A Beach Full of Shells
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Albums:
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A Beach Full of Shells
- Artist: Al Stewart
- Rating:
- Release Date: June 21, 2005
- Type: Lyrics are included with the album
- Genre: Rock
Review
Al Stewart has always had a distinctive vocal style -- making his radio hits like "Year of the Cat" immediately recognizable -- while also possessing a knack for writing tuneful pop songs. A Beach Full of Shells qualifies as his first U.S. release since 1995, and while it's been some time since the singer conquered the pop charts, both his vocal style and craftsmanship remains intact. It would be a mistake, however, to view Stewart as no more than the maker of pop confections specially designed for a mass radio audience. The cover of A Beach Full of Shells offers the first clue of a playful mind that enjoys the weight of words: there are two types of shells on the beach, one from the sea, the other for use in a gun. The complexity of his approach is best experienced on "Somewhere in England 1915," a lengthy song (nearly seven minutes) with shifting dream imagery. Weaving fantasy with brief references to World War I, the narrator eventually wakes up 90 years later to find himself on the edge -- the song seems to suggest -- of yet another war. Stewart accomplishes all of this without ever being obvious, giving the song a subtle quality as it reveals its surprises to the listener. This, however, is only one of many moods on A Beach Full of Shells. "Katherine of Oregon" is as light as air, a pleasant, flowing ballad with nice acoustic guitar and light percussion, while "Mona Lisa Talking" shifts through a number of intriguing chord changes to offer a little common sense advice. A Beach Full of Shells probably doesn't spell Stewart's return to the Top 40, but it is a solid effort that will certainly please fans. ~ Ronnie D. Lankford, Jr., Rovi| A Bawdy Elizabethan Evening in Merry Old England (Album by Various Artists) | |
| A Beach Less Traveled (2009 Album by Three Kinds of Magic) |
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A Beach Full of Shells
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| A Beach Full of Shells | ||||
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| Studio album by Al Stewart | ||||
| Released | 2005 | |||
| Genre | Folk | |||
| Label | Appleseed (US), EMI (UK) | |||
| Producer | Laurence Juber | |||
| Al Stewart chronology | ||||
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A Beach Full of Shells is the fifteenth studio album by Al Stewart, released in 2005. Like most of Stewart's later works, much of the content of the CD alludes to people or moments in history.
Historical references
- "The Immelman Turn": refers to the aerobatic maneuver of the same name. The narrator, a Barnstormer, pilots a Curtiss "Jenny".
- "Mr. Lear": about the nineteenth-century English poet Edward Lear. Lear's cat Foss is mentioned, and his poems "The Pobble Who Has No Toes" and "Uncle Arly" are referenced.
- "Somewhere in England, 1915": The narrator, living in 2005, dreams many scenes, including the 1945 film Brief Encounter, the British poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owenin the trenches of World War I and the last farewell of Violet Asquith (daughter of British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith) and Rupert Brooke. He then wakes up, and sees on that day's newspaper "a man on the cover we all know, defying the fates" who "seems very sure" of himself.
- "Katherine of Oregon": the titular character's name is a play on Catherine of Aragon, whose marriage to King Henry VIII of England was annulled in 1533. The chorus' tune is adapted from the work of Beethoven. The Scottish musician Lonnie Donegan is mentioned. When playing this song in concert, Stewart has jokingly suggested that he may write a sequel entitled "Anne of Cleveland" as a play on Anne of Cleves.
Class of '58
Stewart originally wrote the song "Class of '58" as 13 minutes long. When the record company rejected it, he rewrote it to the truncated 4-minute version on the album.[citation needed] The long version was subsequently released as a single. In the blurb on the single, it is suggested that the album A Beach Full of Shells was originally intended to focus around this song, which describes the life of a musician on the 1950s rock and roll scene.
Track listing
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Immelman Turn" | 4:39 |
| 2. | "Mr. Lear" | 3:00 |
| 3. | "Royal Courtship" | 4:10 |
| 4. | "Rain Barrel" | 4:00 |
| 5. | "Somewhere in England, 1915" | 6:56 |
| 6. | "Katherine of Oregon" | 3:07 |
| 7. | "Mona Lisa Talking" | 4:26 |
| 8. | "Class of '58" | 4:10 |
| 9. | "Out in the Snow" | 2:51 |
| 10. | "My Egyptian Couch" | 2:18 |
| 11. | "Gina in the Kings Road" | 3:49 |
| 12. | "Beacon Street" | 2:20 |
| 13. | "Anniversary" | 2:53 |
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AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Albums
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Mentioned in
The Definitive Pop Collection
(2006 Album by Al Stewart)
Al Stewart
(Rock Artist, '60s-2000s)
» More