Chisholm in My Bosom

Album review

Three years on from the dismal Dance album, Arthur Brown resurfaced with what, from all advance warning suggested, was going to prove his long-awaited return to fame -- and a reunion with former Crazy World ally Vincent Crane. Chisholm in My Bosom, however, emerged as little more than a gospel-tinged retread of its disappointing predecessor, while Crane himself was evident on just one track. The full reunion was still another two years ahead, and an altogether different album away. Hopefully, one scoured Chisholm in My Bosom in search of excitement, and found it in a terrific version of "I Put a Spell on You." But, of course, Brown had already executed the definitive reading of that number a decade earlier, on the Crazy World's debut and, while "Monkey Walk" and "Chisholm in My Bosom" themselves would both reward further listens, still the album itself is one that not only lays unplayed in almost every record collection that harbors it, it lies forgotten as well.

© Dave Thompson /TiVo