Anne Briggs
The Time Has Come
EARTH. CD/DL/LP Has it really been 10 years? Classic Britfolk out. Again.
Ryley Walker’s “all-time favourite album” and, implausibly, a cult record in Japan, Anne Briggs’s ‘lost’ classic gets a somewhat arbitrary 46th anniversary outing, just a decade after its previous reissue. The first album by the reclusive, enigmatic singer to feature largely her own songs and instrumentation (guitar and, but of course, bouzouki), the only person who despairs at the album’s reputation is Briggs herself, who dislikes the reverb, the songs and most of the playing. But what does she know? The Time Has Come is a stone-cold classic, faintly but accidentally psychedelic around the edges, her untutored singing and playing as entwined and inseparable as, say, Nick Drake or John Martyn. From the childlike memories of Sandman’s Song to the standout title track, few albums in the Britfolk canon can hold a candle to it. See you again in 10 years.