[Review] Fields: Contrasts: Urban Roar to Country Peace (2015)
More than forty years later, Fields’ followup finally emerges to answer the question of Whatever happened to.
Kronomyth 2.0: Archaeological, dig?
I enjoyed the first Fields record and thought it a promising start. Unfortunately, it also proved to be the end of the band. A second album, recorded with Frank Farrell (ex-Breakthru) in place of Alan Barry, was apparently shelved and didn’t see the light of day until 2015. Contrasts: Urban Roar to Country Peace is, truth be told, an uneven album. There are some flashes of proggish majesty (Let Her Sleep, Music Was Their Game, Storm), while a good half of the album could more rightly be described as psychedelic soul-rock. (Well, I’m not sure “rightly” is the right word, since that description sounds like a copout.) Barry was a better singer than Farrell and, with his double-necked guitar, a more suitable frontman for a prog band. So it falls to Graham Field and Andy McCulloch to keep the prog fire burning with superlative playing. On Fields, ELP/The Nice and Procol Harum were the most obvious reference points. Nothing on Contrasts: Urban Roar to Country Peace reminds me of Procol Harum, though you do get a whiff of early Genesis and Gentle Giant on some of these tracks (the ELP/Nice comparisons still hold). Contrasts may be a concept album but I haven’t bothered to decode it; environmental sounds serve as segues that imply a journey from the city to the country. Also included at the end are several tracks not part of the second album proper: Set Yourself Free (which may have been intended as a single) and two instrumentals. Spring is just a bit of piano rock & roll, but The River is lovely; on hearing it, you’ll wish Graham Field had recorded an entire album of instrumentals. Although Fields’ second album wasn’t destined for better fortunes than the first, it’s too bad the band didn’t have time to establish themselves. With a bigger budget (and a bigger band), they might really have taken flight eventually. For progtasters, Contrasts at least rights an historical wrong by giving the band the encore they deserved.
Original elpee version
A1. Let Her Sleep (5:01)
A2. Wedding Bells (4:01)
A3. Someone to Trust (3:49)
A4. Wonder Why (3:38)
A5. Music Was Their Game (3:01)
B1. The Old Canal (4:18)
B2. Put Out to Grass (3:30)
B3. Storm (4:37)
B4. Set Yourself Free (4:35)
B5. The River (2:32)
B6. Spring (1:50)
The Players
Frank Farrell (vocals, lead and acoustic guitars, bass), Graham Field (keyboards), Andy McCulloch (drums, percussions).
The Plastic
Released on elpee and compact disc in 2015 in the EU (Esoteric, ECLEC2 2488)
