Blackmore's Night - Nature's Light (earMUSIC)

Ritch n’Candice are back with another mix of folk rocking, hey-nonnie-noing renaissance fair frolicking fun n’games – and we’re all invited!

I’m being silly, of course, as there’s actually not very much laughter to be had on their new offering, Nature’s Light. MiLady Night and Lord Blackmore are pretty serious about this early music stuff, and their dedication to the cause shines through on period pieces like opener Once Upon December and the Fiddler’s Dram theatrics of Going To The Faire. It’s take it or leave it stuff – especially for hardcore Sentinel Daily readers – but fans of Blackmore are still going to want to hear what the great man has come up with, even if it does mean wading through a fair bit of sackbut and sashes. So wade we will…

Ol’ Difficult to Cure himself is at his best on the two instrumentals, Darker Shade of Black and Der Letzte Musketier, and especially on closing track Second Element. On the latter, a more straight-forward folk rocker a la Mike Oldfield in the eighties, Blackmore wrenches a spectacular solo from his faithful old Strat – if you’re an old rocker of a certain vintage it’ll bring a quiver to the lip, let me tell you – and you find yourself wishing there was a little more of this on the album, and maybe a little less of the slightly half-cocked Handel/Purcell appreciation of the title track – nobody likes cheap-sounding orchestral parping in place of the real thing.

Candice Night, as ever, provides the focal point, but her best moments vocally come on that last track too, where she adopts the mantle of a Stevie Nicks for the RPG generation with style and panache. If Ritchie’s got another album in his creaking old digits, let’s hope it leans a little more this way.

Still, I should complain. Despite carping about the likes of Nature’s Light (the track), my wife will happily tell you I was cavorting about the lounge room waving a hanky at her whilst sharing the track with the neighbours, and you too might find yourself considering a Charles II-styled perm whilst considering the mysteries of The Twisted Oak. This isn’t for everyone, but it really is hard to find anything to fault on a deeper than superficial level. Ritchie Blackmore owes rock fans nothing after years of sterling service, and it’s good to see the old goat out and about and enjoying himself. Even in that pointy hat…