The Album Review Club - Week #196 (page 1316) - Aja - Steely Dan

[bennyboy]

What a band,probably the most underrated band of the 70's that had hit singles and albums.
Alright now their song that everybody knows,my first song of theirs that i can remember back in teens.
Never followed them up though until the 80's buying the lp The Free Story and then getting all their stuff through the local library and taping all of them.
Along comes Spotify and playing their stuff to this day with the usual extra bonus tracks.
Heartbreaker their last studio album somehow came out despite the addictions of Paul Kossoff and the departure of bass player Andy Fraser.
Paul Rodgers the brilliant vocalist and drummer Simon Kirke made up the rest of the band.
On Heartbraker Fraser was replaced by Tetsu Yamauchi and on keyboards John Bundrick.
Not one duff track on the album.My favourite track Come together in the morning.
Wishing Well a brilliant opening Heartbraker and Muddy Water all Frèe classics.
Weirdly i was going to nominate Highway as my next pick on this thread because Free are the type of band that this thread demands.A great band that everyone has heard Alright now and a couple of songs but not albums.
Great pick.9/10.
Ps.
Only the Stones in my honest opinion are a better British rock band than Freè.

 

[RobMCFC]

What a band,probably the most underrated band of the 70's that had hit singles and albums.
Alright now their song that everybody knows,my first song of theirs that i can remember back in teens.
Never followed them up though until the 80's buying the lp The Free Story and then getting all their stuff through the local library and taping all of them.
Along comes Spotify and playing their stuff to this day with the usual extra bonus tracks.
Heartbreaker their last studio album somehow came out despite the addictions of Paul Kossoff and the departure of bass player Andy Fraser.
Paul Rodgers the brilliant vocalist and drummer Simon Kirke made up the rest of the band.
On Heartbraker Fraser was replaced by Tetsu Yamauchi and on keyboards John Bundrick.
Not one duff track on the album.My favourite track Come together in the morning.
Wishing Well a brilliant opening Heartbraker and Muddy Water all Frèe classics.
Weirdly i was going to nominate Highway as my next pick on this thread because Free are the type of band that this thread demands.A great band that everyone has heard Alright now and a couple of songs but not albums.
Great pick.9/10.
Ps.
Only the Stones in my honest opinion are a better British rock band than Freè.

Blimey, it must be good for you to give it a 9, benny :)

I think maybe even BimboBob will like this.

 

[BimboBob]

Blimey, it must be good for you to give it a 9, benny :)

I think maybe even BimboBob will like this.

Steady on there.

 

[GornikDaze]

Blimey, it must be good for you to give it a 9, benny :)

I think maybe even BimboBob will like this.

That’s me picking Rush again for my next choice. Knock Benny back into shape ;)

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Spin 2:

I found the remaster. Not much better tbh so the recoding is a bit of a disapointment. Clipping and compression seems problematic.

It's an easy album to cruise through but some songs are bettter than others. It does get a little formulaic.
Reading the reviews online, opinion differs about this being Free's best album or not because (Apparently) this version of Free isn't the full fat version. It's a sign of the album that i'll actually go and listen to something else (Tons of sobs?) by them.
I'm flip flopping on scores. Feels like a 7 on the 1st spin but then the recording and poorer tracks want me to drag it to a 6, then i hear something like Easy on my soul pops up and i think it's a 7-8.

Intresting choice. Much better than recent fare for sure :)

 

[threespires]

Steady on there.

Benny and Grumpy are in, if you declare for it too then I feel we need to start taking shelter and trying to work out who the fourth horseman will be.

 

[BlueHammer85]

 

[Mr Grumpy]

That's a super little video

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Spin 2:

I found the remaster. Not much better tbh so the recoding is a bit of a disapointment. Clipping and compression seems problematic.

It's an easy album to cruise through but some songs are bettter than others. It does get a little formulaic.
Reading the reviews online, opinion differs about this being Free's best album or not because (Apparently) this version of Free isn't the full fat version. It's a sign of the album that i'll actually go and listen to something else (Tons of sobs?) by them.
I'm flip flopping on scores. Feels like a 7 on the 1st spin but then the recording and poorer tracks want me to drag it to a 6, then i hear something like Easy on my soul pops up and i think it's a 7-8.

Intresting choice. Much better than recent fare for sure :)

Was out in the car and gave it a spin. Hmm.
I thought it was a better album on my headphones than on my car stereo.

I must have the same car as Bimbobob's lol.

