Pentangle SOLOMONS SEAL

Innovative progressive rockers Pentangle play nine of their evocative songs on this 1972 release.
Personnel: John Renbourn, Bert Jansch (vocals, guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo, sitar, recorder); Terry Cox (vocals, drums, finger cymbals, percussion); Jacqui McShee (vocals).
Liner Note Authors: Jacqui McShee; John Renbourn.
Arrangers: Jacqui McShee; John Renbourn; Terry Cox; Bert Jansch.
Pentangle were at the top of the British folk-rock heap, easily the equal of contemporaries like Fairport Convention, but their commercial peak came in 1969 with BASKET OF LIGHT. The last album the original lineup made before running out of steam altogether was 1972's SOLOMON'S SEAL. While the album features the band's trademark mix of folk, rock, and jazz, the double guitar threat of John Renbourn and Bert Jansch and the study-in-contrasts vocal interplay of Jansch and Jacqui McShee, there's a greater clarity and focus to the sound. While this results in less raw immediacy than Pentangle enjoyed on some of their earlier albums, it also makes for a more deliberate overall feel; in other words, the last album of the band's initial incarnation is probably the one that came out most closely to what they intended.

• Format: CD
• Genre: Folk