Bill Fay Album Reviews

Bill Fay was born in London. He recorded two albums in his late twenties—1970’s Bill Fay and 1971’s Time of the Last Persecution. They failed to sell, and a third album, Tomorrow, Tomorrow & Tomorrow, was recorded around 1980 but never released.

Fay returned to regular life, working as a groundskeeper at a London park, then as a fish packer in a supermarket. But he kept writing and recording songs. In the late 1990s, a growing audience led to the rerelease of his albums. Like Judee Sill and Nick Drake, he enjoyed a sudden surge in popularity, championed by artists like Jim O’Rourke and Jeff Tweedy.

Up until 1998, when some people reissued my albums, as far as I was concerned, I was gone, deleted. No one was listening. But then I got the shock that people remembered my music. I was doing some gardening, and listening to some of my songs on cassette, and a part of me thought they were quite good. I thought, “Maybe somebody will hear them someday.” That same evening, 14 years ago, I got a call from a music writer telling me that my two albums were being reissued. A shock is not gonna get much bigger than that, David […] It was astonishing to me. I won’t ever really be able to believe that it happened. That’s how I feel about it. I had come to terms with the fact that I was deleted, but that I had always kept writing songs anyway and that was good enough

Bill Fay, Spin (2012)

Fay recorded three more studio albums before passing away in 2025. He’s most beloved for the apocalyptic visions of Time of the Last Persecution, inspired by the Biblical books of Daniel and Revelation.

Bill Fay Album Reviews

Bill Fay

1970, 7.5/10
Fay’s debut album is the most uncharacteristic in his discography, with busy chamber-pop arrangements. It sometimes overwhelms the songs, diluting his sincerity (his best trait).

Generally, the more the orchestration stays out of the way, the better. ‘Be Not So Fearful’ is a straightforward piano ballad, and all the better for it. The exception is ‘Methane River’, where the full arrangement adds something, with a pretty motif in the quiet parts and a big riff later.

The CD reissue adds the 1969 single ‘Some Good Advice’. The B-side, ‘Screams in the Ears’, stands out – the muscular, swinging piano is an effective backdrop for Fay.

Bill Fay is a promising debut, but the orchestration holds it back.

10 Best Bill Fay Songs

• Be Not So Fearful
• Methane River
• Screams in the Ears.