Randy Edelman is an artist who it’s very likely you’ve heard before even if you can’t place his name. First starting out in Broadway pop orchestras of the sixties before writing pop songs for the likes of The Carpenters and Dionne Warwick, Randy is perhaps best known for his work as a film composer, contributing the music for beloved films such as Kindergarten Cop, Dragonheart, and The Last of the Mohicans. Meanwhile, he has an illustrious solo career with a number of pop records over the years, and his song “Old England” comes from that category.
Randy Edelman has often talked about how his sixties and seventies solo work found a larger audience across the pond than in his home country, and this song is sort of a tribute to England and its people. “Young England” begins by wrapping up the listener’s ears in a sonorous cloud of piano, creating a mood that is at once sweet and wistful. It is easy to compare the feel of the song to some of Peter Gabriel’s more mellow classics like “Solsbury Hill,” also a deeply nostalgic tune referencing English pastoral life. This dreamy atmosphere is helped along by the music video for “Young England,” which uses footage from the 1949 documentary short “English Children- Life in the City.” Edelman’s lyrics about quiet English suburban life of yesteryear are both reverent and quietly sad, in a way that brings to mind The Jam’s new wave classic “Town Called Malice.” This is one of the most emotionally powerful songs I have heard in some time, especially when Randy’s voice hits a moving crescendo in the chorus—“better come inside, young England.” It is the sort of song that evokes another time and place effortlessly.
5/5 Stars
Review by Edmund Barker