Writing in the Time Has Told Me blog, Paul Martin has a glowing review of the album; he compares Chimera to an Irish all-female folk-rock band of the same time period called Mellow Candle that I am not familiar with. He also wrote: “What we have as the musical legacy is a game of two halves. Half, or perhaps slightly more, of the songs are real vehicles for the girls’ voices (all the songs are originals). These are acid-folk of the very first order . . . and many of the numbers would have fitted deftly in to The Wicker Man film soundtrack [the original film that is, from 1973]. . . . It should be said that none of the songs on this album have a predictable or conventional pattern to them. They are beautifully syncopated affairs with interesting vocal patterns, lilting bass lines, etc. – in fact ‘progressive’ in the very best sense of that often abused word, with rhythms rising seemingly from nowhere and winding back down again. . . .
“All songs on this album are instrumentally very strong and seem to go out of their way to find counter rhythms rather than plump for the obvious, both instrumentally and vocally.”
Paul Martin notes that about half of the songs are geared mostly to the vocals, with the second and third songs, “The Grail” and “Sad Song for Winter” being particular favorites of mine. Lisa Bankoff handles solo vocals on the latter song. On the other songs, the band is highlighted more strongly, with the closing song “Peru” sounding especially good to these ears. Of these songs, Martin says: “The band dominated numbers can best be described as Fairport Convention meets Little Feat as they have a blend of blues-funk and folk rock in them.”
(November 2013)
