Shady Bard - Trials/Retrials

  by Maarten Schiethart

published: 7 / 7 / 2011

Label: Forest Industries
Format: CD

intro

Fantastic reissue of Birmingham six piece group Shady Bard's album from last year, which comes with an extra album of orchestral reworkings of its tracks and improves on the already near perfect

The need for a remix album which has been released at such short notice escapes me; yet as we were dealing with an unrecognized beauty, some of the extra tracks that have been made available are not just a little welcome. There was very little to be heard on 'Trials' that you would not have liked first hand but for once, against all odds, 'Retrials' does improve on the original set of songs. Even the evangelic antiques roadshow remix of 'The Dream' could not put me off. Catch me up a tree if you like. This has been worked over with the utmost care. 'Trials' has been re-issued with an extra CD. The full-blown orchestration now, plus the tender treatments of songs I came to treasure, result in a package I can only recommend. 'Retrials' touches on just a few songs from the original album. With sloping orchestrations, Shady Bird gracefully provide major improvements to tracks which seemed near perfect. To the lucky owners of the original album, treat this with care; to the uninitiated, go and get this. 'Trials' is an excellent album and what you get extra is rather lovely.

Track Listing:-