An Emotional Fish: “Time Is On The Wall” (Warner)

Some songs should stay acoustic, and this offering’s a prime example. It’s a well-worded eulogy to the loved one whose letters, spelling mistakes, shape and touch, as well as “weakness for all things freakish” etc. have inspired a slow, moving ballad that sets the heart a-tremble. But in the electric version, plaintive upper melodies on the fiddle get replaced by rather harsh, clumsy guitar breaks which also break the mood, and the shimmering tambourine gets ditched too. The result is a loss of poignancy.