Not something I listen often but I do visit this old friend every now and than, always liking it more than before with each listening and although I have no idea how it came that I discovered it in the first place, "What We Did on Our Holidays" might be one of my all-time-favourite albums because passing years seem to give it the glow and luminousness that just grows with time - even though I was sure that I knew every note on it, still I find details that thrill me and music always transports me into completely different sphere.
I actually fairly enjoyed Fairport's first album, but it seems that in this incarnation everything finally came in the place - not just Sandy Denny but inspired choice of material and it seems that everybody breathed the same air (or drank the same wine), artistically group was at its peak and there is a beautiful melancholy that just speaks to me trough time, its just amazing how this collection moves me still, after all these years. There are many highlights and it seems that I can't make up my mind what is actually really the centrepiece since I just love the whole album but the opener "Fotheringay" encompasses everything I admire about Fairport - poetry, history, Mary Stewart, gentle guitar strings, Sandy Denny, ghostly voices echoing trough the castle Fotheringay, its just too beautiful for words. Mind you, I could say the same for early Joni Mitchell song "Eastern Rain" or anything else, including the wordless "The Lord Is in This Place...How Dreadful Is This Place" and the sound of coins being dropped on the floor in front of homeless Denny. It is not something I would listen with other people, this is kind of album to listen when you are alone with yourself - bedsit album? - because it works magic on some private, personal level and its very, very soothing kind of experience that does not need big audience.
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