The Eighteenth Day of May – S/T (2026 Reissue) 
A band full of RSTB familiar names. Years on, the debut, and sole album, from UK collective The Eighteenth Day of May sits in nicely among both their vaunted influences and a host of bands to follow. Like many that slipped through the seams of the early ‘00s, the band’s fate was just a matter of timing and taste — too early and too late in many ways — but for those that experienced them, right on time. The band’s members would go on to fill the ranks of Trimdon Grange Explosion, The Hanging Stars, The Left Outsides, and Lake Ruth, but before any of those The Eighteenth Day of May found a group of friends and familiars holding a mirror to the deepest registers of their ‘60s folk favorites.
The early aughts were awash with a newfound love of folk, though mostly it was scratched with the darkness and din of psychedelia. EDOM found more footing among the layered harmonies and traditionalists turned trippy that were woven through the British ‘60s; evoking Fairport, Pentangle, Trees, The Incredible String Band, Kathy Smith, and Steeleye Span. They were expansive enough in their jangle to let a ripple of American influence in as well, The Byrds rearing their head often while turning towards the shadow and light of The Velvets as well. The latter may not show up quite as often on record as it did live. The band was known for reinterpreting some more modern touchstones and piercing them through their prism of folk, tackling Spacemen 3 and The Brian Jonestown Massacre as often as they might Sandy Denny and Buffy Sainte Marie.
The record was originally brought to life via Joe Boyd’s Hannibal Records, but fell out of print for over a decade until a scant reissue cropped up from Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube a few years back, also unfortunately positioned during the distraction and depression of 2020. That edition found the record expanded from its original Hannibal 12-track version to a double disc that brought in quite a bit more material, including several more covers and material for a rumored second album that was not to be. The album is revived once more in that version, a double disc delight that explores the band’s full reach via UK label Circuitry. As with the last edition, this is likely a blink and you miss it type that should be on the ear of fans of ‘60s psych,00’s folk in the vein of Espers and Vetiver, and newer voices from The Thorn to Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection. A treasure for collectors and completists of the bands that follow, and an essential primer for new folk fans who’ve got a blind spot for the UK aughts.
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