Pentangle - Finale

Rating: 5/5

Review:
Excellent live Pentangle

This is really good.  One can never be sure with archive live material whether the recording quality will be decent, and there's sometimes a risk with great groups who re-form that the music won't be up to standard (although with Pentangle that risk was very low indeed).  In fact this is excellent on all: five superb musicians creating something really special together, and beautifully recorded.  One of the things which made Pentangle so truly great was the fact that although they were near-genius musicians, what mattered was the ensemble; there's no ego or jockeying for position, they just play together and for each other - and that is just as evident here as it ever was.

This is a compilation of recordings from the 2008 reunion tour.  The repertoire speaks for itself - great, great songs from throughout their recording career with the classic mixture of traditional and contemporary tracks.  All five are on excellent form, perhaps mellowed and deepened by 40 years of playing (and life) experience; John and Bert play superbly, Jacqui is perhaps a little huskier and less pure of tone than of old, but still makes the perfect voice for the band and Danny and Terry play with their usual quiet brilliance.  It really is first-rate stuff and it brought me out in goose-bumps in places – for example, in superb versions of Light Flight and The Snows.   

The recording quality is excellent.  Both John and Bert had a hand in the final production and it is beautifully done.  The recording quality is first-rate, it's perfectly balanced and everything sounds wonderful; I think Danny Thompson's bass is especially well recorded and is a pleasure to listen to. 

I saw Pentangle live sometime around 1970 (and still have the autographed programme).  They were astonishingly good then, and here they are just as good - possibly better.  It's just a joy to listen to from start to finish, and very, very warmly recommended.

(And just in case you missed it, John Renbourn's last live recording, Joint Control, has just been issued and it's excellent, too.)