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Janison Edge - The Services Of Mary Goode

Artist:	Janison Edge
Title:	The Services Of Mary Goode
Label:	Gargoyle Records GRG001
Length(s):	64 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1998
Month of review:	11/1998

Line up

Paul Brown - bass
Ian Salmon - guitar
Sue Element - vocals
Dave Wagstaffe - drums
Mike Varty - keyboards

Tracks

1)	A Twist In The Tale Of Earth History	9.29
2)	'OLDMAN'	2.04
3)	Beneath The Boy	8.29
4)	The Services Of Mary Goode I	5.40
5)	The Services Of Mary Goode II	9.35
6)	The Services Of Mary Goode III	4.09
7)	Joker	5.49
8)	Julie Lies	7.19
9)	The Services Of Mary Goode IV	11.37

Summary

Quite a lot of VIPs in this band. Wagstaffe from Landmarq, Salmon from Shadowland, Paul Brown from Medicine Head and Mike Varty from both Shadowland and Credo.

The music

The line-up of this band and the fact that they have a female vocalist and Dave Wagstaffe might make some people think of Landmarq. Actually listening to the first track does not induce much change in this opinion. There are some differences: Sue sings more like the singer of All About Eve, a more husky voice. Still, the music is obviously very melodic, with poppy choruses, keyboards a la Garden Party, but also some more introspective parts. The song then takes a turn for the aggressive, but the song ends on a high note. After the bombasm of the closing of the first track, OLDMAN is a short quiet one, with mostly piano. Beneath The Boy opens with some strong guitarwork and again in the vocal parts I'm reminded of All About Eve, not just the voice, but also the way of vocalizing. Like the first track, the instrumental solo part goes back to the mid-eighties, with some Marillioneque keyboard solo's. The guitarwork is more hard-edged and hence more of this time. I do wonder what this song is about. The first part of the approximately 30 minute long title track opens energetically, but the vocal part is quiet and features quite a lot of church organ (much in line with the lyrics). The watery sound somewhere between a keyboard and a guitar is a nice touch. I might be a frustrated guy, but the lyrics in this song tend to the sexual notwithstanding the fact that it seems to play in a church. The next part sees a flashback to the birth of Mary Goode. An energetic, but also poppy track. The chorus is of the singalong kind and as you might know, I'm not too fond of that. Think of Shadowland here. A nice effect is the almost continnues bouncing back and forth of some of the guitar in the stereospectrum. The third part already of this long track is Mary Goode And The Dwarf Of Dreams (the ugly little thing just on the back cover of the booklet, or is that the joker? Or are they both?). The song is a peaceful one with a good vocal melody. As it is rather short there's not much variation. Joker opens with sweeping keyboards, misty, but then it abruptly turns into a tango. I wouldn't say this is unfitting, but the effect is quite strange, something that Landmarq also does sometimes, like introducing a waltz along the way. The song becomes even weirder towards the end, with finnicky percussion, military drums and frequent stoppings and goings. Julie opens with the piano playing the lead, a very nice theme in fact. Then the music becomes slightly more hazy as it works towards the even hazier vocal parts. If you listen closely, you hear fingers already going over the guitar strings, but no guitar as yet. Melodically a very strong song, and a serene atmosphere to boot, one of lazy sunday afternoons in the sun. Then a darkness creeps into the lyrics, but the music just becomes a little louder and more involved, with many background vocals intertwined with the lead. The last song is the closing part, The Day That I Fall, of the title track. It is also the longest track on the album. Notwithstanding the variation, a rather large part of this track is not that interesting: the vocal melody is not really striking and even plenty of soloing will not save it. The music would probably be nice to play live.

The artwork is nice, an amalgam of the lyrical subjects (as also becomes clearer in the booklet), but I think it will give people the idea it will contain the goblin/hobbit kind of lyrics and that is not true enough. The lyrics are in some sense fictional, but more symbolic and ambiguous than outspoken.

Conclusion

Hard to give a final verdict on this album. In some places it harkens back quite clearly to the mid-eighties, in some it is quite poppy and commercial, while sometimes it can be quite subtle. I like Sue's vocals and the playing is good throughout with some nice "tricks" in the music. Although lovers of neo-prog will not have a hard time enjoying the music, some of the songs are just a little too straightforward, are not strong enough to stand on their own. The songs that did stick were The Twist In Earth History, Beneath The Boy, the first part of The Service Of Mary Goode and Julie Lies with the latter being the best track in my opinion. References are Shadowland (in the more commercial parts) and Landmarq.