 

[Saddleworth2]

This nomination is an album that's just typical of many made in the 1970s - great production, superb musicians, great songs, great melodies and just really well put together. Of course, it always helps when the album starts with one of the greatest rock records of all time.

It's Free - Heartbreaker.

The opening track, Wishing Well, needs absolutely no introduction. One of the greatest rock records of all time sung by the impeccable Paul Rodgers. Of all the great rock singers, I always think his voice is like a Ferrari in 2nd gear - slightly raw, plenty of power and you know a bit raw, but silky smooth and able to slip up the gears and still sound incredible. Sadly at this point, the band were starting to fall apart with the bassist (Andy Fraser) leaving and guitarist Paul Kossoff struggling with addiction and had to be replaced.

After the high of Wishing Well, it then moves into Come Together In The Morning. A great love song and that bass just drives it along. I'm not sure if the song is filled with love or lust but either way it's a classic.

Travellin' In Style is a great blues/rock track which is very easy on the ear. It's just a really well put together track and one of my favourites on the album.

Heartbreaker sees it moving more back to a 'hard rock' style and again, the backing to Rodgers voice is sublime. This is a band that knows when to stand back and when to move forward. And at all times, they are really tight.

Muddy Water is similar in style to Travellin' but also seems to bring in a hint of CSNY on the vocals maybe? Either way, it's another rock solid track. Common Mortal Man is just a great rock track. Starts quiet and builds up. Easy On My Soul is similar, just a really well produced classic rock track. Seven Angels ends the album and it feels like it's going back towards Wishing Well.

Whilst the album isn't ground-breaking, it's just one of those classic rock albums that ticks all the boxes - it's just a really good example of classic blues/rock done incredibly well. It's not over the top, it doesn't beg for attention!

So, why have I nominated this album? Partly it's because I was introduced to Free with - of course - All Right Now. Eventually, listening to my old clock radio and listening to the 70s shows on medium wave as a kid in the 80s, I heard this Wishing Well song and was just blown away by it. As soon as I heard it, I knew it was a classic.

However, I never really heard much from Free apart from the singles. Once Spotify came up, I was then able to dig into their albums and it was like walking into an old gold mine - just stacks of classic rock songs everywhere! Over the years I've listened to more of their work and they just seem to be a very underrated band. If I want to listen to a good rock album, I'll frequently turn to this.

Rodgers is a master rock vocalist and the band is really, really tight. They can rock when they need to but just tone it back as well. And I think that's the key - you know they can blister the guitar, scream etc but they don't. That's what they do so well for me. Quite simply, they are master rock musicians. They don't go 'over the top' because they don't need to - Rodgers barely breaks a sweat with his vocal chords across the album but you know he's bristling and ready to go if he wants to.

I hope you enjoy this album.

great choice mate.

 

[Saddleworth2]

As long as we all acknowledge it's pretentious twaddle and not epoch-making or groundbreaking,

No. we all don't accept that at all :-)

 

[mrbelfry]

Heartbreaker by Free

Thought long and hard on how to review this album. Firstly Spotify has it listed as a 2002 release and I was going to applaud the commitment to the retro authentic sound. However I clearly didn't read the nominating post clearly enough and this was actually released earlier as is clear from the clipped bass and the general vibe.

Secondly I can clearly hear that this is a good album. There would have been a time in my life I would have been all over this. I can certainly imagine a conversation like this "oh you like Eric Clapton? How cute. You should put the crayons down and listen to Free". Of course I wouldn't have done that because the only song I had heard of theirs was Alright Now and whilst there is some joy in championing the best band people haven't heard of you also need to have heard of them. I knew there was a band called Free but assumed they were that one hit wonder and although I vaguely remember a CD in my dad's collection it never got played. Add Free to a list headed up by XTC.

Thirdly for me the album peaks way too early with Travelling in Style. Half way through the song Rodgers sings that he's coming to the end of the song but then it continues for at least another 90 seconds. I find this hard to forgive and then it's followed up by Heartbreaker which as the song the album is titled from surely implies the band rates this one. Not for me I'm afraid and I am doubting this bands taste a little like someone telling you that jam and cheese is their favourite sandwich.

Fourthly probably all the songs on the album are more appealing to me than Alright Now. This is probably rightly considered a classic rock staple but so many years removed from its release sounds pretty classic like vanilla is a classic ice cream flavour.

