The James Gang: Yer' Album
Artist: The James Gang
Title: Yer' Album
Acquired: 2007-ish, Amazon.com
Rating: 6/10
You can thank Alice Cooper for introducing me to the James Gang. I was driving somewhere late at night when Alice played "Lost Woman" on his radio show. I cranked up the volume and soon was hooked on the song. I bought this CD soon after.
Yer' Album is the first album from both the James Gang and Joe Walsh, and it has a definite first album vibe to it - palpable enthusiasm and excitement mixed with a smidgen of clueless inexperience. There are some great moments here - particularly noteworthy are "Take a Look Around", "Collage", and the aforementioned "Lost Woman". There are some half-baked songs - here I would offer "Funk #48" and "I Don't Have the Time". Then there are the items that fall somewhere in the middle - "Stop" has a decent groove but overstays its welcome, and "Fred" is ambitiously arranged, complete with jazz waltz interlude, but has little lasting impact (witness the apparently arbitrary title). There are plenty of mistakes and miscalculations, but the overall venture is redeemed by spontaneity and Walsh's excellent guitar playing. An enjoyable, spirited, uneven album. I dropped the rating from 7/10 to 6/10 while composing this review, but hit skip on your CD player a couple times and you've got an 8/10.
Title: Yer' Album
Acquired: 2007-ish, Amazon.com
Rating: 6/10
You can thank Alice Cooper for introducing me to the James Gang. I was driving somewhere late at night when Alice played "Lost Woman" on his radio show. I cranked up the volume and soon was hooked on the song. I bought this CD soon after.
Yer' Album is the first album from both the James Gang and Joe Walsh, and it has a definite first album vibe to it - palpable enthusiasm and excitement mixed with a smidgen of clueless inexperience. There are some great moments here - particularly noteworthy are "Take a Look Around", "Collage", and the aforementioned "Lost Woman". There are some half-baked songs - here I would offer "Funk #48" and "I Don't Have the Time". Then there are the items that fall somewhere in the middle - "Stop" has a decent groove but overstays its welcome, and "Fred" is ambitiously arranged, complete with jazz waltz interlude, but has little lasting impact (witness the apparently arbitrary title). There are plenty of mistakes and miscalculations, but the overall venture is redeemed by spontaneity and Walsh's excellent guitar playing. An enjoyable, spirited, uneven album. I dropped the rating from 7/10 to 6/10 while composing this review, but hit skip on your CD player a couple times and you've got an 8/10.
posted by RDConz at 9:51 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home