"As if the title of this album wasn't self-deprecating enough, Julian Poidevin, the sole member of The Rural Tradition, even goes so far as to declare its release last year as "spectacularly unsuccessful" on his MySpace page. Well, the sales figures might not have been through the roof, but in creative terms this really is quite a find. Sounding remarkably like a down-and-out Nick Drake, Poidevin strings together an album's worth of beautifully dilapidated acoustic narratives, intercut with detuned instrumental interludes spun on xylophone chimes, accordion, melodica and of course, acoustic guitar. The scrappiness and sheer rundown charm of it all is matched perfectly by the sleeve imagery, which casts rustic, quintessentially English imagery in a world of sepia-tinted decline. It's the beleaguered, downtrodden quality to Poidevin's songwriting that makes it so appealing: and on timid fingerpicked tracts like 'I Thought I Was Intended For A Country Life' or the daydreaming, Syd Barrett-like 'The Nightingale Fund', The Rural Tradition's finest qualities - in particular, that rough-edged warmth in his voice - really shine through the modest, unnecessarily humble presentation. An absolutely gorgeous album - massive recommendation." - Boomkat 2008
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