Swaddling Songs

Despite the fact that after thirty years "Swaddling Songs" is less of a challenge to listen to than it would have been in 1972, it still stands as a most brilliant documentation of the childhood lives of Clodagh Simonds and Allison Williams.Having grown up in the strict Holy Child Convent School in Dublin, the two women were forbidden to listen to rock music, but listened covertly to Radio Luxembourg each night. Only when Simonds began writing a succession of hymnal pop tunes on her parents' piano did the two lives begin to converge.After several false starts, Mellow Candle began to record "Swaddling Songs" in 1971 after moving to London, when Simonds was only eighteen. Though apparently not many songs had been written by Simonds herself, the results were amazing even after thirty years."Heaven Heath" and "Messenger Birds", both written by Allison Williams (née O'Donnell) Simonds' longtime schoolmate, added a contrasting touch to the album. Retaining the hymnal flavour of Simonds' songs, they are nontheless much odder in their melodies and rhythma, especially "Heaven Heath"'s brilliant harpsichord line, but retain the accessible melodies and amazingly beautiful vocals. "Messenger Birds" sets the mystical tone of the album - remiscent in places of Kate Bush's work on  The Ninth Wave  in its tale of travelling across the sea."Sheep Season" with its long instrumental outro and "Silver Song" (once covered by My Bloody Valentine) show the typical Simonds style of haunting and atmospheric pop tunes, not at all folky in instrumentation or sound. "Dan The Wing" was an amazing drama about evil, beating Laura Nyro's  Eli And The Thirteenth Confession  or Kate Bush's  The Dreaming  for explicit imagery of the Devil. "Break Your Token" was an upbeat, festive rocker, whilst the amazing overlaying of a guitar solo and beautiful vocals on "Lonely Man" was worth the price of admission alone. The closer "Boulders On My Grave" continued in that vein with Clodagh and Allison repeatedly chanting "Do do do do", "La la la la" and "Na na na na" in perfect harmony.The album's centrepiece, though, was the amazing, chilling, piano-only "Reverend Sisters", in which the women's beautiful voices matched Simonds' amazing piano line and lyrics describing brilliantly the women's strict religious upbringing and its effects on them - almost a taste of Tori Amos twenty years before the fact. "Reverend Sisters" was remarkably honest yet not a preachy attack on religion - it was a matter-of-fact tale that will always amaze those fortunate enough to hear it."Buy Or Beware" and "Vile Excesses" rounded of the album excellently. Because of the (for its time) very difficult lyrical imagery, "Swaddling Songs" never charted and would not have been warmly received by critics. Mellow Candle soon disbanded and Simonds spent most of the 1970s working as a session singer.Nonetheless, the beautiful, almost medieval-like vocal harmonies in "Swaddling Songs" were and unlike anything else in rock. Though the album has been seen as a folk album, "Swaddling Songs" in fact lacked any normal "folk" characteristics and was basically pure pop in charcter. Yet, the medieval and intensely mystical atmosphere of the record makes it a true sonic marvel of beauty and simple melodies. Thus, original LP copies of "Swaddling Songs" have become a valuable rarity that stands as testimony to the music's worthiness.

This album "Swaddling Songs," and the CD release, is quite an impressive album, and it has some of the most lovely and beautiful songs I've heard, and the two female vocalists just have wonderful and beautiful voices, and that being Alison Williams and Clodagh Simonds. There's some outstanding piano playing on this album, as well as good guitar work, but it's the great songs that really make this CD special. As their name suggests, their are some "mellow" songs, but the singing is just so wonderful and beautiful, and Alison Williams just has a fantastic voice. There's also some very up-tempo songs, and those are excellent as well. There's not one bad song on this album, and I can see why it's considered a classic and highly collectable for people that are looking for the original vinyl LP. The new CD called "The Virgin Prophet" is definitely worth getting to if you like Mellow Candle, and I highly recommend getting it, you won't be disappointed at all. I give this 5 stars, because it's truly a masterpiece in my opinion. I could listen to this over and over forever, it's that good. Glenn Signal Hill, CA USA

I love this music so much, I feel like I'm back at MREA Energy Fair or a music festival with love and Hippies of all ages.

