Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 09/17/2002
Run Time: 55:31
Donovan's second album found the Scottish folkie in possession of his own voice, a style of earnest, occasionally mystical musings indebted neither to
Woody Guthrie nor
Bob Dylan. True,
Fairytale's highlights --
"Sunny Goodge Street," "Jersey Thursday," and
"The Summer Day Reflection Song" -- use a sense of impressionism pioneered by
Dylan, but
Donovan flipped
Dylan's weariness on its head. His persona is the wistful hippie poet, continually moving on down the road, but never bitter about the past. The folkie
"Colours," already a hit before the album's release, is also here (though without
Donovan's harmonica). A few of his songs are inconsequential and tossed-off (
"Oh Deed I Do," "Circus of Sour"), but a few of these (
"Candy Man" especially) succeed too, thanks to
Donovan's effervescent delivery.
~John Bush, All Music Guide