Greet The Dawn
Artist: Nuffsed
Label: UK
Indie
Length: 14 tracks / 48:57 minutes
One of the few survivors from the Christian folk-rock boom in Britain
in the early 90s, Nuffsed's fourth album sees them fully independent and
stripped down to a five-piece after experiments with more personnel. The
music is laid back folk, with Terry Mills's soft vocals dominating. A fair
range of instruments has been brought in to add some spice to the mix;
banjo, accordion, bodhran, and dulcimer are among the names listed in the
sleeve insert.
Nuffsed has always been a very family based group, and the songs
here are all written by husband and wife team Jackie and Terry Mills. They
are overtly Christian in emphasis, and often evangelistic, but follow in
the strong story-telling tradition of much folk music. The quality of writing
is somewhat patchy, with a number of good analogies accompanied by some
awkward rhyme schemes.
The overall effect is sadly rather anaemic. The songs vary little
in terms of tempo or atmosphere and they can easily drift by. Mills's voice
is pleasant enough, but he needs to try and inject some more power from
time to time to pull the listener in.
Nuffsed is to be commended for its determination to make their music
heard despite the withdrawal of record company support, but they need to
try varying the songs more if they're to produce something to really hold
the listeners' attention.
James Stewart 4/29/99