Cry, The Beloved Country Blackstone

The collected anthology from the innovative group from the late 1980's and early 1990's that includes all their hits and more. The Beloved are a British electronic group best known for the singles "Sweet Harmony", "The Sun Rising", "Hello", "Your Love Takes Me Higher", and "Satellite". Originally a post-punk/new wave band formed in 1983, they underwent a change in direction in the late 1980s to a house/alternative dance sound and experienced chart success inside and outside of the UK.

In 1990, the duo of Steve Waddington and Jon Marsh released its debut album Happiness under the name the Beloved, and found modest success by combining light, Erasure-style dance-pop with Marsh's breathy vocals and atmospheric arrangements. Following the release of a remix album Blissed Out (also from 1990), Waddington left the band, and was replaced by Jon Marsh's wife Helena Marsh just in time for the recording of the group's follow-up, the lifeless Conscience. The 1993 release largely abandoned the Beloved's pop approach in favor of more ambient soundscapes, limiting the album's appeal. (Jon Marsh's distant, uninvolved vocal style certainly didn't help, making the album sound cold and uninviting.) Unfortunately, the Beloved's third album X continues in this tradition…

Shirley Collins' collaboration with the Albion Country Band for No Roses is considered a major event in the history of British folk and British folk-rock. For it was the first time that Collins, roundly acknowledged as one of the best British traditional folk singers, sang with electric accompaniment, and indeed one of the first times that a British traditional folk musician had "gone electric" in the wake of Dave Swarbrick joining Fairport Convention and Martin Carthy joining Steeleye Span. The album itself doesn't sound too radical, however. At times it sounds something like Fairport Convention with Shirley Collins on lead vocals, which is unsurprising given the presence of Ashley Hutchings on all cuts but one, and Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol on most of the selections (Dave Mattacks plays drums on a few tracks for good measure).