It took seven years for Cary to follow-up on ‘Blue Rain’, but in 2021 he returned with ‘Hourglass’. As with the previous album this is primarily a solo affair, with Cary providing the vast majority of the instruments but he does have a couple of bassists on different songs with the biggest difference being the assistance of drummer Grant Ball on many. Here we have an album which is out of time, and sounds as if it should have been released no later than 1972, and even that could be a push. This album is steeped in psychedelia, as well as bringing in some classic Mellotron and Moog sounds and comes across as Roy Harper crossed with Tyrannosaurus Rex (yes, the earlier variant).

It is dreamy, full of space, without a care as Cary sings his love songs in an era when the world was full of peace and love. It is an incredibly relaxing album, full of space within the arrangements, which can be surprisingly complex even when coming across as being simple. The more this is played the more one notices the nuances here and there from different instruments which add to the overall feeling without ever intruding into the sound. The ballads have a simplicity which feels so at odds with the rushing and hectic world we now live in, and the album moves us in both emotion and time.

It is an album which benefits from being played on headphones when one really has the time to devote to it and relax into Cary’s world from a time past.
7/10 Kev Rowland