Kevin Ayers: Whatevershebringswesing (remastered) [ESOTERIC]

Why you'll love it

Esoteric remastered this edition from the original master tapes, cut it at Abbey Road and restored the original artwork. Many Ayers fans name it his finest album, and NME, Record Mirror and Rolling Stone all praised it at the time.

This edition

• Remastered from the original master tapes
• Cut at Abbey Road Studios
• Original artwork restored
• Stereo mix

About the album

Kevin Ayers had been chasing a particular sound since the early days of Soft Machine, and on his third solo album he finally caught it. Started in 1971 with members of Gong and his old backing band The Whole World, it's a gentle collision of styles that somehow all point the same way.

"There Is Loving / Among Us" opens with David Bedford's dramatic orchestral arrangement, "Margaret" and "Oh My" are short, plainspoken vignettes, and "Song From The Bottom Of A Well" erupts with Mike Oldfield's guitar. The title track starts with a long Oldfield bass solo before Robert Wyatt's aching harmonies drift in, a template Ayers followed for the rest of the decade. "Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes" nods to his love of early rock and roll and stayed in his live set for years.

It came out on Harvest in November 1971, and it's the one most people reach for first when they start on Ayers. Ayers had a reputation as the most relaxed man in British rock, and this is the record where the relaxing really paid off.

Also at Kops: more Kevin Ayers on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Esoteric Recordings (cat# QECLECLP 2886), a reissue of the 1971 album.