Jackie Leven
Night Lilies
1998 · Album
- Format
- CD
- Label
- Cooking Vinyl
- Catalogue number
- COOK CD 153
Listen to the album
Track listing
- Night LiliesLive London 1998 4:33
- Burning the Box of Beautiful Things 5:51
- Empty In Soho SquareLive Rockpalast 2004 · Bremen 2004 7:01
- Alvis GreenLive Bremen 2004 4:11
- Live Or DieLive Rockpalast 2004 · Bremen 2004 3:50
- Carnival Dark 5:50
- Universal BlueLive Munich Blues · Deep in the Heart of Nowhere · Kiel 2003 3:50
- Deep Choking Wooded Death FixLive London 1998 5:20
- Me & Angela 6:10
- Ireland For Losers 5:05
- Sick Harbour LamentLive Good Morning Australia 1999 3:28
Live videos
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Rockpalast · Harmonie, Bonn
In the press
- Liv og leven – Jackie Leven «Night Lilies» (Cooking Vinyl/MNW)
Very positive review: smell can evoke time and place even more strongly than music; Leven let himself be inspired by the scent of the night lilies, which by his own account shaped his life.
- Liljedugg – Leven «Night lillies» (Cooking Vinyl)
Positive review: Leven, former singer of the “semi-legendary” Doll by Doll and ex-junkie, has fought his way back after “the biggest helping of bad luck in history”; Fairy Tales brought him deserved success.
- Jackie Leven – Night Lilies (Cooking Vinyl)
Positive short review of the “Scottish friend of Bergen”: the title track opens, with a Dylan feel, a gloriously melancholy record in the line of the earlier solo albums; with his paws firmly in British folk music, Leven tells stories that cut through the skin, the airy atmosphere gives a cool dreamlike feeling, and he never provokes with boorishness. Music for late autumn evenings, preferably with Leven's own whisky in the glass, when you want to find out what went wrong – “Jackie Leven knows the answer”.
- Jackie Leven: «Night Lilies» (Cooking Vinyl)
Mixed review: Leven again wanders dark paths in the Scottish Highlands and makes of them melodious, poetic rock with folk elements, airily arranged and rich in detail; the themes are betrayal and lost or won love, this time with memories that catch up with you.
- Ujevnt fra Jackie Leven – Night Lilies (Cooking Vinyl/MNW 1998)
Slightly disappointed review by the same reviewer who had celebrated The Argyll Cycle in 1996: production gleaming, song material good, but signs of stagnation – where Leven previously renewed himself in details, this time it follows familiar paths too much, one constantly has the feeling of having heard it all before.
- JACKIE LEVEN: Night Lilies
Top rating (5 out of 5) in the Finnish music magazine, issue 11/1998, put online (the website's dates are contradictory: 28.07.2007 in the artist list, 17.10.2012 in the article).
- Ikke helt det samme – Jackie Leven, CD «Night Lilies»
The reviewer, who had experienced Leven live in Kabelvåg (cf. her review of 23.10.1998), finds the album decent, but not as compelling as the solo artist with a “tired acoustic guitar”: with several musicians, additional voices and a tidier concept the atmosphere is different – Scottish blue tradition, “pub pop” and solid quality, good for dark December evenings. She prefers Leven alone with stories, singing and guitar.
- I arkiv: Jackie Leven – Forbidden Songs of the Dying West
In the “I arkiv” column, Tore Bø recommends the 1995 album: Defending Ancient Springs is, for him, the best album of the year, and the recent Bergen concert was his first Leven concert – a “middle-aged heavyset man in Harry clothes” alone with a guitar, who hit him straight in the soul.
- JACKIE LEVEN: The Haunted Year – Men In Prison/Munich Blues
Finnish review of the double CD from the reissue series (concert in the Norwegian prison in Bergen and a solo concert in a Munich café), rated 4 out of 5 stars.
- Jackie Leven – Night Lilies (Cooking Vinyl)
American webzine review that contrasts Leven's reputation in Scandinavia, Germany and Scotland with indifference in the USA.
- Jackie Leven: Night Lilies Thirsty Ear
Mocking pan of the US edition of Night Lilies (rating 5.1 out of 10). Sandlin credits the music with an earthy, 4AD-like atmosphere but accuses Leven of overloaded, sentimental, pseudo-literary lyrics, limited vocal range and uniform mid-tempo structures and spitefully compares him …