Skotsk livseliksir – Jackie Leven: «Night Lilies» (Cooking Vinyl)

Romerikes Blad (Lillestrøm) reviews Jackie Leven's Night Lilies (Cooking Vinyl) under the title “Skotsk livseliksir” (“Scottish elixir of life”). Leven has received much praise for his records and for his concerts. The Scot has only got better and better since he dissolved Doll By Doll, who “unfortunately never got the attention they deserved”. With his fourteenth album, the reviewer writes, Leven offers “noble goods”: music from a mature man, for comfort and joy as autumn takes over our part of the world.

He sings with a confidence built up over years and has a band who know exactly what is needed. Leven's words and melodies are the kind that grow stronger each time you hear them. It is hard to judge whether this is the best he has done, but Night Lilies is in any case among the cream. Lyrically it is a sort of tribute to the small, important things that shape us and which we do not know how to appreciate enough; musically it is warm, melodic and memorable. The critic singles out “Burning The Box Of Beautiful Things” and “Alvis Green” as songs you do not soon forget.