Customer Reviews
Communication breakdown ? - By: Arthur Dooley, 21 Jul 2008 
I was really looking forward to hearing the first Bellowhead albumin its entirety. A great live band who had built up a cult following & brought on board critics such as Mr Folk, Mike Harding & the music critics from the 'serious' newspapers.
Bellowhead could be seen as an English Pogues. Quirky & left field. Offering their own unique interpretations of traditional songs through their all singing all dancing 11 piece instrumental line up.
Mixing everything from folk,to rag time,vaudeville,trad jazz & roots, the Bellowhead sound is certainly unique.
Unfortunately for me,their strength isin their live performances. Burlesque is quite a way off markin that it lacks any outstanding tracks & loses so muchin its over complicated over cooked format.
With the band throwing every style & instrument known to man into the mix it soon starts to induce musical intergestion.
I would not take too much notice of the fawning fan reviews which give it five stars....FIVE STARS !!!
This aint no English 'If I should fall from grace with God'.
Brilliant, melodic, genre-defying LP - By: Greg Farefield-Rose, 28 Apr 2008 
It's very rare indeed that a band emerges as different & talented as Bellowhead. The 11 piece big-band collective play contemporary, innovative versions of traditional folk songs, which, despite the band's size, have excellent, uncluttered arrangements.
Bellowhead is the brainchild of singer / fiddler Jon Boden & melodeon playing John Spiers, both well-known faces on the English folk circuit. One or other of the Jo(h)ns arranged most of the songs on Burlesque or wrote an original melody or reel with the exception of Across The Line & London Town which were arranged by Pete Flood & Paul Sartin respectively, Both highlights, London Town has an almost ska-like feel courtesy of Bellowhead's superb four-piece brass section who are more like the Dirty Dozen Band than the standard soul or jazz influenced horn ensemble.
Yes the brass section are crucial to Bellowhead's sound. They also particularly shine on the clipped, almost calypso-like instrumental Sloe Gin as well as providing further sympathetic, funky emblishments throughout the LP. Despite their presence though, Bellowhead are essentially a folk group with extensive notes on the derivation of each song providedin the inlay, presumably by Boden & Spiers. If these two have ever had enough of music, they would make excellent archivists...
The Bellowhead sound is so different that it's hard to describe the bandin terms of musical influences though the closest match is possibly The Pogues at their most sophisticated around the time of If I Should Fall From Grace With God. This only of course tells half the story at most. For further non-folk pointers, the superb Across The Line & Courting Too Slow would not be out of place on The Waterboys' Fisherman's Blues whilst the discordant, vaudeville Flash Company peters towards Tom Waits' territory.
Don't just think of influences too much when playing Burlesque though but just enjoy it for the incredible body of work that it is. It's far too rich to be pigeonholed as just folk music with Bellowhead having huge potential cross-over appeal if they want it though I suspect, as mostly family men nearer 30 than 20, they are happy enough to be a big cult act. Whatever their intentions, Burlesque is a magnificent, melodic, extremely original album & is very highly recommended.
Big and brassy - By: CRB, 25 Jan 2008 Crazy, over the top, loads of oompah, fun, masterful, magical. You'll end up listening to this over & over again & loving it more & more each time. In the future this will be seen as a defining momentin folk music history. All power to Jon Boden & his compatriots.
The way music should be - By: Ullage, 20 Oct 2007 I was minded to write something thoughtful, incisive & intelligent drawing on modern & traditional trendsin folk ... I can't be bothered! This is such a great album of great tunes, great arrangements, enthusiastically played with huge sprirt & love. Makes you feel so positive, upbeat & glad to be alive.
How does one become a Bellowheadhead? - By: M. Demian, 15 Oct 2007 Wow! Wow! Wow! What a lovely, scrummy, dreamy, hoppy, happy CD! I bought it on faith, as I'm more or less guaranteed to like any band that is lazily classified as 'unclassifiable'. Now, this isn't actually unclassifiable, & there are precedents - think Squirrel Nut Zippers meet Brass Monkey - but they're doing it their way, & beautifully. First-rate musicianship & gorgeous arrangements, with more brass, strings & multipart harmonies than you can shake a baton at. Also, is it too geeky to praise their musical scholarship? They've really researched their sources, & I admire that. Their version of The Outlandish Night beats almost every other I know of. F.J. Child is applaudingin his grave: this is how traditions keep going, through innovation & experimentation & sheer whimsy. Now, when are they going to come to East Kent??
