Sunbeam Rec. 
Juliet Lawson : Boo (UK,1972)**°°
Juliet received an offer for her songs from Island, which felt through, but they quickly received interest from EMI too. As a producer David Costa, guitarist of Trees was chosen. Also Bias Boshell on bass and keyboards (also Trees) participated. Saxophonist Lol Coxhill was one of the other studio musicians. There were also some strings arranged by Tony Cox (producer for Trees, Caravan,..). At that time Juliet was a pretty innocent singer-songwriter, with little self-esteem, who just wanted to participate with some simple songs, with Joni Mitchell's "Clouds" in mind.
When it came out there was plenty of positive attention by the press, but the record never sold. A second album was quickly recorded in 1973 but was never released.
When I heard Juliet, her voice reminded me of some of the American singers, like Dory Previn or a few others, while at her best I can imagine how she was inspired by Joni. Some songs are a bit more mainstream pop (like "Only A week Away"), which slow down for me the full attention and interest during listening. Also, in general none of the musicians stand out with their studio musicianship, and there are no real highlights. The 5 demo tracks shows Juliet accompanied only on guitar. And they sound actually more than good enough to me, and pure and strong as they are. This way I wonder if the arrangements and production wouldn't have been better with a different approach to her, like as if towards another Joni Mitchell for instance, instead of treating her like an American folkpop singer, with some soul. The songs still sound good enough with this approach, but the arrangements are more like contemplative additions.
Stylistically this way her album is much more of a folkpop artist, who received studioarrangements (as someone threated like Mary Hopkin).
The booklet has rare pictures and extensive liner notes.
