Track Listing

1. Baron's Heir & Sadenia's Air
2. Muddy Water
3. Mary And The Soldier
4. Aye Waukin-O
5. Prisons
6. The Shepherd's Song
7. Ye Banks And Braes O' Bonnie Doon
8. Should I Pray?
9. The Afton
10. Leezie Lindsay
11. Safe As Houses
12. Galileo (Someone Like You)
13. Peacetime

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2022 in Music
• Released on: 2007-01-29
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Eddi Reader: A Treasure
The thread of yearning, for innocence, for love, for peace and safety, is constant throughout Eddi Reader's album "Peacetime". In Boo Hewerdine's title song the words "When lovers part, there is no fear.........No hearts undone, no mother's ache for those left behind" evoke a longing for life without pain or compromise.
Such sentiments are universal. The home we want to return to, but not the home we ever had. We are here in the real world, anxious and harassed. It is the home we want eternally. Heaven located here. There is something in these songs resistant to the idea that everything can be explained - or if it could, that such an explanation could satisfy us. So "Galileo" (in Declan O'Rourke's extraordinary song) driven by his scientific mind to seek explanations, still asks "Who put the rainbow in the sky?" and has no answer. Galileo's science can't make sense of our longing for love and meaning.
Eddi's aching voice in "Baron's Heir", a young girl's, distraught in love, begs "Oh Laddie will you love me?" In "Muddy Water" the bending notes of the whistle make her yearning for her man, her son and daughter almost physical.
"Leezie Lindsay" is a loveable song - the chorus by Robbie Burns, begging his love, his pride and his darling to leave for the Highlands with him; the verse (written by Eddi) where alone and unloved in town longs for the sound of the birds and his Leezie. "Aye Waukin-O", is another Burns song, of loneliness, a young man missing his dearie. Reader's voice rising up then falling back at the end of the phrase catches your heart.
In "The Afton" the universal is seen in small things,"...the joy in the mundane, the life force in the plain....." Nothing specific marks out these songs out as explicitly religious. God is not mentioned. Yet religious feeling pervades all.
"We're not apart, but stuck together with hands of kindness and your good, good heart." ("Safe as Houses")
The album has its imperfections. "Ye Banks and braes" lacks repose, not through her vocal, which is fine, but the rather agitated guitar accompaniment. "Shepherd's song" is the French song "Bailero", much recorded in the 70s and 80s by classical sopranos. With its brass band accompaniment it sits rather oddly alongside the others. But these are quibbles.
It's a lovely album and Eddi Reader is a treasure.

Beautiful album, maybe her best.
I am really surprised by some of the negative reviews of this album on Amazon, so I'm going to present a positive one, because for me this is one of Eddi's best albums to date. The traditional songs like Baron's Heir and Aye-Waukin-O are sung in such a heartfelt fashion that it reminds me why I fell in love with her voice in the first place. The wonderful "Gallileo" is simple, magical, and stunning. The arrangements are perfect for her beautiful vocals, the "Sheperd's Song" is particularly moving, with Eddi singing about calling her "lost ones home" to a backing of soft muted horns. The strings, horns, guitars, and backing vocals contribute to a warm, soulful sound that brings out the best in Eddi. Far from sounding dreary as some reviews on this page suggested, this is touching, heartfelt music and singing from one of our most talented artists.

Comfort food for the heart
This album was my introduction to Eddi Reader and it quickly became an old friend. It never fails to improve my mood. Went to see her live on the strength of it and dragged along my head-banger husband and several mates who are now converted into sad Eddi groupies.