Jackie Leven
Defending Ancient Springs
2000 · Album
- Format
- CD
- Label
- Cooking Vinyl
- Catalogue number
- COOK CD 191
Listen to the album
Track listing
- You've Lost That Loving FeelingLive Munich Blues 4:56
- Single FatherLive Bremen 1999 · Munich Blues · Taratata (TV) · Bath 2000 · London 2000 · Deep in the Heart of Nowhere · Bremen 2004 · London, Borderline · Bakkeveen 2008 5:33
- Paris BluesLive Munich Blues · Milford 2001 · Only the Ocean Can Forgive 6:24
- Defending Ancient Springs 7:41
- The Working Man's Love SongLive Taratata (TV) · Deep in the Heart of Nowhere · Kiel 2003 4:42
- I Saw My Love Walk Into CloudsLive Bremen 1999 · Munich Blues · Kiel 2003 4:14
- Hand Is Pale With Holy Kisses 6:24
- Your Winter Days 3:57
- The Keys To The Forest 5:32
- Morbid Sky 6:32
In the press
- Plate: Jackie Leven – Defending Ancient Springs
Short, benevolent record review: a predominantly melancholy, resigned mood lies over the album.
- Liv og Leven
Leven stays true to himself on the new album: emotionally charged songs about men, women and the great loneliness afterwards, opened by Phil Spector's “You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'”.
- Defending Ancient Springs – Jackie Leven (Cooking Vinyl)
Short review with a punchline: one should learn to skip track 1 by programming, because the opening version of “You've Lost That Loving Feeling” (with David Thomas) is bland.
- Gode sanger
Positive review from Bodø, where Leven is “topical” (concert announcement). Like Mike Scott and Van Morrison, Leven stands in the field of tension between American rock music and the folk music of the British Isles, without resembling either of the more famous ones.
- Poetisk musikk
Benevolent review: the little-known Scot presents his 18th album; the poetry lover writes darkly, simply and strikingly about love and misery, musically somewhere between folk, country and blues.
- Jackie Leven: Defending Ancient Springs – review with profile boxes
Music page with a review and biographical boxes. The review is predominantly positive (folk music masterfully interwoven with poetic lyrics, calm sound), but criticises two pieces: “Keys to the Forest” is too heavy-hearted, the opening cover “You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'” simply ugly.
- Stilsikker framføring av egne noveller
Two texts by the same author on the same page. The review calls Leven a “crooked observer of life” with a rare talent; Defending Ancient Springs is rougher than usual, which is down to David Thomas (duet “You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'”, “Morbid Sky” with David Thomas and the Pale Orchestra…
- Jackie Leven – Defending Ancient Springs :: Paranoide Poesie und eklektische Songs von Leven und David Thomas
Feyer reviews the album as a meeting of two wilful characters (Leven and David Thomas, who met on the “Mirror Man” project at the Queen Elizabeth Hall).
- Lavmælt og melodiøst
Leven has by now become a “friend of Norway” with a fabulous voice and a love of storytelling, somewhere between Celtic music, rock and folk.
- 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.
- Celtic post punk
Australian review on the release there of Defending Ancient Springs: “Scottish new wave folk meets Cleveland post punk”.