Lal and Mike Waterson - Bright Phoebus

The Guardian 100

(Domino)

Folk music should rage against the dying of the light, not be a keepsake of a few lucky record collectors. Until now, this extraordinary album of dark, bracing originals had only been available on miserably cheap CD-Rs, or on one of the 1,000 properly printed 1972 LPs, so thank God for Domino Records, who have remastered and repackaged it with reverence and love.

Related: Bright Phoebus: the story of a lost British folk classic

The Guardian 80

(Domino)

“Folk music” can mean radically different things. Hardliners objected to two of the storied Waterson clan writing traditional-sounding but original songs on this legendary album from 1972, largely unavailable for 45 years, now lovingly remastered. Few voices capture the ancient strangeness of the genre like Lal Waterson’s (1943-98), never more arresting than on the dreamlike, sensual and eerie Fine Horseman, while brother Mike Waterson’s (1941-2011) title track closes the album with a reedy power. A few songs here – best of all, Shady Lady – are full of the kind of 60s harmonic whimsy associated with the Beatles, locating the album in the 20th century, but The Scarecrow remains timeless and terrifying.