Fifthly after a rough middle section of Heartbreaker and Muddy Water (yeah I get you're walking in the rain but naming a song so similar to blues legend Muddy Waters has to be deliberate and I don't know - a little arrogant?) the album remains pretty decent. Maybe Common Mortal Man is about heroin and if it is then it's kind of unsubtle but at least has a little drama even if lyrically I don't think it really hits the spot I think it's aiming for. Which probably remains true for the remainder of the tracks. Seven Angels in particular going for that mythic thing that Led Zeppelin do but not really getting there. At this point I'm assuming Led Zeppelin do that - I'm not familiar enough with another classic British rock band to say for sure.

Sixthly I have a good time with this album BUT it's so reminiscent of all those compilation CDs you buy in service stations - Jeremy Clarksons 100 Songs To Drive To. It's not bland but it has no spice. It has a soulful flavour but it feels like a flavour you get from a packet rather than something that's grown from the earth.

So how do I score something like this? I guess I'm going to take the easy way out and give it a 6. It's a potato that dreamed of being gumbo but doesn't even have the decency of being a spectacular failure that I can make fun of. It's ok.

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Heartbreaker by Free

Thought long and hard on how to review this album. Firstly Spotify has it listed as a 2002 release and I was going to applaud the commitment to the retro authentic sound. However I clearly didn't read the nominating post clearly enough and this was actually released earlier as is clear from the clipped bass and the general vibe.

Secondly I can clearly hear that this is a good album. There would have been a time in my life I would have been all over this. I can certainly imagine a conversation like this "oh you like Eric Clapton? How cute. You should put the crayons down and listen to Free". Of course I wouldn't have done that because the only song I had heard of theirs was Alright Now and whilst there is some joy in championing the best band people haven't heard of you also need to have heard of them. I knew there was a band called Free but assumed they were that one hit wonder and although I vaguely remember a CD in my dad's collection it never got played. Add Free to a list headed up by XTC.

Thirdly for me the album peaks way too early with Travelling in Style. Half way through the song Rodgers sings that he's coming to the end of the song but then it continues for at least another 90 seconds. I find this hard to forgive and then it's followed up by Heartbreaker which as the song the album is titled from surely implies the band rates this one. Not for me I'm afraid and I am doubting this bands taste a little like someone telling you that jam and cheese is their favourite sandwich.

Fourthly probably all the songs on the album are more appealing to me than Alright Now. This is probably rightly considered a classic rock staple but so many years removed from its release sounds pretty classic like vanilla is a classic ice cream flavour.

Fifthly after a rough middle section of Heartbreaker and Muddy Water (yeah I get you're walking in the rain but naming a song so similar to blues legend Muddy Waters has to be deliberate and I don't know - a little arrogant?) the album remains pretty decent. Maybe Common Mortal Man is about heroin and if it is then it's kind of unsubtle but at least has a little drama even if lyrically I don't think it really hits the spot I think it's aiming for. Which probably remains true for the remainder of the tracks. Seven Angels in particular going for that mythic thing that Led Zeppelin do but not really getting there. At this point I'm assuming Led Zeppelin so that - I'm not familiar enough with their output to say for sure.

Sixthly I have a good time with this album BUT it's so reminiscent of all those compilation CDs you buy in service stations - Jeremy Clarksons 100 Songs To Drive To. It's not bland but it has no spice. It has a soulful flavour but it feels like a flavour you get from a packet rather than something that's grown from the earth.

So how do I score something like this? I guess I'm going to take the easy way out and give it a 6. It's a potato that dreamed of being gumbo but doesn't even have the decency of being a spectacular failure that I can make fun of. It's ok.

Great post.

 

[Coatigan]

Heartbreaker by Free

Thought long and hard on how to review this album. Firstly Spotify has it listed as a 2002 release and I was going to applaud the commitment to the retro authentic sound. However I clearly didn't read the nominating post clearly enough and this was actually released earlier as is clear from the clipped bass and the general vibe.

Secondly I can clearly hear that this is a good album. There would have been a time in my life I would have been all over this. I can certainly imagine a conversation like this "oh you like Eric Clapton? How cute. You should put the crayons down and listen to Free". Of course I wouldn't have done that because the only song I had heard of theirs was Alright Now and whilst there is some joy in championing the best band people haven't heard of you also need to have heard of them. I knew there was a band called Free but assumed they were that one hit wonder and although I vaguely remember a CD in my dad's collection it never got played. Add Free to a list headed up by XTC.

