Eyelids Into Snow - A Collection

This is a motley collection of original album tracks, live recordings and re-recordings. It rollercoasters through several Scullion incarnations built around the Sonny Condell-Philip King axis. The former's trademark galloping rhythm guitar and exotic tunings can be re-tasted on the sublime 'Down In The City', the graphic title track and 'The Cat She Went A Hunting'. But King's impassioned vocals, especially on John Martyn's 'John The Baptist' have rarely received their due credit.

Condell's telling lyrics range widely over topics as diverse as isolation, famine, travelling and cats, while the individual playing is always inventive.

Even after fifteen years, their poptastic 'Carol' still sounds like a massive hit waiting to happen, 'Come Back Soon' is a superbly mature ballad, and the plaintive 'Dixie' a la Ry Cooder could have been stretched a bit longer. But the real gem is 'The Fruit Smelling Shop', with its groundbreaking pipes/sax duel and Condell's quirky stop-start piano lines.

At their best Scullion were a miraculously brilliant and persuasive meeting place of folk and rock, splashes of reggae, a whiff of jazz and blues and borrowings from the east. But at their comparatively average ('Tidal Waves' and 'Voyeurs') their pop compromises smell too much like attempts to crack the A-ha market.

This is an intriguing mixed bag. It serves as a timely reminder of past glories, but the true "Best Of" is yet to come.