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After I finish recording, I never listened back maybe if I had I might’ve known but I was on to the next thing I was working on. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

I have a very well-worn vinyl copy of this album, and I have a feeling I’ll be spinning the digital version just as much. I'm convinced it's a bit of a mickey-take - a metaphor has to make sense on one or both levels, but this can only be read (with difficulty) as, nothing more and nothing less than, a "hymn" to a night on the town.

This is an early classic from the folk scene in the States, which, of course, is very different from the UK music scene involving folk music. Though she would release six more albums through 1976, this would be her peak on the radio and record charts. The arrangements are mostly quiet and acoustic and even when strings are added they're not overwhelming. Center of the circle is the big production number of the album, but even there the arrangement, which includes a small orchestra, doesn't overwhelm. You could debate whether Candles In the Rain or Gather Me was Melanie's best album but I think fans would agree that they are together her best albums.

The album also features the singles “Some Day I’ll Be a Farmer” and the Top 40 hit “Ring the Living Bell”. If Melanie has always been anxious not to be defined by her religious affiliation (which has changed over the years), and in later years has regarded herself as a secular humanist first and foremost, you'd never know it from listening to this! My Favorite album from Melanie's stint with Buddha Records, All great songs, with a lot of complex arrangements. Ring the Living Bell is arranged in a roots music fashion with an opening that sounds like it could have been recorded by a raw group in the Appalachian Mountains, before it shifts into more of a pop vein.

And of course, there's "Brand New Key" - Safka scholars aren't supposed to like it, because of the Wurzel connection and the way it stereotyped her in people's minds as a novelty act, but resistance is futile.When they signed Melanie they were high on Bubblegum Music, having struck gold in 1968 with groups like the Ohio Express and the 1910 Fruitgum Co. For this listener, the biggest problem with the album is a more mundane one - there's too much religious content. Interestingly, the album with her catchiest little pop hit was more folk oriented than the hit single would suggest and only Some Day I'll Be a Farmer is a "cute" song like Brand New Key. It opens with Little Bit of Me a sincere explanation of why she can't be constantly touring and recording. Some of her classics can be found on this as well, from “Ring the Living Bell” to “Some Say (I Got Devil), to name but 2 of the best of her work.