Bill Fay – Bill Fay (1970) 24-bit/96kHz Vinyl Rip

Fay’s three albums are incredible treasures of British music, which I could vaguely describe as a cross between Syd Barrett and Scott Walker, though such simplification does them a gross disservice. John Mulvey, Uncut Magazine.

Signed to Decca Records in 1967, Fay took three years to assemble the songs for his initial, eponymous album. The recording sessions, by contrast, were completed in a single day, under the guidance of first-time arranger Mike Gibbs and with the support of a twenty-seven-piece orchestra. The interplay between Gibbs’ bright, lush instrumental arrangements and Fay’s measured chording on piano and frail, modest vocals reinforces the recording’s constant vacillation between hopeful reassurance and utter dissatisfaction with modern life. In the opening tune, “Garden Song,” Fay announces that he has planted himself in a garden to escape from the senseless distractions of the modern world and to develop real, “lasting relations” with nature. His communal bliss is short-lived, however, as he relates in song after song the intrusions of violence and alienation into the most isolated frontiers of personal solitude. Even nature itself has become dissatisfied, unhappy, and desperate to escape the current situation. “And the moon is praying,” Fay relates in “The Sun Is Bored.” “It wants to get away to some other place. Any place.” In the midst of his bleakest observations, Fay continues to hope, and urges his listeners to do the same. “Be not so nervous; be not so frail,” he counsels in “Be Not So Fearful,” the album’s penultimate tune. “Someone watches over you; you will not fail.” Whether the “someone” in question is God, nature or the wise, benevolent singer himself remained open to debate—at least until his next recording. David Shirley, billfay.co.uk

Track listing:

01. Garden Song
02. The Sun Is Bored
03. We Want You To Stay
04. Narrow Way
05. We Have Laid Here
06. Sing Us One of Your Songs May

07. Gentle Willie
08. Methane River
09. The Room
10. Goodnight Stan
11. Cannons Plain
12. Be Not So Fearful
13. Down To The Bridge

Personnel:

Bill Fay – Words & Music, Vocals, Piano
George Bird – Bass Guitar
John Marshall, Trevor Taylor – Drums
Richard Mills – Acoustic Guitar
Ray Russell – Electric Guitar
Musical Director, Arrangements – Michael Gibbs
Produced by Peter Eden