Bruce Janaway – Puritanical Odes

Bruce Janaway released two albums (this one and O' Terrible and Wise, 1982) on his own Deep Range Music label in small quantities (200?), both of which have become sought after items over the years. This first album consists of ultra-pretentious folk songs (titled "Odes A-E") with ponderous fingerpicking and preposterous self-serious religious lyrics sung in an egotistical voice. Hearing this blind, I would have assumed Bruce was from the US, actually, as his style most resembles Tim Buckley in all his humourlessness, but the albums were issued in the UK, so I don't know. This is the kind of album that only someone who owns an original would claim is great, because otherwise they would appear to have wasted their money, but the truth is, this is the worst. It's not enjoyable in a "real people" sense, it's just musical flatulence.