Michael Chapman
Album: Window
Label: Light In The Attic
Tracks: 13
Website: http://www.michaelchapman.co.uk

This was always one of the most frustrating releases of 1970 - Michael's "difficult third album", coming as it did soon after the hardest of his albums to follow, Fully Qualified Survivor. While it contained some classic writing, with brilliant songs like In The Valley and A Scholarly Man still surviving (fully qualified, as it were!) into today's live sets, the album was disappointing as a whole, being distinctly underwhelming in respect of Michael's own acoustic guitar playing, which had a weedy, underpowered presence that was nothing like the majestic and full sound that his first pair of albums had sported. Years later, we learn the truth: that his record label Harvest released the LP too soon, in inordinate haste, before Michael had the chance to replace his tentative guitar parts - which he said were always no more than guide tracks - with final versions (as intended, planned and understood) once he'd fulfilled his touring commitment. It's all such a shame, since despite the balance being weighted towards the rhythm section the various elements of Gus Dudgeon's production come out so well in the mix and the supporting playing - guitarist Phil Greenberg of Formerly Fat Harry,,, (here cryptically renamed P. Harold Fatt!), with Johnny Van Derek (violin) and Alex Atterson (piano) augmenting Michael's touring colleagues (Rick Kemp and Richie Dharma) - is just fine. Stylistically, Michael was at that point in his early career in the midst of the awkward transitional phase between the folkier troubadour of 1967-69 and the heavier rock-oriented experimentation of the early-70s, and an admirable looseness pervades both the actual music-making and the signature blend of acoustic and electric instruments that was to become something of a Chapman trademark for the next few years. The opening salvo of Lady On The Rocks and Song For September being a good example - although the throwaway good-timey finale She Came In Like The 6:15 And Made A Hole In The Wall proves nobbut a filler in the overall scheme of things.

The Light In The Attic label has been doing a sterling job reissuing Michael's early albums, including the delivery of a significantly expanded edition of Rainmaker, and now does us a service by reissuing Window to plug the gap between Fully Qualified Survivor and the somewhat chequered fourth album Wrecked Again. It scores points over the 2004 BGO reissue of these two albums in including as an appendix to its straight re-presentation of the original Window album three short bonus tracks and a useful (if perhaps slightly puzzling) 20-minute segment from a 2011-vintage BBC Radio 3 Late Junction programme in which Michael is joined by Nashville (Lambchop) guitarist William Tyler. Given Michael's own known disdain for the artistic worth of the original album, it's surprising maybe that he has given his blessing for it to be reissued here in this form, "warts and all" as it were, but whatever, it's still a piece of his recording history that I guess has a right to be preserved. Even so, it would still be good to have, someday, a recorded version where Michael's original intentions could be realised somehow. But as it stands, Window ain't such a bad album, in fact more than respectable in so many ways - even so, we can appreciate why and how it might have been so much better.

David Kidman