A oltre trent'anni dalla sua prima uscita torna in circolazione North Marine Drive, album di debutto di Ben Watt pubblicato nel 1983 a pochi mesi dall'e.p. Summer into Winter, cui collaborò Robert Wyatt: titoli riportati integralmente in unico cd, come già nella precedente edizione di questa compilazione (Cherry Red, 1987). L'iniziativa si somma alle molte altre che investono Watt in questo periodo, tra cui la ripresa dell'attività propriamente concertistica, la produzione di un nuovo album solista (Hendra) e la pubblicazione di un secondo lavoro narrativo biografico e autobiografico, Romany and Tom.
E di quel primo album: "I have mixed feelings about my debut album. At its best I love its fearless use of warm jazz-flavoured chords, the tiny crystalline piano lines, the gauzy atmosphere and sense of mystery. It sounds both ardent and conceptualized and was clearly unlike anything else around at the time, which is something to be proud of, I suppose. If I have reservations it is about the lyrics. Too often the earnestness and desire to be open tips over into flagrant self-commiseration, although it didn't feel like that at the time. If felt honest and real. But hey, I was nineteen and in love! North Marine Drive is the name of a road in Bridlington, but I turned it from a rather ordinary residential road in Bridlington to 'a road curling round by your sea' picturing in my mind Marine Drive beneath the castle in Scarborough."
http://benwatt.com
http://benwatt.com/work/tracks/summer-into-winterhttp://benwatt.com
http://benwatt.com/work/tracks/north-marine-drive