...AND THEN THERE WERE THREE...

After the superb "Wind And Wuthering" I have alway felt "And Then Their Were Three" was a big disappointment.Obviously with Steve Hackett gone it would be unfair to expect them to carry on in the same vein as their previous albums especially as they decided not to replace him with another guitarist but have bassist Mike Rutherford step up to the mark. Infact his guitar playing is not the problem.Nor is the production which in retrospect is not dramatically different from the previous album.No- what the real problem is are the songs themselves.If they were to lose the long form songs which was their strength and replace them with shorter songs they really needed to make sure all of those songs were potential chart worthy. As it turned out only "Follow You Follow Me" gave them a big hit- admittedly a substantial hit as well which no doubt helped make the album a hit as well.But most of the other songs were simply not well crafted and song craftsmanship is something they usually excelled at. Even the one epic- "Burning Rope" seems a little clunky in places especially the chorus.My personal favourite track is the driving opener "Down and Out" with its complex rhythm and keyboard solo.It is a pity there are not more tracks like that. As it is- not a bad album but definitely their weakest to date

3 stars