| Back in Line | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1986 | |||
| Recorded | 1986 | |||
| Genre | British folk rock | |||
| Length | 44:00 | |||
| Label | Shanachie | |||
| Producer | John Acock | |||
| Steeleye Span chronology | ||||
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| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [1] |
Back in Line is the twelfth studio album by British folk rock band Steeleye Span. The album was released in 1986, after a hiatus of almost 6 years. It is their first album without founding member Tim Hart, who quit the music business entirely. It is also the last album they recorded with Maddy Prior's husband, Rick Kemp, until They Called Her Babylon; Kemp suffered a shoulder injury that forced him to stop playing for a long time.
Like the previous album, Sails of Silver, this album was not well received by fans, and reviews tend to see the album as being slickly packaged but erratic in quality.[citation needed] Jon Herman of the Boston Phoenix wrote that both the album and the band's 20 June 1987 performance at the Berklee Performance Center "confirmed their status as a has-been quintet still stabbing at artiness."
A single was released from this album - "Somewhere in London/ Lanercost". This suggests that "Somewhere in London" was recorded on the same sessions as the album. When Park Records re-released the album in 1991, this lost track appeared at the end, together with two live tracks - "Spotted Cow" (the first track on '’Below the Salt'’) and "One Misty Moisty Morning" (the first track on Parcel of Rogues).
The album's highlights include the energetic funk version of "Blackleg Miner", a similarly funky "White Man", which features as complicated a vocal arrangement as Steeleye has ever offered, and "Isabel", a strong piece sung by Prior, about the Countess of Buchan who helped crown Robert the Bruce. In general, the pieces have a strong rock feel.