Album Rating: 4.0

Ok. I will be careful with it.

Album Rating: 4.0

Finally I could check the album a couple of times and it's really great. I also could check From the Witchwood and it's an amazing album. I can see now why Wakeman could call the attention. I'll dedicate some of my time to check this band with the albums mentioned by you and Jethro. Thanks for bring this band to me. Great review too. Pos.

Album Rating: 4.0

Thanks man, and you will not regret. The guys are really great, one of the best indeed. But unfortunately they never had the recognition they deserve. In reality, they were one of the greatest bands that never was. Anyway, I know them since my adolescense and these gentlemen have always inspired me through out the years. I hope they can do the same with you.

Album Rating: 4.0

@ Jethro

Finally I had some free time to listen to "Two Weeks Last Summer" and it's a great album. As a great Strawbs' fan I never checked the solo career of Cousins because I always saw Strawbs as his personal musical project. So, I was completely unaware of the existence of this album. And I'm very glad that you brought it to me especially due to "Blue Angel". This is an amazing track with a great musicanship, a truly lost Strawbs' musical suite, in the same vein of many other great suites made by them. It's a phenomenally good track from one of the best singer/songwriters that England and prog has ever produced. The list of session musicians on this album is realy amazing and is a truly live testament to the esteem in which Cousins was held, and is held still in our days.

Once more, thanks bro.

Album Rating: 4.5

@The Intruder, Glad to see you're digging Strawbs. You're about to discover the proggiest side of the band. Enjoy!

@e21; I'm glad you like that Cousins' album. I never checked his other solo works because I see there aren't many ratings and they're rather low according to Progarchives. I discovered ''Two Weeks Last Summer'' a few years back while reading a Strawbs' review. And when I heard ''Blue Angel'', I thought to myself he took a Strawbs' song to make the album, but that was not the case. My first contact with ''Blue Angel'' was thanks to my old vinyl album ''The Best of Strawbs'', and I always thought it was a Strawbs' song because of that. And it was even a favorite of mine.

Given that Two Weeks Last Summer was released between Grave New World and Bursting at the Seams, I thought that some of its tracks were destined to be in one or another of these albums, but were put aside on a shelf instead. Album has a space folk, psychedelic vibe into it, and Cousins probably preferred to make an entire ''experimental''album on his own, ''The Actor'' and ''Blue Angel''would easily fit into ''Grave New World'' or its follower, as well as some other tracks if they were arranged in a Strawbs' way.

Cheers mate.

Album Rating: 4.0

Yeah, maybe some of the songs of "Two Weeks Last Summer" were put aside on a shelf. I agree with you. Some of the tracks could be easily released on "Bursting At The Seams", with other musical arrangements.

As I wrote before, I always was a great fan of Strawbs, since my youth. I have all their albums from the 70's on CD and I even have "Grave New World", "Bursting At The Seams", "Ghosts", "Nomadness", "Deep Cuts" and "Deadlines" on vinyl, bought in the good old days. However and as you, I always prefered their acoustic phase to their electric phase. By the other hand, I never paid attention to their albums made since the 70's.

Still, when I was listening to "Two Weeks Last Summer" on You tube and did a nostalgic trip to many videos of their live shows. There were some videos that called my attention. For instance the video live in BBC with two of their best tracks, "Autumn" + "Lay Down", in an unplugged concert. I always loved acoustics concerts and Strawbs are one of my favourite bands. Then, it came to my mind an album of 2001, "Acoustic Strawbs: Baroque & Roll". It was on Progarchives that the album called my attention due to its high ratings. So, soon as I could, I bought a CD copy of it. As you hasn't rated it yet, I presume that you don't know the album yet. The album has nothing new in terms of new songs, but has many of our beloved songs on an acoustic version. And believe me, the album is really great. I really don't know if the album is at our disposal on any music site. But anyway, it deserves to be listened. If it's possible to you, you must listened to it. Check the tracks on Progarchives.

Cheers dude.

Album Rating: 4.5

Whoa, man, you're equipped when it comes to Strawbs albums. I listen to everything you mentioned. ''Autumn + Lay Down'' in BBC and Baroque & Roll. ''Autumn'' was nicely done live acoustic. ''Lay Down'' is a cool song, but it's surely not in my top 10 of theirs. Baroque & Roll has a great setlist, but there are some songs I never heard of; ''Evergreen'', ''There Will Come The Day'', ''Not All The Flowers Grow'', ''Inside Your Hell Tonight'' and ''Alice's Song''. Where do you find all these original versions? It's a great listen anyway, thanks to bring it to me. ''Golden Salamander'' is so sweet!

And about your other comment about ''Two Weeks Last Summer'', you are right, there are plenty of guest musicians well known in the rock world, and on top of that, there are Rick Wakeman and Dave Lambert.

Check out Hero & Heroine In Ascencia (2011) if you haven't yet. It's a remake of Hero & Heroine, pretty faithful of the original release, with few other arrangements, but it's only that Cousins' vocals are not the same anymore. He sounds forced and tired vocally, but overall, it's worth a listen.

Album Rating: 4.0

Yeah, I am very well equipped with Strawbs as well as many other bands and artists. I spent part of my life collecting albums. I started in 1975, when I bought my first turntable, and I buy some things even nowdays. I have over 3,000 albums, where about 350 are vinyl albums, and most of them, about at least two-thirds are prog or linked with prog. So as you can see, Strawbs are no exception. I spent a fortune collecting these things. Almost all of my comments here on Sputnik, almost 100%, are based on copies that I own.

About "Baroque & Roll" it has really a great set list. About the songs you don't know, "Evergreen" was released on "Don't Say Goodbye", "There Will Come The Day" was released on "Blue Angel", "Not All The Flowers Grow" and "Inside Your Hell Tonight" are songs that were never released on any of their studio albums.''Alice's Song'' is a song written by Brian Willoughby and Cathrin Craig and appeared for the first time on Brian's 1998 solo studio album "Black And White", sung by Cathrin. "Alice's Song" was released as a single with more two songs. "Alice's Song" is on the A side and "The Golden Salamander" and a prvious unreleased bonus track, "On My Way", are the B side. So, as you can see, the album has more than you could think.

OK dude. I must check out "Hero & Heroine In Ascencia" as a big fan of the original album. The original is perhaps my second choice shortly after "Grave New World", as my favourite album of Strawbs.

Cheers, bro.

Album Rating: 4.5

Woah, you're really fortunate to have such a collection! It's truly a huge library of treasures! Man, I own a modest collection compared to you.

As for ''Baroque and Roll'', thanks for all your precisions. I will rate it soon. Also, I intend to go through their entire discog, slowly but surely. I'm curious enough about their material from the 90's and the 2000's. I'll soon do a top 20 list about Strawbs, even if they're rather unknown here on Sputnik. I'll probably do a top Peter Gabriel list before it. It would surely be a more frequented list hahaha!

Album Rating: 4.0

Great men. Tell me when you do that, in both cases, of course. I'm not very familiar with all musical career of Gabriel. I only know very well his first five studio albums and some other live things. About Strawbs, and as I said before, I'm only comfortable about their 70's stuff. As I became a little bit deceptioned with some of their 80's stuff, like "Nomadness", "Deep Cuts", "Burning For You" and "Deadlines", which despite being four good albums, they're very far, in terms of quality, of their 70's stuff, I lost my interest for their other next musical career.