Album review: OCTOBER TREE – The Fairy’s Wing

(Canvas Productions, 2012)

If there’s one thing in life that really gets up my nose it’s indulgence. Self indulgence is bad enough, but pandering to somebody else’s indulgence is just plain wrong.

And this is what has happened here. Greg Lounsberry, erstwhile leader of prog-lite October Tree decided to include his wife Tammy in the decision making process for the new album. “I want to make an album about fairies” was the apparent reply.

Now, rather than just giving her a bitch-slap and telling her not to be so stupid as no-one, anywhere is going to be interested, he indulged her and went off and wrote an allegorical novella about said fantasy creatures and ‘The Fairy’s Wing’ is the musical result.

What is really unfortunate is that the album is actually quite good with good song structures and excellent playing throughout – think Marillion with a female vocalist.

However, it doesn’t matter how good the music is, you just cannot escape the subject matter of the lyrics which are simultaneously both fatuous and risible. Track titles such as ‘The Ogre’, ‘Into The Glade’ and ‘Cult Of The White Witch’ give a flavour of the nonsense within and unless you have a real connection with mystical dwarves, witches, fairies and other such drivel, the album quickly becomes tiresome.

Like I said, it is a real shame as there is much to admire about the music – perhaps next time they could write about war, peace, politics, sport, love, poverty, anything other than fairies, and perhaps next time it might be worth a listen.

Incidentally the novella is available on Kindle if you really have both time and money to burn.

*** (for the music)

No stars (for the subject matter)

Review by Alan Jones

Alan sequences “The Eclectic Mix” third Sunday of the month on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio

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