad. "Paper Wings" has some charm while "See Me See You" is a fairly good love song. "For No One", the best song on the album, is a good anti-war song, much better than "Child Of The Universe" which opens the album and, together with "For No One" provides a bookend like effect to the rest of the tracks. Yet the lyrics are not the reason I like the album. It's just the music. For some reason, the music fits together so well. None of the instruments are overstated, even when a guitar solo is reaching out. The toned down slowed down sound of the album is incredibly soothing and offers you an opportunity to get to know the music holistically, before delving into the layers which underpin it. Finally, if you wish, take on the lyrics, though I think you will be disappointed. This is an album which actually delivers less than the sum of its parts, and that is not bad thing.

I recently bought this extended and remastered version to replace the CD-R I had as a hold until I could rake up the cash to purchase the CD. The sound quality has improved and the addition of bonus track is, as always, welcome, though I am not sure they add that much to the overall picture. My rating remains unchanged.
Rating: 6/10