Thirdly for me the album peaks way too early with Travelling in Style. Half way through the song Rodgers sings that he's coming to the end of the song but then it continues for at least another 90 seconds. I find this hard to forgive and then it's followed up by Heartbreaker which as the song the album is titled from surely implies the band rates this one. Not for me I'm afraid and I am doubting this bands taste a little like someone telling you that jam and cheese is their favourite sandwich.

Fourthly probably all the songs on the album are more appealing to me than Alright Now. This is probably rightly considered a classic rock staple but so many years removed from its release sounds pretty classic like vanilla is a classic ice cream flavour.

Fifthly after a rough middle section of Heartbreaker and Muddy Water (yeah I get you're walking in the rain but naming a song so similar to blues legend Muddy Waters has to be deliberate and I don't know - a little arrogant?) the album remains pretty decent. Maybe Common Mortal Man is about heroin and if it is then it's kind of unsubtle but at least has a little drama even if lyrically I don't think it really hits the spot I think it's aiming for. Which probably remains true for the remainder of the tracks. Seven Angels in particular going for that mythic thing that Led Zeppelin do but not really getting there. At this point I'm assuming Led Zeppelin do that - I'm not familiar enough with another classic British rock band to say for sure.

Sixthly I have a good time with this album BUT it's so reminiscent of all those compilation CDs you buy in service stations - Jeremy Clarksons 100 Songs To Drive To. It's not bland but it has no spice. It has a soulful flavour but it feels like a flavour you get from a packet rather than something that's grown from the earth.

So how do I score something like this? I guess I'm going to take the easy way out and give it a 6. It's a potato that dreamed of being gumbo but doesn't even have the decency of being a spectacular failure that I can make fun of. It's ok.

Could you please just clarify what it is you mean by your jam and cheese sandwich reference? Did you intend to:

a) suggest their taste is mainstream plain and conventional, but you misspelt ham?
b) suggest their taste has something 'weird' and unconventional to it, with no awareness of or reference to c) below
c) suggest their taste follows trends and is en-vogue, given (Korean) jam and cheese sandwiches were all the rage during covid and you couldn't open the internet without a short video of people making one.

Or none of the above.

 

[Saddleworth2]

Could you please just clarify what it is you mean by your jam and cheese sandwich reference? Did you intend to:

a) suggest their taste is mainstream plain and conventional, but you misspelt ham?
b) suggest their taste has something 'weird' and unconventional to it, with no awareness of reference to c)
c) suggest their taste follows trends and is en-vogue, given (Korean) jam and cheese sandwiches were all the rage during covid and you couldn't open the internet without a short video of people making one.

Or none of the above.

Could you please clarify which c) you intended. Or neither.

 

[Coatigan]

Could you please clarify which c) you intended. Or neither.

The only c)

I confess, I made a few myself, like all the rest. They were actually pretty damn good. The fashion doesn't seem to have stuck tho. Might have one for my breakfast now.

 

[Saddleworth2]

The only c)

Gosh I have a bonus c)

Whilst I would not use a sandwich analogy I think Mr Belfry has hit on some truths with Free. Respected by many but lacking the ‘fairy dust’ that would have elevated them to the all time greats despite having an all time great vocalist. Don’t get me wrong, I like them a great deal but…
I think maybe their material lacks the variety that would set them apart.
Heartbreaker is a good album so it scores over 5. I would put it as a 6 or 7. Jeez be more decisive for heavens sake. 7.

 

[BimboBob]

The only c)

I confess, I made a few myself, like all the rest. They were actually pretty damn good. The fashion doesn't seem to have stuck tho. Might have one for my breakfast now.

What the fuck is a Koren (jam) sandwich?

 

[Coatigan]

What the fuck is a Koren (jam) sandwich?

One of these.






They were all the rage during covid, everyone was making them and posting videos about it. Think it is supposed to be a 'street food hack', was pouplar for some time then then seems to have been forgotten about like many such fads.

 

[threespires]

What the fuck is a Koren (jam) sandwich?

I'm glad it's not just me.

My main food related recollection of Covid was having to log on at bastard o'clock when they released the next lot of home delivery slots only to find that every second product I clicked on was out of stock and that the definition of 'substitute product' had widened into realms of the surreal. Sorry we've sold out of cornflakes so we've put panda droppings in your basket instead. Maybe that's how Korean Jam got big?

Either way I now feel I went about the pandemic all wrong! Should have spent less time watching Fripp titting about in his kitchen with his missus and more time on a food hack channel.