AMG Review of Like an Old Fashioned Waltz [Germany Bonus Tracks]

Dave Thompson & Bruce Eder
All Music Guide

Sandy Denny's third solo album, originally released in 1973, continued treading water like its predecessor, again dividing its time between unabashed jewels (the opening "Solo," the title track, and the closing "No End") and lesser fare -- her cover of "Whispering Grass," while beautiful, is scarcely required listening, a fate that also awaits the album's other non-original, "Until the Real Thing Comes Along." Any sense of disappointment, however, is more than remedied by the addition of four bonus tracks, including an alternate take of the album's "At the End of the Day," a solo piano version of "No End," and "The King and Queen of England," a sparkling demo previously released on the Island Life various-artists anthology, and which remains one of her loveliest but most underrated compositions. The remastering of this album also delivers the original nine songs in all of their glory. The bass work alone, on "Solo," the title track, and "Dark the Night" -- a song already built around the most exquisite vocals by Denny -- is worth the price of admission, and the arrangements, from the not-at-all-faux '40s jazz renderings of "Whispering Grass" and "Until the Real Thing Comes Along" to the spare electric guitar and strings-driven texture of "Carnival," fairly leap off the CD in its remastered form. And Fairport Convention completists will want this disc just for the previously unissued live rendition of "Like an Old Fashioned Waltz" with the group (from the 1974 ~Troubadour performance) -- though it is mostly Denny (in superb voice, too).