This is a review of
Cado Belle vinyl LP with Maggie Reilly.
For technical data see
Angel Tears
by Merciful Squirrel.
What did Maggie Reilly do before her first solo album, what did she do
before her collaborations with Mike Oldfield. She sung with a
group called Cado Belle and they published one LP under the same
title. This could be considered as Maggie's solo album before her
first solo album. She sings every song on the album.
The sound quality of this LP is not exactly as good as we have used to
with CD:s. Some instruments do pretty well and some percussions hit
hard, but it sounds like Maggie had to use a cheap microphone. I
don't really know, this may be caused by the fact that I had to buy my
copy as second hand. The first owner may have worn the LP down
with a low quality player. Maggie's voice is thinner and harder
than on CD:s of the later years, and there is a slight overdriven sound
color.
On this album Maggie tends to be bouncing, she shows more temperament
than ever since. There are moments when she does not control her
voice as perfectly as on all the later albums. However, at other
times she hits the right pitch instantly showing her future
capability. The music style contains some jazzy factor. It
has been defined as funky-jazz, funk-rock, blues, soul-crossover,
whatever you like. You'll hear saxophone and flute besides the
more common pop-rock instruments.
Stone's Throw From
Nowhere walks slowly creating a moody song about relationship
uncertainty. "...Cloud that's got no sky". The background
is made of bass and gently tapping percussions. An electric
piano, strings and a guitar put in some comments. Hodgson's
minimal gestures with his bass are worth listening, this man thinks
more than you'd expect a bass player to do.
A brisk walking speed powers up Airport Shutdown.
Maggie sparkles with temperament when she shouts: "Oh" (=ooo-AH!) of
indignation. A bad weather prevents air transport causing knots
to her relationship. All this is accompanied by percussions and a
slingshot guitar solo.
All Too Familiar
is one more upset relationship drama in upset tempo. The sax
comments mockingly when every initiative leads to a new round of
fight. Finally Maggie sings "Jee-hee" and the sax goes
"blee-heet" and again.
Got To Love is a
merry song about the wild feelings of love ten miles high. Brass
chords and a guitar solo add supplement.
I have to admit it: if this was the only album Maggie ever published, I
would probably be a little less enthused over her music than I am
now. It was only
after this album, when Maggie grew unique. But I tend to be
affected by shortcomings in sound quality. The music itself is
fun and lively and who knows, if the sound just were a little better,
maybe, this would be a very good album.
I also had an opportunity to hear September, a
song not included on Cado Belle LP, but on a separate EP. This is
a sad and very beautiful song. There is a gently howling guitar
solo in the first half. Then a short song by Maggie. She
can sing velvet smooth and effortless high tones without any vestige of
screaming color. Then some saxophone and the guitar again.
That's it. I can only say: please, publish this song again.
It's
beautiful.
According to Squirrel, a CD version of Cado Belle has been
published. I don't really know, if the sound quality is better on
the
CD than on the LP, but starting from the original master tape it's
probably possible to improve the quality. It looks like September
and the whole EP will be included, which makes it worth considering.
(I just wanted to see this and the only way was to paint it first.)
Cado Belle was published in 1976. This review
was written in the winter of 2005.
Back to Maggie
This page set is about my paintings. Most of
the text is in Finnish language, but ... just enjoy the pictures!
Risto Latva
Start of the Paintings (in Finnish)