Willard Grant Conspiracy - Regard the End (USA 2003)

An Uncle Roddus Album Review.

Been listening to plenty of my Uncut CD compilations both at home and on the ipod at work and thought that I might check out some of the artists that The Uncut Magazine had introduced me to over the years. Many of these records haven't had much attention lately or in many instances, none at all. I went to the very earliest Uncut CD I have, "Sounds of the new West" from 1998 and looked at the list of artists included on this set and found I had recordings by 10 out of 20 of the artists included. This album is the first one I listened too.

I have been going back to this album frequently over the last few days and am finding it an addictive set of well crafted and recorded Americana. The ...Conspiracy were well liked by Uncut and well represented  on 13 of the compilations I have, and yet this is the first time I have really had a decent listen. I am very surprised that I didn't even have "Soft Hand" on my massive Uncut sampler, as it is a classic piece of  Alt-Pop. The album has an acoustic feel to it and Robert Fisher sings some great duets with some female singers, one being Kristin Hersh. The lyrics go to some darker places and the music has a melancholic feel in places, which appears to be standard for this type of music and not a bad thing. A consistent effort and stays interesting throughout. Thoroughly recommended for any Americana fan and gets a Roddus Rating of 4.5/5.