One of the happiest by-products of the ongoing underground freak-folk explosion is the reemergence of British singer Vashti Bunyan. After spending more than three decades completely off the music industry's grid, the past couple years have seen the angel-voiced Bunyan duet with fan Devendra Banhart on Rejoicing in the Hands, gig with Stephen Malkmus, and collaborate with both Piano Magic and Animal Collective. And now, as if in response to those wondering what all the fuss might be about, the Dicristina Stair label has finally given Bunyan's lone solo album, Just Another Diamond Day, its first U.S. CD release.
Produced in 1970 by the legendary Joe Boyd, Just Another Diamond Day has long been considered a holy grail for Brit-folk record collectors, with original copies of the album fetching over $1,000 at auction. It shouldn't take many listens to realize why it's so highly regarded; Just Another Diamond Day is, in its own humble way, nearly a thing of perfection.
The album features contributions from such folk luminaries as The Incredible String Band's Robin Williamson, Fairport Convention's David Swarbrick and Simon Nicol, as well as string arrangements by Robert Kirby, who performed the same duties for Nick Drake. Boyd's production is impeccable, with the sound of each breath and string given an appropriate weight in the mix. This is crucial because of the almost impossible fragility of Bunyan's voice, an instrument as lovely and delicate as a dew-covered spider's web but one which could easily be drowned out by over-instrumentation.
Considering the deftness of its acoustic, percussion-less songs, Just Another Diamond Day seems at times like a sonic sibling to the Boyd-produced Nick Drake albums-- albeit one that chooses fresh air and sunlight over Drake's depressive shadows. Although Bunyan wrote all of the songs herself, the lyrics have an organic, out-of-time poetry that makes them feel more like traditional works. Her songs reference neither the politics of the time nor the psychedelically refracted medievalism so prevalent in the folk-rock of the era-- the simple quatrains of hypnotic songs like "Diamond Day", "Come Wind Come Rain", or "Where I Like to Stand" instead consist of uncomplicated lyrics ("Just another field to plough/ Just a grain of wheat/ Just a sack of seed to sow/ And the children eat") that could've been written virtually any time in the past few centuries.
Some listeners find Bunyan's thematic emphasis on nature to be overly cloying and childlike-- especially on such bucolic tracks as "Lilly Pond" or "Glow Worms". But others find themselves captivated by the sincerity and purity of Bunyan's pastoral vision, particularly in the subtle way she's able to portray human activities corresponding perfectly with the rhythms of the natural world, as though the people she encounters are just another feature of the landscape. ("I'm counting the waves/ The men in the boats they wave/ To their wives and say/ I'm counting the hours in the day.")
And the whimsical wordplay she weaves through songs like "Timothy Grub" or "Jog Along Bess" ("Jog along Bess/ Hop along May/ Squeak along Blue/ It's a walk along day") makes it easy to trace the influence she's exerted on contemporary artists like Banhart or Animal Collective. But even with her reputation re-established and her influence deservedly spreading, it's unlikely that you'll encounter another album as charming or transporting as Just Another Diamond Day any time soon.
