Rock ‘N Reel Magazine gives 5* review of ‘Time and Emotion’

This review appeared in the July August edition

A battle-hardened music industry veteran, Boughton has served mostly as a behind-the-scenes console boffin for, among others, Steve Harley, Isla St. Clair, Terry Clarke and Arthur Mullard-and-Hylda Baker(!). Yet this first solo essay – subtitled ‘songs that span my lifetime’ – cares no more about commercial repercussion than a tadpole about anyone above a pond’s surface – and by thus letting go, its maker has created a spellbinding lyrical and musical journey across his six decades on this planet. Balancing the serene and the dramatic, it ventures from addressing the ravages of old age in ‘Life In The Slow Lane’ (and, more obliquely, in ‘Wild Hearts’) to Alice Cooper terrain in ‘Ghosts’ and horn-laden ‘What Now??’.  Moreover, the bedrock of quasi-psychedelic ‘Madeleine’ is a tear-jerking chanson, attractively harmonised – and Boughton’s multi-layered vocals throughout are often every bit as breathtaking as any of The Beach Boys or Hollies choral intricacies. Indeed, sung an octave higher, ‘Breathless’ could pass for Enya. Finally, I was left convinced that, if presented erroneously as the work of some insipidly handsome boy-band, Time And Emotion might cause a major record company’s recording manager, however fearful for his job, to have kittens.

Alan Clayson  R2R