Time Honoured Ghosts

Time Honoured Ghosts continued Barclay James Harvest's development away from the orchestral sweep of the earlier albums, although there's a little more filler than usual here. "In My Life" emphasizes BJH's penchant for ghostly descending vocal choruses and features an angular lead guitar part that would be recycled several years later in "Loving Is Easy." "Titles" remains memorably catchy in spite of its faintly irritating musical parlor trick of lyrics created entirely from Beatles song titles. "Moongirl" in particular demonstrates how Stewart Wooly Wolstenholme's approach to keyboards differs from most prog rock bands (with the exception, perhaps, of Pink Floyd); by subtly combining a variety of background textures (Mellotron, harpsichord, organ, piano), he acts as a foil to set off the more obvious roles played by the vocals and lead guitar. ~ Paul Collins