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Paul Roland : A Cabinet Of Curiosities/happy Families
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Sixties styled English acoustic psych-pop described by UK's leading music paper Melody Maker as 'sublime, fabbo and very, very in'.
Genre: Rock: Psychedelic
Release Date: 1996
A Cabinet Of Curiosities/happy Families Record Label: GASLIGHT RECORDS
  • Download Album (MP3) - $9.99
Preview Song Name Time Format Price Select
Madhouse 1:46 $0.99
Wyndham Hill 4:06 $0.99
Jumbee 2:37 $0.99
Gary Gilmore's Eyes 1:58 $0.99
Burn 2:32 $0.99
Walter the Occultist 3:30 $0.99
Demon in a Glass Case 3:03 $0.99
Curate of Cheltenham 3:03 $0.99
Journey to the Pole 4:04 $0.99
Nursery Crimes 2:09 $0.99
Cousin Emilia 3:10 $0.99
Builder of Follys 2:58 $0.99
The Best Years of Our Lives 3:02 $0.99
Aunty 2:04 $0.99
Animal Crackers 2:20 $0.99
Extras: Beau Brummel 2:24 $0.99
Alice's House 3:23 $0.99
Go Down You Murderers 2:35 $0.99
Happy Families 2:52 $0.99
Jumbee (demo) 2:42 $0.99
Stranger Than Strange (demo) 1:47 $0.99
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Album Notes

'Roland is the male Kate Bush' (Robyn Hitchcock)
'Genius at play! If Will Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and Edgar Allen Poe were alive today they'd surely have some Roland in their record collections. Unfortunately, they're dead...what's your excuse?' (Bucketful of Brains)
'Ornate gothic/baroque songwriting and quintessentially ecentric pop-psych dementia...Princely stuff' (Ptolemaic Terrascope)
see websites for further info www.paulroland.de
and www.paulroland.co.uk

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REVIEWS

2 mini-albums on one CD
author: Petra Donath
Two of Paul's mini-albums (A Cabinet of Curiosities & Happy Families) on one CD - that's really great and so is this CD. The music has a very unique style and Paul's voice is one of the best voices in the business. If you like good music, this one is for you!
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exquisite: clever, funny and unique
author: Frédéric
I knew the records from vinyl days but it was really a treat to listen to those delicious songs again! Nearly 20 years later they're as fresh as they were in 87. Melodic and acoustic the music doesn't age. Each song narrating the story of a demonic being or an edwardian excentric is a little masterpiece of black humor! My only regret is that this cd edition doesn't reprint the original artworks.
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Could only be Roland, yet a sublimely unique experience!
author: Rasmus Wittsell
This music could only be by Paul Roland and yet the album is not really typical for his production. As expected, the themes of the songs deal with your everyday gallery of thieves, murderers, eccentrics and occultists, mostly of the Edwardian era. The innocence or sometimes irony of the songs makes this a supremely unique listening experience. Even though this is a compilation of two albums with some extra tracks squeezed in, everything fits very nicely within the context. For some reason two tracks stand out above the others: "Jumbee" and "Beau Brummel". Interestingly, those are not the ones that Roland picked for the compilation double-album "Gaslight Tales" ("Wyndham Hill", "Walter the Occultist", "Daemon in a Glass Case" and "Cousin Emilia"). But don't get me wrong, there is not a single song below par on this album!
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Edwardian Pop Masterpieces
author: Davide-Torino-Italy
Absolutely Unique! These are two perfect products of one of the most incredibly original storytellers of underground pop of all times! Particularly fascinating the narrative use of the strings and the ability in writing complex gothic or edwardian tales for a folk-pop structure. If they mention Barrett or Cope or Hitchcock to explain Paul's music, that's not completely true... Paul remains absolutely unique, and these two mini-lps are the definitive proof... Find were Smog and other dark-folk gurus have found some inspiration!
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