Vocalist-guitarist-songwriter Vashti Bunyan only released three albums, but they cohere into one of the most lauded discographies in all of British folk. The esteem accrued gradually, however, as her second record Lookaftering, released in 2005, emerged over thirty years after her first. Now, twenty years later, DiCristina Records has assembled an expanded edition of the set featuring a second disc of demos, an alternate take, and a live track. It’s an enlightening and pleasurable plunge into the evolution of an era-defining record, available February 7 on 2LP/2CD
Well before her first album came out, Vashti Bunyan released a pair of singles (as simply Vashti) in 1965-’66 under the auspices of Andrew Loog Oldham. The A-side of the first, “Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind,” was composed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, a connection established with pretty obvious Marianne Faithfull-ish intent that’s deepened by her contribution of “Winter Is Blue” to the soundtrack for Peter Whitehead’s film Tonight Let’s All Make Love in London.
This early material failed to gather commercial steam, which effectively ended Bunyan’s relationship with Oldham, and when she reappeared on the scene roughly half a decade later, she’d become something of a back-to-the-earth hippie, traveling to the Scottish isle of Skye with her partner Robert Lewis in a horse and carriage with the intention of joining a commune envisioned by fellow folkie Donovan.
That commune (or “Renaissance community,” as it has been called) fizzled out, but during the long and interrupted trip to Skye, Bunyan began writing the songs that shaped the Joe Boyd-produced Just Another Diamond Day, so ‘twas not a waste. But the record, issued by Philips in 1970, sank without a trace despite input from Simon Nicol and Dave Swarbrick of Fairport Convention and Robin Williamson of The Incredible String Band plus string arrangements from Robert Kirby (noted for his work with Nick Drake and others).
Helped along with a CD reissue of Just Amother Diamond Day in 2000, Bunyan’s cult status eventually became reality as the recording of Lookaftering followed with producer Max Richter and contributions from Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, Adem Ilhan, Adam Peirce of Mice Parade, Otto Hauser of Vetiver and Espers, and Kevin Barker of Currituck Co.
Importantly, Kirby returned with string arrangements that both solidified the bond with her prior work and deepened the lush and gentle atmospheres that made Lookaftering something of a foundational document in what quickly came to be known as the Freak Folk scene. Surely expansive, but a key distinction with many of those inspired by her work was a general lack of a psychedelic edge in her music. An arguable exception would be “Same but Different,” although that piece is more subtly haunting (in a classic Brit-folk manner) than druggily bent.
And while a few moments on her debut can be fairly described as twee, this tendency is essentially absent from Lookaftering, though listeners averse to the record’s unrestrained levels of gorgeousness, with Kirby’s strings hitting an early apex in “Turning Backs,” will perhaps consider this a distinction without a difference. Bunyan’s vocals, surely the inspiration for thousands of subsequent indie-folk waifs, add to the air of fragility, as does the harp of Newsom, whose playing on Lookaftering fell chronologically between her own notable debut (2004’s The Milk-Eyed Mender) and it’s big-splash follow-up (2006’s Ys).
Enhanced by Bunyan’s wordless vocals, “Wayward Hum” ends Lookaftering on an almost maddeningly pretty note, the sort of song that can inspire immediate relistens as a record seemingly without claws somehow gets its hooks in. And in a sweet turn, this anniversary release presents an avenue that’s simultaneously similar yet distinct.
The bonus material on this edition plays a deft hand, repeating the album’s song order and opening with a version of “Lately” from 2006, live in front of an appreciative audience, and then blending demos (and one alternate take) dating from 2001 to 2005. Overall, it’s an early draft but not embryonic, and if these scaled-back versions had been released instead of the bolder all-star sessions, it’s still seems very likely the record would’ve caught on in a major way.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
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