Strawbs - Dragonfly (1970) {Reissue With Bonus 2008}
Review by Richie Unterberger
Dragonfly was the second album to be released by the Strawbs, though much other material unissued in the late '60s that preceded it has since been made available. (In fact, earlier versions of two of the songs, "I Turned My Face Into the Wind," and "Josephine, for Better or for Worse," appear on the archival releases Strawberry Music Sampler, No. 1 and Preserves Uncanned, respectively.) Dragonfly was also the only LP the band recorded with cellist Claire Deniz in the lineup. Though an attractive and competent record, it's not as impressive as their debut. The songs aren't as striking, and the arrangements — even with the addition of a fourth full-time member in Deniz — aren't as effective as the mating of folk-rock, medieval, and classical music that characterized the best songs on the first album. It's a more subdued effort, and not as grave in its mood, Deniz's cello doing much to mellow the sound. Dave Cousins retained his appetite for epics, though, in the ten-minute "The Vision of the Lady of the Lake," which had piano by soon to be Strawb Rick Wakeman. When the fuzz guitar unexpectedly piles into the mix a few minutes into the track, joined by strange hissing background noises, it reaches a tense height that the rest of the record doesn't match, though it's accomplished and pleasingly introspective dawn of the '70s British folk-rock.
Tracklisting
01 The Weary Song
02 Dragonfly
03 I Turned My Face To The Wind
04 Josephine, For Better Or Worse
05 Another Day
06 'Til The Sun Comes Shining Through
07 Young Again
08 The Vision Of The Lady In The Lake
09 Close Your Eyes
Bonus Tracks
10 We'll Meet Again Sometime (Trident Studios, London June 1969)
11 Forever (single version)
12 Another Day (John Peel's TopGear 7th september 1969)
13 We'll Meet Again Sometime (John Peel's TopGear 7th september 1969)
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