One of the few survivors from the Christian folk-rock boom in Britain in the early 90s, Nuffsed's fourth album sees them fully independent and stripped down to a five-piece after experiments with more personnel. The music is laid back folk, with Terry Mills's soft vocals dominating. A fair range of instruments has been brought in to add some spice to the mix; banjo, accordion, bodhran, and dulcimer are among the names listed in the sleeve insert.
Nuffsed has always been a very family based group, and the songs here are all written by husband and wife team Jackie and Terry Mills. They are overtly Christian in emphasis, and often evangelistic, but follow in the strong story-telling tradition of much folk music. The quality of writing is somewhat patchy, with a number of good analogies accompanied by some awkward rhyme schemes.
The overall effect is sadly rather anaemic. The songs vary little in terms of tempo or atmosphere and they can easily drift by. Mills's voice is pleasant enough, but he needs to try and inject some more power from time to time to pull the listener in.
Nuffsed is to be commended for its determination to make their music heard despite the withdrawal of record company support, but they need to try varying the songs more if they're to produce something to really hold the listeners' attention.
