Brown, Pete & Phil Ryan - Ardours Of The Lost Rake/Coals To Jerusalem

Imagine a blend of Joe Cocker, Phil Collins & a bit of Roger Chapman, yes I know thats difficult, but that's the feeling I am getting here when hearing this absolutely fine re-release/re-master of Pete Brown & Phil Ryan´s double treatment (See album titles)...stay with me, this is the Pete Brown of Piblokto & Battered Ornaments fame. Also the co writer and friend of Jack Bruce and Cream. Despite that fact, as you will have noticed by the intro sentence, this is more like a crooner light/pop album, not a sign of psychedelic or prog anywhere! Mind you it is a good crooner/pop album, Browns voice is excellent and Ryans keyboards are up to par. So you get both albums re-mastered and collected here. If you are a crooner/pop freak also (which is very unlikely since you are on these pages) this is top notch stuff! Otherwise I must say this is for completist´s of Brown (Battered Ornament & Piblokto) and Ryan (MAN & Neutrons) only!! Still hats off to Esoteric for releasing and re-mastering these actually quite rare albums and in true excellent Esoteric style you get the added bonus of 4 previously unreleased tracks! There you go!!