Fairfield Parlour - From Home To Home (Japan Reissue) (2005)

Ok... Hi again folks. Here is the 2004 mini-LP replica Repertoire Records release of Fairfield Parlour's 1970 album titled 'From Home To Home'. This was originally released on the famed Vertigo "swirl" label of the late-60's - early 70's. All these "swirl" Vertigo releases are highly-prized collectables that include many legendary Hard Rock, Prog Rock and Pub/Folk album classics. This particular record was the 8th album release in the Vertigo series and had the catalogue number 6360 001 and marked the ending of the numbering system of the first seven Vertigo releases - VO 1-7. This mini-LP replica faithfully duplicates the release including the gate-fold cover and the fold-out poster insert exactly. As you probably all know, this is the third LP by Kaleidoscope, issued under an alias probably because Kaleidoscope seemed too much connected with the by now irretrievably vanished sixties. Again, this is a gem in the crown of Vertigo, almost as good as the two Kaleidoscope albums, albeit somewhat unfashionable and more disciplined. I strongly doubt that there were many listeners in 1970 waiting for a typical British "nice" psychedelic record. The melodies are as innocent as they get and there is just enough whimsy to attract the attention without working it as contrived. Flamboyant highlight: the ever modulating and revolving "Sunny Side Circus". All in all somewhat outdated, but very listenable nonetheless. The cover works great when it is folded open. The elderly lady reading a paper in her rustic attic does not seem to know that there are four very solemn lads in the adjoining room: the band. They look as if they were preparing a sermon. The combination of diagonal lines and all kinds of frames (a mirror, a portrait, a letter, a doorpost etc.) is maintained with iron discipline. Hundred shades of brown and the use of a delicately structured board for the cover enhance the homeliness. The cover is structured in rectangles. The lettering is effective: just a hint of fancy and ornament. Inside the lyrics are printed over a dark and misty landscape where the band is hardly visible in the gloom. The remains of a tree stick sharply into the nebulous air. Another tree, wintry and leafless, offers some protection. Very atmospheric. This CD, like other reissues, also includes several bonus tracks added on to it. These bonus track differs to a small degree among these various compact disc reissues. Among these are 4 non-Lp tracks which were released on an EP (6059 008) around the same time as the album. Side A has "Just Another Day" and "Song For You", while side B has "Caraminda" and "I Am All The Animals". In my opinion, all of these various CD reissues are worthy to have in a well-rounded music collection. So... in a few words, you probably have this Fairfield Parlour CD release but another slightly different version of it.

From Home To Home is quite similar to the albums this group had put out in the late '60s as the Kaleidoscope (the British Kaleidoscope, not to be confused with the American band of the same name). In fact, it's similar enough to the Kaleidoscope records to make one wonder why they bothered to change their name. Perhaps there is more polish and sophistication in the production, and a slightly heavier rock sound. But the focus is still gentle, story-like songs with debts to both late-'60s Pink Floyd and late-'60s Beatles, though the songs are not nearly as memorable as the work by those bands, and there is not nearly as much balance between chipper and somber material as The Beatles and Pink Floyd mustered. (Fairfield Parlour are heavily tilted toward the cheery tunes.) Tasteful early synthesizer is heard from time to time, and the debts to 1969 Beatles are heard in the Leslie amplification effects, though there are acoustic folk-psych passages with flute, too. The album has been reissued as half of the double-CD compilation The Fairfield Parlour Years, in conjunction with Fairfield Parlour's other 1970s album, the concept album White Faced Lady, which was not released until the 1990s. The disc on that set that contains From Home to Home adds bonus tracks from non-LP releases, along with the single they did under the name I Luv Wight, the previously unreleased movie theme "Eyewitness," and a far more recent re-recording of one song from From Home To Home, "Aries."