Suite For Susan Moore – TIM HARDIN***

First Love Song/Everything Good Becomes More True/Question Of Birth/Once Touched By Flame/Last Sweet Moments/Magician/Loneliness She Knows/The Country I’m Livin’ In/One One The Perfect Sum/Susan

Suite For Susan Moore was the first album from folk singer songwriter Tim Hardin after moving to the Columbia label. Unfortunately the move does not appear to have stimulated his creativity judged by this introspective and disjointed release. (US:129)

“One of those records I was the most disappointed by, too introspective, not enough instrumentation, too difficult to come into, too disjointed with nothing catchy. I prefer all his other output.”

“I have to be honest and say I struggled with this a little. Partly down to the spoken word segments which I don't think do the album any favours at all, particularly the last part Susan which is plain awful. There is no doubt that Tim Hardin was a fine songwriter, but I think I may just have to bracket him with the performers whose songs I prefer covered by others.”

“Dense, volatile, hurt or broken. This Suite For Susan Moore can be associated with all these adjectives. This musical exorcism bubbles over with pain in every groove. Pain with no filter or control. This was supposed to be an elaborated concept album about love and hate, benefiting from a misty atmosphere filled with echo, but doesn't survive the recitations - tedious rather than poetic, nor, and this is the worst, the more than nine minutes of One One The Perfect Sum. Awful, to put it simply. Yet, the record is quite interesting. A hazy artefact.”

“An intensely personal album full of dark and disturbing reflections on love and family, the results often sounded like little more than a series of improvised rehearsals that Hardin and company had stitched together to form an album. There wasn't a great deal of conventional material to be found here.”

“The music that this man made, and the way he sang, defied all classification. He could veer towards folk, blues and jazz with wonderful results and at the same time he could combine all of them in a rather singular blend accompanied by his distinctive voice. This album shows that even when under a dry spell Tim was a very sensitive and complex songwriter. Complex in the sense that his voice is added as an extra instrument and can carry a simple tune to incredible heights.”