England - The Last Of The Jubblies (1997)

Having enjoyed the "marmalade" from England's debut album "Garden Shed" this follow-up was too tempting to pass by - recorded in 1977 the music does sound very similar to the material from "Garden Shed" though the sound quality seems patchy, especially on "Creepin Instrumental" so these could well be outtakes and demos from that album - the style of writing and performance is the same, and contains some good songs, most notably "Tooting Bec Rape Case", "Sausage Pie" and "Nanogram".

Those of you who were around in England in the 60's and 70's will recognise the old-style Pound note on the cover - though rather irreverently Her Majesty is smoking a pipe! Also you will remember a "Jubbly" ("luvverly Jubbly..") was a fruit drink in a triangular-shaped wax paper carton ( a brilliant example in efficient storage design ) which contained frozen orange juice costing fourpence - Jubbly drinking, especially frozen, became a playground skill fully explained in the cd booklet - no wonder we all lost our teeth!

The excellent musicianship, the Genesis and Yes influences are all here, and the tongue-in- cheek humour - song titles such as the aforementioned One-legged Sausage Pie , "Tooting Bec Rape Case" and "Nanogram" all beg to be heard.

"One-legged Day Tale" contains some great Prog elements, time changes interspersed with good guitar and organ solos, overall a very dramatic piece which would have been better placed at the beginning of the album - a good opener. "Sausage Pie" kicks off with some atmospheric plodding keyboards and bass which break into a solid beat before getting into the song, "pie in the sky" and feeling high" - oh those wonderful sausage pies …this could only have been written in England! "Tooting Bec Rape Case" has an atmospheric eastern style intro with clashing cymbals and tinkling bells, covers the dangers of girls late walking home, prey for the stalker. This track would not have been out of place on "Garden Shed" it's that good, and includes some good guitar/keyboard solos and some great mellotron moments, the sound quality is great here too. "Mister Meener", as you may have gathered, is a play on the word misdemeanour (duhh..), a simple 60's style song complete with fuzz guitar and child-like school chorus, this seems like it could have been written in 1966, the end of the song goes into a Genesis- style gallop - good stuff! The last track, the instrumental "Nanogram" is another outstanding track which contains some harpsichord and galloping rythms - this also would have fitted perfectly on "Garden Shed", the sound quality is brilliant but is too short, something great could have been developed from this I'm sure!

Overall a good follow-up to their debut and following in the true England tradition, if you own "Garden Shed" you should like this, but is not strictly for completists - the music is much too good!

by mystic fred, progarchives