Shide & Acorn – Princess of the Island (Kissing Spell 1994)

Shide & Acorn was another shortlived British folkrock band. They only got to release one album (not exactly uncommon for obscure folk bands), ‘Under The Tree’ from 1971. I haven’t heard that one yet, but I have heard – and by now love – this album. ‘Princess of the Island’ consists of no less than 14 songs, half of them demos. But the sound quality is not that bad, and does not disturb you from the listening pleasure you’ll probably have if you are lucky enough to get hold of this album (it’s incredibly rare!). The album was released more than 20 years after the band quit, as S&A were only active from the late 60’s to the very early 70’s. We should be forever thankful for the weird and wonderful UK label ‘Kissing Spell’ for releasing this and a lot of other really obscure albums of rare folkrock and psychedelia. Anyway, ‘Princess of the Island’ is a really low key affair, and I like every single song on it. You won’t find anything flashy or progressive here, but the album is on the other hand full of fragile vocal melodies and harmonies – by Joy Perkis, John Newman and Mike Joliffe. It’s all wonderful stuff if you’re into this sort of thing. And it’s all so fragile and innocent that even artists like Vashti Bunyan and Nick Drake seem like hardcore imperialists by comparison. The album has a delighful homemade charm that no modern digital crap on the radio today can match whatsoever. I find this album very even, and always listen to it uninterrupted in its entirety (as it should be), but I guess my favourite songs are the opener ‘Watching a Seagull’, the only uptempo song ‘Island’ (I really love the melody and feel of that one), ‘Summer’ (which makes you picture a lazy afternoon out in the open fields with not a care in this world) and the haunting ‘Oh Were They Calling Me’, that closes the album. Personally I can’t get enough of folk rock like this. Highly recommended for fans of low key folk, but good luck finding a physical copy!