Alan Hull's third solo album, and his last before Lindisfarne reconvened in 1979, follows firmly in the footsteps of its two predecessors, while advancing their musical outlook towards entire new pastures. Indeed, a crack band and lush production could lure you into mistaking the opening "I Wish You Well" for any number of contemporary MOR troubadours, although the self-deprecating "Anywhere Is Everywhere" quickly brings your ears back to basics, a rock & rolling singalong that finds Hull sounding as sharp and sassy as he ever did in the past… and ever would in the future. Brilliant stuff.

The debut solo album by the Lindisfarne frontman, cut shortly after that band's initial breakup, Pipedream is very much the son of its father, a faintly folky collection of songs that, one presumes, were originally intended for the next Lindisfarne album before events finally overtook them. As usual with Alan Hull's post-Dingly Dell output, nothing here truly leaps out to grab your attention; rather, Pipedream is a meditative, reflective collection characterized as much by Hull's often-plaintive vocal than by any particular melody. But "Country Gentleman's Wife," "Song for a Windmill" and the gorgeous "Justanothersadsong" are latter-day Hull jewels, while the biting "The Money Game" reflects on the end of the band with grandiose venom. [Originally released in 1973, the LP was reissued on CD in 2005 and includes six bonus tracks.]