The Hothouse Flowers, from Ireland, made their name in the late 80's with two great upbeat, bluesy, folk-rock(if that isn't a contradiction) albums called People and Home. Songs from the rain followed after an absence of three years and was the least commercially successful of these albums. The flowers had slowed their songs down a lot and brought a new intensity of spirituality to the music.

The album has a theme of getting back to nature, being close to this wondrous and beautiful planet we call home. If the music had lost some of its speed it had lost none of its energy. The songs are written and sung with a great passion. You can't help but feel for the album. And for those who produced it.

The usual instruments are here backed up with saxophone, hammond organ, wurlitzer, bodhran and a yidaki, which apparently is a dijderidoo. Its a great full sound and is beautifully played and produced.

Its the kind of music that you can imagine would be played in the moonlight at the summer solstice. The feel of this music is primitive, bringing us back generations to when we were far closer to the land than we are now. Its mystical, druidic and fascinating. Liam O'Maonlai sings of gypsies, whom I guess, are the closest to this race of people we call our ancestors. Although the album doesn't talk of the modern world, it does suggest a rejection of it.

My favourite songs on the album are 'this is it(your soul)', like an introduction to your own soul, a plea to get in touch with your inner self. 'Be good', a quarrel between two lovers and 'Gypsy fair', the joy in loking forward to attending the gypsy fair, where the singer is 'gonna find some freedom there'. Just because I haven't mentioned it yet I am going to do it here. This album is soulful! Soulful, soulful, soulful.

Produced in 1993, the worst year for vinyl sales, the vinyl is nothing special. Its adequate and the original recording is very good. I had this on cd first but had to have it on vinyl :) Packaging is picture sleeve with plain inner.