Excellent playing, singing, recording, atmospherics, art... highly recommended

A beautifully compiled box set with top quality components; excellent vinyl, booklet reflects great care taken, especially restoring some pictures that were obviously very distressed. A package that I quite honestly thought would never ever be offered. Brilliant.

Good Stuff!

Nice folk, rock album easy listening keeper

Like most people, I'm a bit wary when someone says "listen to this, you'll love it", but I am grateful to the friend who, knowing my fondness for the Incredible String Band/Fairport/Steeleye etc loaned me a copy of "Swaddling Songs". After the first track I had to collect my eyebrows from the ceiling and my jaw from the floor. Forgive the hyperbole, suffice to say before the second track had finished I was online and placing an order for my own copy of this terrific album. I know nothing about the band apart from what I've read in the sleeve notes. It seems amazing to me that an album of such evident quality was largely ignored when it came out in 1972, especially as the aforementioned folk-rock groups were doing such big business back then. The music is tight, with Rush-like precision in many of the instrumental passages. Baroque, folk mystical and just plain wierd flourishes abound (all of which is fine with me), but the real eye-opener is the quality of the vocal performances. Comparisons with Maddy Prior and Sandy Denny are inevitable, but these two girls sing with an individual brilliance and frequently stunning harmonies which really make such comparisons pointless. Among the more gentle, reflective tracks "Reverend Sisters" and "Silver Song" are standouts, while "Dan the Wing", "Buy or Beware" and especially "Boulders on my Grave" are simply breathtaking uptempo pieces delivered with great flair. The whole album is hugely enjoyable and yes, I do recommend it to anyone with an interest in classic folk-rock.

Like most people, I'm wary when someone says "Listen to this, you'll love it", but I am grateful to the friend who, knowing my fondness for Incredible String Band/Fairport/Steeleye etc loaned me a copy of "Swaddling Songs". After the first track I had to collect my eyebrows from the ceiling and my jaw from the floor. Forgive the hyperbole, suffice to say before the second track had finished I was online placing an order for my own copy of this terrific album. Its a stunner. It seems amazing to me that an album of such evident quality was largely ignored when it came out in 1972, especially as the aforementioned folk-rock groups were doing such big business back then. The music is tight, with Rush-like precision and drama in many of the instrumental passages. Baroque, folk, mystical and just plain wierd flourishes abound (all of which is fine by me), but the real eye-opener is the quality of the vocals. These two girls sing with individual brilliance and frequently breathtaking harmonies. Among the more gentle, reflective tracks "Reverend Sisters" and "Silver Song" are standouts, while "Dan the Wing", "Buy or Beware" and especially "Boulders on my Grave" are wild uptempo pieces delivered with great flair. The wole album is hugely entertaining, and yes, I do recommend it to anyone with an interest in classic folk-rock.

Not so mellow, thankfully. A variety of songs beautifully composed, sung and played, some quite soft but others to wake you up and get you thinking. Overall, a well-crafted album which, at its release in 1972, showed that this Irish folk-rock fivesome had been hard at work over the years. Should have kept on burning brightly, but the wind apparently blew out the flame. This album remains a fine testimony to a rather special bunch of folk who believed this tired old world could still become a place worth living in, and threw in their combined talent to make it a little bit better.

Stunning! How Mellow Candle weren’t recognised for their talent and artistry decades ago I’ll bever know. If you like vocal folk rock you’ll love this. Some songs are similar to the music composed for some Anime films so it is also loved by my son.

This was the only album made by Irish band Mellow Candle and, sadly, did not set the world on fire. But in the folk-rock millieu, it deserves to be heard more widely as the vocal harmonies of Alison Williams and Clodagh Simonds are a delight and songs like "Reverend Sisters" are as good as anything that better known bands like Trees ever put out. If you have an interest in the folk-rock genre and don't know Mellow Candle, this is an album worth investigating.

Everything the other reviewers say about this extraordinary CD is true. Along with the work of Pearls Before Swine (who might almost be their chilled-out twins), this represents the very best of the strange "baroque folk" explosion of the early 1970s that is largely forgotten. Truly wonderful music.