Track Listing

1. Birds Are Leaving
2. Swansong
3. Hope Is A Name
4. Lazy Heart
5. Water Song
6. Our Boy
7. Bell Book And Candle
8. Thanksgiving
9. Footsteps Fall
10. Homesick Son
11. Eve
12. Long Winter
13. Murder In The Dark
14. Please Don't Ask Me To Dance

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49551 in Music
• Released on: 2003-11-17
• Number of discs: 1

Customer Reviews

Wistful, beautiful song writing.
`Thanksgiving` is a lovely gentle stroll through orchestral and acoustic avenues, highlighting one of the most overlooked singer songwriters in Britain today. For those who don`t know, Boo was the voice and principal writer behind Eighties cult band `The Bible`. They never achieved much commercial success, though with the now sought after and very hard to find albums `Walking the ghost back home`, `Eureka` and `Dodo`, Boo began a creative path which has led to such low key solo masterworks as `Ignorance`, `Baptiste Hotel` and this magnificent cd. Can anyone remember those near hits `graceland` or `honey be good` ? `Thanksgiving`s best point of reference is perhaps somewhere between Nick Drake`s `Pink Moon` and Michael Head`s `Strands`album. `Thanksgiving` maintains that similar melancholic, slightly downcast atmosphere that can provide the listener instead with a warm glow and optimism. Indeed John Wood, who produced Nick Drake, was brought out of semi retirement to produce this, and most tracks here are awash with that semi accoustic, pastoral feel. Boo`s voice is totally unique, strong with yearning and it seems unfair that his most commercially successful songs are sung by the likes of Natalie Imbrugia. The cd has too many highpoints to mention individually, but the opener `The Birds are Leaving` is a lushful homage to the coming of autumn, to play a thousand times. `Water Song`, is plain heartbreaking. The Eddi Reader collaborations `Lazy Heart` and `Homesick Son` are great little guitar strum alongs, though don`t reach the lovely highs of the mandolin chords of `Murder in the Dark` or the lyrical pathos of `Footsteps fall` . `Our Boy` is just a simple piano instrumental. Understatement, is a key word to describe `Thanksgiving`, and will take a couple of listens before it takes over. Love it, and for anyone out there who appreciates good quality, heartfelt songwriting `Thanksgiving` might be a nice little "word of mouth" type of thing to discover. Lets hope Boo`s time will come.

For the more discerning
This is just fantastic! It's beautiful. It takes quite a few listens before your appreciation really grows. It is gentle and melancholic but NOT BLAND. He's a great songwriter and this album is a standout! Other music of his has veered towards the average, the "nice and safe"-(as with E Reader collaborations). This is Top six of Premiership stuff, you need to hear it. His other musical output is very good but only middling of the Premiership. If you like top quality songwriting such as the level of R Thompson, E Costello, R Newman, then buy this. As for Boo eventually being "discovered"-it won't happen because he'd need to compromise to get a bigger audience and we wouldn't want that.

The most "complete" album I've ever bought.
Great songs, well performed by a fantastic songster. The most complete album of any I've ever bought, there are NO disappointments. "Murder in the dark " is magic.
Thoughtful lyrics , haunting voice, top performer!