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Title: Oooh what a stinker..
Review: I reluctantly write this review, because I love everything else Tom Rapp has put out. On this record however, beautiful songs from the past get butchered. All the mystique that made e.g.'The Use of Ashes' so special becomes undone in these remakes. It hurts most when 'Snow Queen', once so fragile, is put on a rocking horse. The best thing about 'Familiar Songs' is the cover art, which led one to hope for another purse of pearls. Unfortunately, the music sits like an alien hybrid in the jacket - this album should've been called 'Familiar Jacket'. Tom's liner notes explain a lot, and I'm very appreciative of his decision to give the 'go ahead' on the re-release of this tainted album: it's such a notoriously twisted affair it had to see the light of day again sooner or later. So, with all due respect: for completists only - and I'm one of them.
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