The album on CD Baby | Amazon | iTunes and Spotify. with a Special Edition CD containing extra tracks and narratives read by Matthew Lewis.
Artwork © 2015 Red Fox Illustrations
The Digital Download release was timed for July 6th The date of King Richard III's coronation
The reviews
I have to admit, I was a little bit apprehensive as I inserted the disc into my CD player, I thought that I might have to listen to something akin to the dull tones of monastic chanting or that I would feel the urge to get dressed into a cheesecloth dress and dance around my kitchen flinging flowers in the air. However, I was pleasantly surprised, the music on this album does not fit into the first category and neither did I find myself rushing out to buy an album by Donovan!
The 13 track promo CD arrived on my doorstep a week ago and I have been playing it on and off since then.
The Legendary Ten Seconds are a folk band with a twist, their music is historically based, this and others albums cover the time of the Wars of the Roses, but this album is solely about Richard III and the events that changed his life and altered the course of history.
The first track on the album is called "Sheriff Hutton", I loved it. I immediately thought of Steely Dan's Do It Again, and the way that track made me feel when I first heard it, like Do It Again, the instrumental intro conveys a sense of sorrow and loneliness, a sense of foreboding, if you know Richard's story then you will know what I am talking about, and that's why, for me its a great track. When the lyrics begin that is when you are really plunged into Richard's time. If you close your eyes, you may as well be standing listening to a minstrel telling Richard's tale to a crowd of peasants in a medieval market place somewhere in England.
Tracks 11, "The Year of Three Kings" and track 15 "Remember My Name" are also decent songs. In Track 23, called "Ambion Hill", the band talks of ghosts, and the woodwind instruments and bells are used to great affect.
The band have cleverly used a historical narrative that builds the playlist into a 25 track album, it is written and recorded by author Matthew Lewis who I know to be an expert on these times.
For me the album ends as it began with a sense of sadness, and the thought of how things might have been.
Yes, The Legendary Ten Seconds have made an album that has been a pleasure to listen to.
(Meandering Through Time ,War of The Roses. Blog)
USA member of the Richard III society
I got a chance to give a listen this morning to Richard III. It's an absolutely wonderful telling of Richard's story. You all paint such vivid pictures with your music and your lyrics. All of your musicianship is amazing and it all fits together so well. Your voices blend beautifully. I enjoyed Matthew's narration very much too.
The reviews from Amazon UK
5.0 out of 5 stars GOOD, BETTER, BEST
By La Liseuse on 10 Aug. 2015
They just get better and better. Ian Churchward and The LegendaryTen Seconds have excelled themselves with this latest collection of songs.
5.0 out of 5 stars
By Kathryn Graves on 16 July 2015
Wonderful music and songs...recommended xxx