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This opens with the title track, a gorgeous, surging tune of almost mystic beauty, with harmony vocals that help the song to skip along, like a pebble skimming over the surface of a calm lake. This feeling of lightness continues with “When The World Comes Crashing Down”, although with a title like that it really shouldn’t. But somehow Gentry has a built-in ability to lift a song above the maudlin, even when the pace has slowed and the song is about all things lost, being alone, or recognizing fools gold just that little bit too late. He sings all of his songs as if, whatever the disaster, it’s been life affirming, and therefore he is better for the experience. “Dervishes (Love Is Alive)” tilts its beauty towards a special, positive moment, and despite the title it is one of the slower tracks on the album. This exquisite ballad conjures up the instant when fate gives a boy that one moment, which stays forever, when he falls in love for the first time – “You are the one… I remember the best… Spinning around the yard… In your bright purple dress… With the wind in your hair… On a mid-summers day… A red ribbon trying to keep… The locks out of your face…” - what a perfect image, as if you were there, watching this enigmatic girl dance her dance. There are only a few songs that are able to give such purity of image through their words, and this is one such song for me. This mood he has created so magically is rounded off with “Prayer For The Loved”, a four minute anthem (or prayer if you will), asking for those precious in his life to always live on. It is an absolutely captivating song, which just about sums up the whole album, too. |
