This is one of those records I thought about listening to a decade and a half ago and I’m just getting to it now. That’s often a recipe for disappointment as my tastes in my mid 30s are definitely not what they were in my early 20s.
But to my surprise this is a pretty good record.
The songs are stronger than I would have imagined; though they’re hardly classics, many have compelling melodies and the originals are interesting enough as songs to not sound too much like the numerous other bands who came before them who did something similar.
The band is capable and pulls off a couple of different styles within the record. There is a bit of a soul influence here which was unexpected for a British band. In some ways, a few of the songs are like a less soulful, way less funky, British version of psychedelic soul, which was just being created around this time. (I mean, just a bit. I don’t want you to think they were doing anything really innovative.)
One of the lead singers sounds too much like Steve Marriott, which is a bit weird, and makes me think of Humble Pie a bit too much, but this band is different enough from Humble Pie, to my ears, to not sound derivative. (Also, I have that backwards. Humble Pie sounds like Spooky Tooth, as these guys were first.)
Pretty good stuff.
7/10
- “Society’s Child” 4:30 (Janis Ian)
- “Love Really Changed Me” 3:33 (Grosvenor, Miller, Wright)
- “Here I Lived So Well” 5:06 (Wright, Grosvenor, Harrison, Miller)
- “Too Much of Nothing” 3:57 (Bob Dylan)
- “Sunshine Help Me” 3:02 (Wright)
- “It’s All About a Roundabout” 2:43 (Miller, Wright)
- “Tobacco Road” 5:33 (J.D. Loudermilk)
- “It Hurts You So” 3:03 (Miller, Wright)
- “Forget It, I Got It” 3:26 (Miller, Wright)
- “Bubbles” 2:49 (Grosvenor, Wright)
- Mike Harrison – vocals, keyboards, harpsichord
- Luther Grosvenor – guitar
- Gary Wright – vocals, keyboards, organ
- Greg Ridley – bass
- Mike Kellie – drums, percussion