Reverend Lovejoy
Another Time, Another Place
Kreegah! Records

The hard facts first: Reverend Lovejoy is Pål Angelskår and Jens Herman Ruge. They spent some months in Mexico in 1998 where they wrote these songs. Back home they were encouraged to record them, which they did on a borrowed analogue four-track machine with some help from their friends. And here's the end result, 12 short songs and an even shorter instrumental, written by Pål or Jens Herman separately, 28 minutes in all.

These are "singer-songwriter" songs, dominated by acoustic guitars and vocals, but with - mainly discreet - drums, bass, electric guitar, organ and piano in between. A quotation from Nick Drake's song Things Behind The Sun printed on the cover (also included in one of the Reverend's songs) gives an indication of the music. And the two songwriters seem to be serious young men like Nick Drake used to be. As far as I understand (no lyrics are printed in the booklet), Mexican matters inspire some of the lyrics, but most of them have a broader - global - horizon, dealing with love and relationships you know. The booklet has a lot to do with Mexico, though, including several nice colour photos from the trip.

To some, a four-track analogue recording might seem much too limited and primitive these days. Well, I think the limitations have been an advantage here. The sound quality is much better than could be expected and quite sufficient to fit the CD format. I suspect some of the charm and "soul" might have been lost with a wider range of instruments and recording possibilities. Here, the acoustic guitars are the backbone of most of the songs, with some exquisite guitar playing in between, not least Connections. And for instance The Girls That Made Your Summer has some very nice interplay between acoustic and electric guitar and organ.

All in all, I think the darker, more melancholic songs of the album stand out. Home Again, clearly written before the homecoming, and the haunting little piece ¿Ok? are probably my favourite. So far Another Time, Another Place has proved to be suitable company late at night and on lazy summer afternoons and will probably suit winter mornings, too, later on. But I advice you mainly to put it on when you're alone. This is definitely not party music.

Copyright © 1999 JP