Grave New World - STRAWBS****

Benedictus/Hey Little Man Thursday's Child/Queen Of Dreams/Heavy Disguise/New World/Hey Little Man Wednesday's Child/The Flower & The Young Man/Tomorrow/On Growing Older/Ah Me Ah My/Is It Today Lord/ The Journey's End

Grave New World heralded the commercial breakthrough for Strawbs. Despite the loss of Rick Wakeman, the group had been steadily moving away from their folk roots to embrace a more progressive rock sound. (US:191 UK:11)

“The departure of Rick Wakeman didn't stop the Strawbs from fully embracing a sort of symphonic folk, but it did shake the band's confidence. Cousins turned to the rest of the band members for songwriting support. The end product is both extremely consistent and conceptually cohesive, the album tracing the journey of an everyman protagonist from cradle to grave.”

“With a heavier dose of acoustic guitar than most prog bands of the time, and a new willingness to get experimental, Grave New World sees the band perfecting their own unique model of progressive music. It might not be as complex as their competitors, but it's certainly powerful and emotionally moving - as on the best song on the disc, the harsh and biting New World. This is the first real Stawbs classic.”

“On Grave New World the band heads in a more progressive rock direction. Their earlier albums all had progressive elements but most of the material was just folk rock kind of stuff. I like the change; this still has a bit of their original folk style left which is nice. But mostly this record is a prog rock disc from the start to the end.”

“Grave New World finds the Strawbs in an almost new light, musically speaking. Being considered as a folk-rock band with progressive leanings with this album they enter in symphonic prog zone whilst keeping the folk flavour of previous albums.”

“This album seems to mark the beginning of a transition for them from their more traditional folk roots toward a more progressively commercial sound.”

The Strawbs were cautiously dipping their feet into prog-rock territory by this time, their earlier albums being mostly folk and folk-rock oriented. Benedictus, which starts off the set, is a tightly constructed pop-song with a delightful organ break in the middle. The chorus is very hymn-like and unusual rhythmically. Next, Queen Of Dreams is the most psychedelic sounding tune here. True to form the group changes style through all the songs, from gentle guitar strumming folk, via music hall novelty songs, protest songs, to pounding rock on Tomorrow.”