I settled down to review The Rabbit's Hat's "Take Good Care" C.D. not knowing what to expect but I was aware that they had some good lyrics to interpret. I found myself listening and trying to locate influences and there are many. Tim Jones often sounds like Joe Cocker, Tom Waits, and more often Jimmy Campbell, a folk singer who released a marvellous album "Half Baked" on the Vertigo label in the early 70's. "Changing The Guard", is the first track and could quite easily be sentiments for the discarding of Hong Kong. "Angels And Lucre" is a polemic study of the cash for questions fiasco, chasing money with truth to sell. "More Than Ashes" has esoteric lyrics and a great production with Martin Holder's electric guitar biting through the haze of sound and reverb to create a superb track. "Baffling The Sandmen" has an introduction of cackling witches. Morland has written a song of onomatopoeia and the end result is a track that would please Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull. People are selling dreams to the unsuspecting, trusting populace. "Watch My Sanity Dissolve" is as expected a song for madness. I particularly loved the vocal "growling" in the right channel. "The Gap" has Tim Jones in Tom Waits mood, love changes as time elapses. I loved the last verse which includes…"to see the paper reality slip, to know the heartbeat's skip, and the trembling lip" great stuff, and perfect under-statement too. "The Great And The Good" asks us just who there is left to believe, with plenty of echo on the vocal effects. Morland writes…"build your private ark, while the sharks around you teethe, doctors with no cures who cannot see the ill, driven by their devils who charge it to our bill"…sublime and clever. "Dancing With The Demonised" has a repetitious rhythm which works wonderfully. Tony Morland has used "Demonised" as "Demon Eyes" and I am sure that many people will recognise just how some people benefit from the sweat of others. "grow fat you hag worms, use me as fodder to feed your own lives". "Another Day, Another Hat" is Tim again sounding like Jimmy Campbell, a gentle bouncing song, a change is not really a change, just a change of skin. "Our Tabloid Friends" uses the group Steely Dan's "Showbiz Kids" on which to base the production, an aggressive song for "the sun spreading like a devil's grin". Get them by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow. More biting sentiment. "Ephemeral Fire" is a beautiful vocal from Terri-B. The drumming and guitar break are also excellent.
Ken Brooks - Art Beat Reader (UK)