Angel Delight is the sixth album by the British folk rock

Folk rock

Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...

 band Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...

. This was the first Fairport Convention album without guitarist Richard Thompson, and the lineup consisted of Simon Nicol

Simon Nicol

Simon John Breckenridge Nicol is a guitarist, singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He was a founder member of British folk rock, or electric folk group Fairport Convention and is the only founding member still in the band...

 (guitar, vocals) (the only original group member), Dave Swarbrick

Dave Swarbrick

Dave Swarbrick is an English folk musician and singer-songwriter. He has been described by Ashley Hutchings as 'the most influential [British] fiddle player bar none' and his style has been copied or developed by almost every British, and many World folk violin players that have followed him...

 (violin, vocals), Dave Pegg

Dave Pegg

Dave Pegg is an English multi-instrumentalist and record producer, arguably most visible as a bass guitarist. He is the longest-serving member of the pre-eminent electric folk band Fairport Convention and has been bassist with a number of important folk and rock groups including The Ian Campbell...

 (bass, vocals), and Dave Mattacks

Dave Mattacks

Dave Mattacks is a rock and folk drummer. Best known for his work with Fairport Convention, Mattacks has also worked both as a session musician, and as a performance artist...

 (drums).

The title derives from "The Angel" in Little Hadham

Little Hadham

Little Hadham is a village and civil parish in the district of East Hertfordshire, Hertfordshire, England. At the census of 2001 it had a population of 1,081...

, Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...

, a former pub which the band were living in at the time, and the eponym

Eponym

An eponym is the name of a person or thing, whether real or fictitious, after which a particular place, tribe, era, discovery, or other item is named or thought to be named...

ous track is autobiographical, referring to "John the Wood" (co-producer), "Dave the Drum" (Mattacks), and even detail such as "peer through the haze watching Top of the Pops

Top of the Pops

Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...

". The band moved out of The Angel shortly after the album's release, partly because a lorry

Lorry

-Transport:* Lorry or truck, a large motor vehicle* Lorry, or a Mine car in USA: an open gondola with a tipping trough* Lorry , a horse-drawn low-loading trolley-In fiction:...

 had run, out of control, into Dave Swarbrick's bedroom.

Musically, Angel Delight progressed little from its predecessors, although an appearance on Top of the Pops

Top of the Pops

Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...

as a featured album contributed to its chart success; it reached number eight in the UK Album chart, making it the band's highest charting album in the UK.

Track listing

Side one

1. "Lord Marlborough
   John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
   John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Prince of Mindelheim, KG, PC , was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs through the late 17th and early 18th centuries...
   
   " (Traditional) – 3:27
2. "Sir William Gower" (Traditional) – 5:00
3. "Bridge over the River Ash
   River Ash, Hertfordshire
   The River Ash originates near the village of Brent Pelham in North Hertfordshire and flows through The Hadhams , Widford, Wareside, until it reaches the River Lea near Stanstead Abbots....
   
   " (Traditional) – 2:15
4. "Wizard of the Worldly Game" (Nicol, Swarbrick) – 4:08
5. "The Journeyman's Grace" (Swarbrick, Thompson) – 4:35

Side two

1. "Angel Delight" (Mattacks, Nicol, Pegg, Swarbrick) – 4:09
2. "Banks of the Sweet Primroses" (Traditional) – 4:15
3. "Instrumental Medley: The Cuckoo's Nest/Hardiman the Fiddler/Papa Stoor" (Traditional) – 3:28
4. "The Bonny Black Hare" (Traditional) – 3:08
5. "Sickness & Diseases" (Swarbrick, Thompson) – 3:47

Bonus track

11. "The Journeyman's Grace" (Swarbrick, Thompson) – 3:53

Title

The cover includes a photo of two cherub

Cherub

A cherub is a type of spiritual being mentioned in the Hebrew Bible and cited later on in the Christian biblical canons, usually associated with the presence of God...

s kissing. The title may also be a reference to the UK dessert, Angel Delight

Angel Delight

Angel Delight is a powdered dessert product produced in the United Kingdom. It is designed to be mixed and whisked with milk to create a mousse-like sweet dessert....

.