Creation 1989. CRELP 048
Heidi Berry’s second album marked quite a departure from her first. It’s darker, quieter and more powerful, but has the same excellent songwriting and vocal performances. The mostly acoustic backing is superb too; sometimes guitar, sometimes strings and sometimes keyboards, her arranger Christian Lunch did a really good job. She deserved more recognition than she got – was that because of her rather odd residence at Creation? Would she have done better at a more folky label? Maybe Creation gave her a new audience – I doubt I’d have bought this if it was on a different label. Whatever, she’s a testament to Alan McGee’s ear for great music.
The material on the album is so strong, it’s difficult to pick a stand-out, but I guess I’ll plump for North Shore Train.
As before, I don’t actually have the album as linked to above. The CD issue combined Firefly and this album, but they work much better separated.
Further listening? Well her 2000 retrospective Pomegranate is still available, or you could trawl the usual places for second hand copies of her original albums – they’re not worth much.
