Fleetwood Mac - “Then Play On”
(U.K., Reprise, Blues Rock, 1969)
Fleetwood Mac’s “Then Play On” is an album on which you can first see the transition from the pure blues rock band on the first album to the pop-rock band of the later releases from this band. It is the first time when you can hear non blues oriented tracks on a Fleetwood Mac album; best examples would be “Closing my Eyes” or the magnificent second part of “Oh Well”.
From loss-reflective songs like “Closing my eyes”, “Although the Sun is shinning” or “Before the Beginning” to optimistic songs like “Coming your way” or careless feeling like songs: “Oh Well part 1” “Show-Biz Blues” to dream-alike songs like “Oh Well part 2” you have it all as it comes to music driven emotion, there are not that many records that can drive you to this different states of being. Maybe this can be a minus thinking that an album should deliver a certain state of mind, a certain mood but here they are all intertwined and going from up to down at a not certain logical pattern, the track list delivering this mood shuffle as nobody would have thought that the songs could have been arranged in a different way. Even tough the tracklist is as it is you will find yourself really enjoying this album because it’s one of the best of its kind. It has progressive, country like melodies “Although the Sun is shinning” (this song has some strange early Beatles like feel to it), hard rockers “Rattlesnake Shake”, jams “Searching for Madge”/“Fighting for Madge” and everything in between.
Not the pop monster that they’ve become after this or the pure blues band that this was in the past but nevertheless this is not an album to be skipped.
Contact: www.fleetwoodmac.com
Playing Time: 54:14
Review by Cătălin Carlaonţ
Procol Harum - "A Salty Dog"
(U.K., Cube, Progressive Rock, 1969)
Band`s first album, titled Procol Harum. With great songs like Conquistador, Kaleidoscope, Repent Walpurgis, She wandered through the garden fence, Salad Days (Are here again). Altogether, debut album of Procol Harum is great with versatile songs.
About bonus cuts, the bonus cuts starts with a classic, great song A Whiter Shade Of Pale (Original Single version), band`s biggest hit. Through whole song, hammond organ is prevalent instrument, very atmospheric song. Next on bonus cuts is Lime street blues, very traditional Rock song, this was original "B" side of the above, says info on sheet. Then the next one, Homburg, the original recording of the groups`s follow-up to Whiter Shade Of Pale, says the info on sheet. This song is also very atmospheric, a classic and great song too. Earlier alternate versions of songs like Salad days (Are here again), etc, continues the bonus cuts, those earlier alternate versions are nice listening too. Altogether, this re-relese of first album is a good entity, together with debut album you get 10 bonus tracks.
Review by Sami Makkonen
Procol Harum - "Procol Harum"
(U.K., Westside, Progressive Rock, 1967/1968 - this re-issue: 1998)
Procol Harum has always been a band that creates interesting and versatile albums, and it is not exception in case of this third album of band. Already the first song on album, a title track, A Salty Dog is excellent, with it`s magnificent atmosphere that have orchestral arrangements together with other instruments. A song pulls at once along you, and you are raptured by the excellence of the song, there`s also orchestral arrangements on song Wreck of the Hesperus, also excellent song. Quality and excellence of the songs continues through the album, album is very versatile. Just listen the songs like already mentioned A Salty Dog, Wreck of the Hesperus, Too much between us, The Devil came from Kansas, Pilgrim`s progress, Juicy John pink, etc, and you know what i mean. Excellent album.
Review by Sami Makkonen
The Animals - "The Animalism Live at Club a Go-Go"(U.K., ARC Records, Blues Rock, 1963)
Maybe a lot of you haven't heard about this classic blues rock band but back in the `60`s The Animals were a band with a huge popularity, and among other bands like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd or The Who they've influenced the history of rock music. On this live recording from the beginning of their career, they present a set of cover versions -like many bands did back in those times, take the first Rolling Stones album for example,- of classic rhythm and blues songs. Among others you can find here the classical "Dimples" and "Boom Boom" originally composed by John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley`s classic "Bo Didley", songs that back in those days "rocked" the audience. On this recording you can feel the easiness with which they are playing and the total control that they have over the audience, also this is a tribute to the originators of the genre that we now call rock.
Review by Cătălin Carlaonţ