Pentangle’s changing line-up captured on Through the Ages: 1984-1995 — album review

Pentangle’s enduring reputation rests on the band’s six studio albums, recorded between 1968 and 1972. After an extended hiatus, the original members reformed for a couple of years, before guitarist and sitarist John Renbourn left the band at the end of a tour of Australia. The six-CD box set Through the Ages: 1984-1995 captures the band’s Ship of Theseus years, where they swapped out members with an insouciance more often associated with Fairport Convention or Steeleye Span.

First into the charmed circle was Mike Piggott, whose jazzy violin playing adds something new to the hermetic soundworld. Open the Door was a ragbag of older songs and tunes from the band members’ solo repertoires. The highlight is a version of Milton Nascimento’s “Mother Earth”. The great bassist Danny Thompson was the next to leave (he soon released his own debut solo album, Whatever), replaced by Nigel Portman-Smith. In the Round, down to three original band members, is slick and slightly soulless, its keyboards faintly reminiscent of Clannad’s Macalla from the previous year. On “Süil Agrar” Jacqui McShee is joined hauntingly on lead vocals by her sister Pam.

Next the band lost both Piggott — replaced first by Lindisfarne’s Rod Clements and then by Peter Kirtley — and its original drummer Terry Cox. The latter was a huge loss: his airy, minimal playing gave ample space and freedom for Bert Jansch’s guitar, whereas his replacement Gerry Conway was far more regimented. But this line-up made it through three more studio albums and a valedictory live set. The best of the albums is probably So Early in the Spring, which included a reprise of their old hit “Bruton Town” in the guise of “Bramble Briar” and a take on the traditional song “The Blacksmith”, vigorous enough to rival Steeleye Span’s version. Think of Tomorrow has “Colour My Paintbook”, released as a single in Germany, and One More Road the African rhythms of “Somali”, a commentary on the country’s early 1990s civil war.

The six albums collected here would not on their own have constituted a legacy in any way comparable with the band’s opening sextet, but there are still moments to savour.

★★★☆☆

‘Through the Ages: 1984-1995’ is released by Cherry Red