“Sing Slowly Sisters” captured the voice of all the lonely people – “Mojo” July review of “Collected Works of Robin Gibb 1968-1970”
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The July 2015 issue of Mojo magazine has an excellent review of "Saved by the Bell – The Collected Works of Robin Gibb 1968-1970," giving it five stars. It begins with the 53-year-old Robin Gibb reminiscing about "Sing Slowly Sisters" in Soho in the winter of 2002:
"There are albums you don’t even remember making… Maybe that’s a good thing."
The reviewer Andrew Male sees the trauma from the Hither Green rail crash, which Robin experienced in November 1967, "undeniably informed his solo work, as did his use of amphetamine. " About the latter Robin is quoted as saying: "It just made you work, work, work."
The standout track from Disc 1 (Robin’s Regin and more) is:
a 12-minute version of LP track Farmer Ferdinand Hudson that unfurls like some forsaken Joe Meek musical adaptation of Robert Flaherty’s Man of Aran.
while
third CD brings together non-alubm rarities, Knightsbridge demos, BBC sessions and the grand mini-symphonies, Moon Anthem and Ghost Of Christmas Past.
And, like many, this Mojo review views Disc 2 (Sing Slowly Sisters) as the highlight of the collection as it contemplates:
the real revelation comes with Sing Slowly Sisters… a dark-bloomed collection of singular British chanson that owes as much to Victorian parlour music as to Eleanor Rigby.
Comparing it with Scott Walker’s "Scott 2," and noting:
Prosaic and surreal, Gibb’s beseeching lyrics have the quality of cries for help, of letters never sent.
Male concludes:
the end result is one of the most remarkable solo albums of the era.
and
Rather than looking at all the lonely people, Sing Slowly Sisters captured their voice. Pop stardom has never sounded lonelier.
<from "Mojo," July 2015>
(BGD, July 31, 2015)
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