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Peter Daltrey King of Thieves: The Best of Peter Daltrey Volume 2 Review by Gary Hill Apparently Peter Daltrey was part of the 1960s psychedelic group Kaleidoscope. I’ve heard of that band, but never really heard them. This album is a compilation collecting recent music from Daltrey’s solo career. That “recent” label seems surprising at times because some of this music feels like it could have fit onto albums from the 1960s. The scope ranges from pure folk music through to more psychedelic sounds and even progressive rock. Some of the music here is really exceptional. Nothing is bad. It’s a good disc that provides a worthy introduction to the music of Daltrey. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2012 Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Angels On A Hill Gentle folk sounds open this. The vocals come over and it feels very much like a 1960s folk tune. The vocal arrangement is delicate and pretty.

Tambourine Days A scratched record sound and other elements open this cut. Then it turns to a pop rock template with a lot of 1950s tones built into it.

Queen Of Thieves This is more pure folk.

Essa Here we get an energized acoustic driven instrumental.

I Want To Live In America Daltrey should be holding up his sarcasm sign throughout this gentle and slow moving psychedelic rock driven ballad. It wanders towards progressive rock and gets quite powerful.

Child Of Weather A gentle balladic number, this has a lot of folk music in the mix.

Lowell Sound effects serve as the background for an echoey, deep voiced, spoken word piece. This reminds me of something from Hawkwind. Later keyboards that resemble a choir come over the top (along with the sounds of a rain storm) adding to the flavorings.

Wild Roses The sound of the wind serves as the backdrop for the first verse, with no instruments added. It works out from there into a jam that’s among the coolest of the set. It resembles a psychedelically tinged progressive rock. Hawkwind is a viable reference on this cut, too. There’s a noisy guitar solo later that feels backwards tracked. There’s a tasty and tasteful saxophone solo later and this piece really is progressive rock.

The Girl Folk music is the main element here. The arrangement is fairly lush and involved. It’s a cool tune that’s one of the highlights.

Magda Bruer In The Rain With keyboards as the main instrumentation, this is another mellow tune. It’s got bits of folk in it, along with some progressive rock and psychedelia. A good cut, it seems a bit too long to me, though.

Rhinefield A spoken voice opens this in what I think is German. Then keyboards enter and the cut becomes atmospheric and textural. It’s sad, but also beautiful as it moves slowly. This one’s a short instrumental.

Winter Song Acoustic guitar serves as the backdrop for this gentle folk ballad.

Country Dance Starting rather progressive rock like, this turns out to a Celtic styled folk rock tune. The keyboards lead it back into more prog territory later.

A Linden Tree In Chelsea Keyboards open this and hold it for a while. Then it works out to a balladic cut that’s the most progressive rock oriented arrangement on the set. It’s also the strongest track here in the view of this reviewer.

In The Room Of Percussion A bouncy, Celtic tinged folk number closes the album.

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