crathpem_2015

UK artists CRYSTAL JACQUELINE and THE HONEY POT are interconnected units, with Jacqueline being the vocalist of the latter band and also, if I understand matters correctly, attached to the main songwriter of that band too. For them to release a joint or split album would probably not happen under usual circumstances for a number of good reasons. Then again, this album isn’t one made under normal circumstances either. It is, in fact, an expanded version of two vinyl EP’s released by UK label Fruits de Mer Records in 2014, one of their productions that was sold out almost quicker than it was released. Rather than providing us with a straight reissue, the artists here chose to expand those two EPs into a full length album, which was then released through UK label Mega Dodo in 2015.

Speaking of sales, by the time I write this the physical edition of this album is long gone as well. The limited CD run disappeared fairly quickly, but unlike the productions issued by Fruits de Mer, Mega Dodo also resell digital versions of their releases. Hence this album still being available, albeit in digital format only.

What we get here is a bit more than an EP’s worth of high quality psychedelic pop and rock, with Crystal Jacqueline’s enthralling vocals as the key element in the greater majority of the actual songs. A few cuts have Icarus Peel on lead vocals instead, and as he is an able vocalist in his own right that is not a letdown at all. The best example arguably being one of the few true real songs added to the original EP, a cover version of Hole in My Shoe, which is a blazing and most satisfactory excursion into the landscapes of undeniable psychedelic rock and an album highlight as far as I’m concerned.

The rest of the filler material added to this album consist of short and somewhat longer mood pieces, on one occasion seguing over to an actual song as well, sporting a child’s voice as some kind of narrator telling a story revolving around Crystal Jacqueline, and as I experience it written down with a certain sense of humor involved. For me the voice was functional as a mood provider first and foremost, adding a natural sense of the naive to the psychedelic landscapes underneath it, a most charming and satisfying mood and atmosphere the end result of that.

Crystal Jacqueline and The Honey Pot are both quality providers of psychedelic pop and rock of the kind that was explored and released throughout the British Isles in the 60’s and 70’s, and this EP expanded into a full length album documents their skills in that department quite nicely, with original songs, cover tracks and filler mood pieces all sharing the equal high quality. If you treasure music of this kind, this is another album to add to the list of music that merits an inspection.

My rating: 80/100