Subtitled “Music of Brothels and Bawdy Houses of Purcell’s England”, The City Waites give us a taste of the broadside ballad culture which pervaded the Restoration years and which is all too easily forgotten. These songs unceremoniously celebrate the Englishman’s tireless amusement at people caught in compromising positions, so to speak. They come in all sizes: the fully accompanied, veritable orgy of sound (the inimitable plucks and scrapes of The City Waites), the unaccompanied consort and song, and the instrumental numbers from well-known anthologies like Playford’s The Dancing Master. Much of this music is still recognizable as part of a rich aural tradition, whilst other numbers have been dredged up as if straight from the seventeenth-century gutter.
The secret of an enterprise such as this is to ensure that every word can be heard and, where appropriate, supported by a colourful but unobtrusive accompaniment. In this respect, The City Waites are particularly deft, even if the speculative arrangements sound a little too sophisticated and pretty for some of the steamier lyrics. Arguably the most successful characterization occurs during the solo songs where the well-judged dialect – never overdone, as so often – and naturally conceived background noises take you into the enviable world of Grope Lane’s peculiarly pleasurable offerings. The Maid’s Complaint is a remarkably spontaneous scene, led by the soprano Lucie Skeaping complete with a bunch of drunks who join in, late, with inebriated alacrity on the refrain. Other examples are more stagey but no less enjoyable.
I am not sure how often I will return to this record but it is good to know it exists; The City Waites show that the Englishman’s love of the lewd ballad is undiminished. Good fun but not very clean: lots of naughty words.'