From the same mold as Leonard Cohen, Ackles has a purity of his words and stylings that set a mood and allow you to fill in the details, the colors in your paint-by-number dream.

Other reviewers have covered their view of the major songs, I always tended toward "Laissez Faire" (give me my money for cigarettes/pennies for wine) and "Down River" (down river when you're locked away).


in praise of melancholia   November 17, 2002
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I've owned all the Acles catalogue on vinyl & was thrilled to discover the availability of, what I consider his most consistent, if forlorn collection. Though I, like some other reviewers,would like to see the 4 recorded sessions out there again, its too an exclusive and intimate taste now, as it ever was prior to his slipping from the market place in the late 70s. For subtle nuance of lyric to piano, and range of feeling in the darker, and tender zones of relationship, I feel he hasn't a rival. Comparisons, I note in other reviews, with laughing Lenny Cohen do injustice to Acles, who is mostly far less cumbersome.