Trees

"Re-issue of the month" - "50th-anniversary frenzy for psychedelic folk voyagers ... Enthusiastic - often to a fault - Trees blundered excitably into the new Anglo-weirdy terrain cleared by Fairport Convention's Liege & Lief, an album that fused a profound knowledge of traditional English folk song with an appreciation for the newly electrified roots sounds of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and The Band ... However, if the individual Trees had more tangible successes later in life, their juvenilia is compelling still. Like the equally ill-starred Mighty Baby, Trees absent-mindedly fashioned a fusion of folk-rock and San Francisco psychedelia. Unsure of whether to be Fairport Convention or the Grateful Dead, they contrived to be both at once: earthy, adventurous, loud. Their more excessive moments may have tested Humphris' patience, but this is music that makes sense in large, languid doses".

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"Over two albums in the early 70s, Trees managed to tease out all the wild romance of the old ballads by marrying them to a sonic template that was as adventurous as any of their contemporaries. Quick Silver Messenger Service? Sounds like a Teasmade. Popol Vuh? Popol wha? Pentangle?... Don't get me started. However, if you melt all these bands down - the acid-drenched solos, the propensity towards the epic, the mercurial use of rhythm - you'd get something approximating Trees' sound ... However, it's a radical treatment of folk club classic Sally Free And Easy that provides the album's centrepiece. The band open it out into a 10-minute slowly-peaking orgasm, with Boshell's piano rippling beneath Humphries' ecstatic vocal like the fulfilment of a promise made by Fairport's A Sailor's Life ... This is an essential compendium for a fantastic band".

"Two classic albums of the London-based psych-folk quintet on 50th anniversary ... With two discs of back-story and post-script (including live recordings from 2018), this gorgeous-sounding reissue completes the band's story while the music's arcane power remains intact".