Review Summary: A decent psychedelic/folk album recommended to fans of The Beatles or Nick Drake
‘Upon Velveatur’ is an almost completely forgotten acid folk album from 1972. Fortunately it has recently been reissued on CD by Sunbeam Records with 5 bonus tracks, so it isn’t
quite as obscure as it used to be.
At the time of it’s release ‘Upon Velveatur’ was totally ignored. One reason for this is that the album is obviously influenced by Nick Drake’s work, and while Drake is considered to be one of the greatest folk legends
today, his popularity really only came after a song was used in a Volkswagen advert in 2000. Copying the style of an unpopular artist is obviously not a very good way to become commercially successful.
Rodier also shows influences from psychedelic rock, especially bands like The Beatles (Also not a good way to get commercial success, the 60s years were over and psychedelic rock had gone down with them). Rodier mixes these two styles creating what sounds like a mixture of The Beatles and Nick Drake, usually with more emphasis on the folk side. Sometimes it even becomes slightly jazzy. It’s quite an accessible sound; quite poppy folk with a backing band playing strings and piano and female backup singing.
While Rodier’s guitar playing is quite simple, he did manage to think of some beautiful acoustic melodies. Rodier shows strong compositional skills, the songs are all consistently good and have a certain catchiness to them. None are really weaker than the others.
However, the real stars of the show here are his backing band. Strings, piano, choirs, electric guitars, backup singers and in the bonus tracks a flute add immeasurably to the overall atmosphere of the album, preventing it from sounding stale. The band never threaten to overpower the sound, but do a fantastic job at keeping it sounding constantly lively. It is because of this backing band that ‘Upon Velveatur’ still sounds good today, unlike a lot of the acid folk genre that is now horrifically dated.
Rodier’s singing is mostly very mellow and calm. While not bad exactly, it is hardly impressive singing. It rarely goes past a weak whispery tone, except on a few songs, which are often the stronger parts of the album. The lyrics are also quite weak and simple, sometimes becoming silly. At one point the gives a cringe worthy call of ‘I love you Jesus Christ’ (but if you can stand Neutral Milk Hotel’s ‘The King of Carrot People’ I’m sure this is survivable too).
Usually the atmosphere is quite happy but sometimes also quite tense. This is most noticeable on ‘While My Castle's Burning’, which is one of the album’s best tracks. Rodier starts with his hushed vocals but suddenly starts angrily shouting ‘you‘re so damn cold!’ Just as suddenly he starts singing normally again. The song ends with him giggling ‘goodbye…’ while giving a nervous, paranoid sounding laugh. The song really is insane, reminiscent of Syd Barrett at his weirdest. A fantastic electric guitar runs throughout and the strings are as effective as ever.
Another problem with the album is that finishing after only 33 minutes it is far too short. The bonus tracks solve this problem. These are all just as good as the album tracks and show more of Rodier’s psychedelia influences.
This album is far from perfect, but is still a strong debut. It’s a pity Rodier didn’t continue making music as he really could have built on the foundations he started here and improved his sound. Overall though, it’s a good and underrated album, highly recommended to any fans of folk or psychedelia.
