Thieves Kitchen - One for Sorrow Two for Joy

I has been five years since the last Thieves Kitchen album and I haven't heard anything since their 2001 "Argot" album! So quite a long gap, I remember liking both "Argot" & "Head" since those releases they got a female singer Amy Darby with a voice not unlike the great Sandy Denny (Fairport Convention & Fotheringay) and so I get a feeling of folk-rock via her performance especially on track three "Hypatia" beautifully backed by the excellent band. "A Fools Journey" have quite another feel to it, a more hard rock/prog tune (Imagine Kansas with a female vocalist), seems these guys can master many genre´s! Other than the brilliant vocal s, you get some superb guitars (exceptional lead guitars all over) from Phil Mercy and excellent keyboards (including the wonderful mellotron) from Thomas Johnson, backed by solid drums & bass by respectively Paul Mallyon & Brad Waismann. Add to that some fine flute, trumpet and cello to perfect the picture that is Thieves Kitchen´s musical world! This band manages to create the perfect balance between folk-rock and prog-rock, not an easy task! What a year 2013 has been (thus far) for progmusic, so many fine achievements and superb releases, this great release is no exception, not only does it go straight to my private collection, it also gets a place in my ever expanding list : albums of the year! The album ends with the wonderful epic with the duration of 12: 49 minutes "Of Sparks and Spires" which holds all of the above qualities and references, making for a master piece within a master piece!! This album comes highly recommended to all real music lovers and friends of prog, folk, rock and/or the combination of those three genre´s! A five star release indeed!!