Fuchsia - Fuchsia (Vinyl)

Description

Here's one of those one album wonders that richly deserves rediscovery, offering lush, fluid songs combining progressive-folk stylings with real rock energy. Named (of course) for the beautiful, doomed, melancholy sister of Titus Groan in Mervyn Peake's "Gormenghast" novels, Fuchsia lives up to the Romantic/Gothic nature of its inspiration, whose portrait adorns the cover. There's a soaring yet shadowed tone to many prog-folk bands of the early 1970s, and this one provides that tone in plenty. The string section (cello, violin, viola) is integrated into the music, rather than being mere embellishment added as an afterthought; and while you might think of the Electric Light Orchestra, the songwriting & playing here is much lighter & far more elegant. A closer comparison might be a fusion of Renaissance (only as chamber pop rather than full orchestration) &, say, the Strawbs, or Al Stewart, at their most acoustic & brooding. "Me and My Kite" even ventures into Syd Barrett territory! Lyrically the songs are jeweled with tasteful Medievalisms, while avoiding the overblown bombast of too many progressive bands. If anything, there's a certain mournful worldweariness mixed in with flourishes of transient joy. This is a soundtrack for the afterglow of a fading golden day, when twilight is deepening, loss & regret are whispering in your ear, but a touch of sun-drenched summer still lingers, glowing brightly in memory. Definitely worthwhile for any devotee of this baroque musical niche. Recommended!