She enthused at the time that it was her best album yet (which should always be taken with a pinch of salt), and that it was the first album she was entirely happy with, and one that reflected exactly where her head was at, at the time! 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. Allmusic stated that the album "is one of her most accomplished and confident albums, a set that allowed Melanie the room to indulge her lyrical obsessions while Schekeryk created superb musical accompaniment from her simple but forceful melodies. The whole album presents a grown up Melanie with a interestingly wide range of material and the same intensity that marked her earlier albums and along with her sincerity was a defining characteristic.

Though she would release six more albums through 1976, this would be her peak on the radio and record charts.And it was that connection that motivated me to come out after the performance, meet everyone and never do a Melanie has left the building thing.

Brand New Key had even been banned by some radio stations because its lyrics could be read as something less innocent than the song sounded when Melanie recorded it in the little girl voice she sometimes used. 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. It was such an unexpected surprise when I listened back to Brand New Key, Living Bell, Some Say, and I look at the girl I was. The arrangements are mostly quiet and acoustic and even when strings are added they're not overwhelming.Some Day (I Got Devil) has the Spanish guitar intonations and sound as well as the same passion found in her song Tuning My Guitar, from the Melanie LP. 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. 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. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

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.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! Melanie always sounds so sweet, and even her version of protesting usually involves badges and light words rather than the more usual shouts and taunts by bare-chested young men. However, this is a great album beyond the popular "I've got a brand new pair of roller-skates" song, and the quality of the vinyl was excellent. 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.

My personal favorite is the melancholy Railroad, an intimate, confessional song with a nice arrangement of strings, guitar and winds. But then, the "God stuff" keeps cropping up where you least expect it - not only in the album's coda (a song which may date from the 1900s), but implicitly in "Some Say I Got Devil" and "Railroad", and explicitly in "Center of the Circle", the longest of those seemingly-unfinished songs which fortunately is rescued by arranger Roger Kellaway - who unexpectedly converts it into a wild flight of fancy, a chamber-pop tour-de-force. The Southern Appalachian folk-hymn What Wondrous Love is given an appropriately simple treatment with mostly Melanie's voice and guitar. I now see why you my dear ones are here it wasn’t just because you felt sorry for me (someone actually said that) or because I reminded you of something or someone you loved.The only time I felt good about myself when I was in front of you, and we were together, and I could see and sense that all was well.